Access Is Part of the Product
Northern Dial wants its radio, artist information, editorial work and discovery tools to be useful across devices, connection speeds and abilities. Accessibility is an ongoing product responsibility, not a box to check at the end of a project.
Working Toward WCAG AA
As Northern Dial develops new public-facing features and improves existing ones, the project aims to work toward WCAG 2.2 AA practices wherever practical. Because the site is actively evolving, this is a commitment to continued improvement rather than a claim that every existing page has already been independently audited or certified.
Accessibility in Everyday Design
Keyboard Access
Navigation, menus, forms and interactive controls should remain usable without requiring a mouse or touch input.
Readable Contrast
Text, buttons and states should maintain clear visual separation and avoid relying on colour alone to communicate meaning.
Semantic Structure
Pages should use meaningful headings, labels and HTML structure so assistive technology can understand the content hierarchy.
Images and Media
Meaningful images should have useful text alternatives, while future interviews and performance media should prioritize captions or transcripts where applicable.
Mobile and Responsive Use
Core listening, browsing and discovery functions should remain usable on smaller screens without horizontal crowding or hidden information.
Reduced Motion and Bandwidth
Motion should respect user preferences, and future digital projects should consider lighter-weight paths for users on slower connections.
Make the Commitment Measurable
Future accessibility work will include more systematic keyboard testing, screen-reader review, form-label checks, contrast review, media transcripts or captions and testing across representative mobile and desktop environments.
How We Check It
Northern Dial now maintains an automated accessibility guardrail that checks core public pages for basic structural problems such as a missing page language, title, H1 or image alt attribute. This catches regressions early, but it is deliberately not described as WCAG certification.
Manual review still matters. The working checklist includes keyboard-only navigation, visible focus, screen-reader spot checks, form labels, contrast, zoom/reflow, reduced-motion behaviour and captions or transcripts for new media.