timmy-config/docs/a11y-audit-2026-04-13.md

Visual Accessibility Audit — Foundation Web Properties

Issue: timmy-config #492 Date: 2026-04-13 Label: gemma-4-multimodal Scope: forge.alexanderwhitestone.com (Gitea 1.25.4)

Executive Summary

The Foundation's primary accessible web property is the Gitea forge. The Matrix homeserver (matrix.timmy.foundation) is currently unreachable (DNS/SSL issues). This audit covers the forge across three page types: Homepage, Login, and Explore/Repositories.

Overall: 6 WCAG 2.1 AA violations found, 4 best-practice recommendations.

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Pages Audited

Page	URL	Status
Homepage	forge.alexanderwhitestone.com	Live
Sign In	forge.alexanderwhitestone.com/user/login	Live
Explore Repos	forge.alexanderwhitestone.com/explore/repos	Live
Matrix/Element	matrix.timmy.foundation	DOWN (DNS/SSL)

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Findings

P1 — Violations (WCAG 2.1 AA)

V1: No Skip Navigation Link (2.4.1)

• Pages: All
• Severity: Medium
• Description: No "Skip to content" link exists. Keyboard users must tab through the full navigation on every page load.
• Evidence: Programmatic check returned skipNav: false
• Fix: Add <a href="#main" class="skip-link">Skip to content</a> visually hidden until focused.

V2: 25 Form Inputs Without Labels (1.3.1, 3.3.2)

• Pages: Explore/Repositories (filter dropdowns)
• Severity: High
• Description: The search input and all radio buttons in the Filter/Sort dropdowns lack programmatic label associations.
• Evidence: Programmatic check found 25 inputs without label[for=], aria-label, or aria-labelledby
• Affected inputs: q (search), archived (x2), fork (x2), mirror (x2), template (x2), private (x2), sort (x12), clear-filter (x1)
• Fix: Add aria-label="Search repositories" to search input. Add aria-label to each radio button group and individual options.

V3: Low-Contrast Footer Text (1.4.3)

• Pages: All
• Severity: Medium
• Description: Footer text (version, page render time) appears light gray on white, likely failing the 4.5:1 contrast ratio.
• Evidence: 30 elements flagged as potential low-contrast suspects.
• Fix: Darken footer text to at least #767676 on white (4.54:1 ratio).

V4: Green Link Color Fails Contrast (1.4.3)

• Pages: Homepage
• Severity: Medium
• Description: Inline links use medium-green (~#609926) on white. This shade typically fails 4.5:1 for normal body text.
• Evidence: Visual analysis identified green links ("run the binary", "Docker", "contributing") as potentially failing.
• Fix: Darken link color to at least #507020 or add an underline for non-color differentiation (SC 1.4.1).

V5: Missing Header/Banner Landmark (1.3.1)

• Pages: All
• Severity: Low
• Description: No <header> or role="banner" element found. The navigation bar is a <nav> but not wrapped in a banner landmark.
• Evidence: landmarks.banner: 0
• Fix: Wrap the top navigation in <header> or add role="banner".

V6: Heading Hierarchy Issue (1.3.1)

• Pages: Login
• Severity: Low
• Description: The Sign In heading is <h4> rather than <h1>, breaking the heading hierarchy. The page has no <h1>.
• Evidence: Accessibility tree shows heading "Sign In" [level=4]
• Fix: Use <h1> for "Sign In" on the login page.

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P2 — Best Practice Recommendations

R1: Add Password Visibility Toggle

• Page: Login
• Description: No show/hide toggle on the password field. This helps users with cognitive or motor impairments verify input.

R2: Add aria-required to Required Fields

• Page: Login
• Evidence: inputsWithAriaRequired: 0 (no inputs marked as required)
• Description: The username field shows a red asterisk but has no required or aria-required="true" attribute.

R3: Improve Star/Fork Link Labels

• Page: Explore Repos
• Description: Star and fork counts are bare numbers (e.g., "0", "2"). Screen readers announce these without context.
• Fix: Add aria-label="2 stars" / aria-label="0 forks" to count links.

R4: Use <time> Elements for Timestamps

• Page: Explore Repos
• Description: Relative timestamps ("2 minutes ago") are human-readable but lack machine-readable fallbacks.
• Fix: Wrap in <time datetime="2026-04-13T17:00:00Z">2 minutes ago</time>.

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What's Working Well

• Color contrast (primary): Black text on white backgrounds — excellent 21:1 ratio.
• Heading structure (homepage): Clean h1 > h2 > h3 hierarchy.
• Landmark regions: <main> and <nav> landmarks present.
• Language attribute: lang="en-US" set on <html>.
• Link text: Descriptive — no "click here" or "read more" patterns found.
• Form layout: Login form uses clean single-column with good spacing.
• Submit button: Full-width, good contrast, large touch target.
• Navigation: Simple, consistent across pages.

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Out of Scope

• matrix.timmy.foundation: Unreachable (DNS resolution failure / SSL cert mismatch). Should be re-audited when operational.
• Evennia web client (localhost:4001): Local-only, not publicly accessible.
• WCAG AAA criteria: This audit covers AA only.

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Remediation Priority

Priority	Issue	Effort
P1	V2: 25 unlabeled inputs	Medium
P1	V1: Skip nav link	Small
P1	V4: Green link contrast	Small
P1	V3: Footer text contrast	Small
P2	V6: Heading hierarchy	Small
P2	V5: Banner landmark	Small
P2	R1-R4: Best practices	Small

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Automated Check Results

skipNav: false
headings: h1(3), h4(1)
imgsNoAlt: 0 / 1
inputsNoLabel: 25
genericLinks: 0
lowContrastSuspects: 30
inputsWithAriaRequired: 0
landmarks: main=1, nav=2, banner=0, contentinfo=2
hasLang: true (en-US)

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Generated via visual + programmatic analysis of forge.alexanderwhitestone.com