The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) website is designed to improve usability and accessibility for site visitors. Developed using Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, the site has incorporated a number of features that serve a variety of user needs.
Alt (alternative) text
When users hover their mouse over section links, this opens the section heading text in a larger text box with a white background for easy reading and quick reference. Alt text has also been added to image files to explain the images loaded into the site and available for download.
Colour contrast
The design team has tested several text colour options for optimum readability, including titles, main page text and hyperlinked text. Section headings are designed with bright contrasting colours to easily orientate users to relevant sections within a page. The site was also designed to conform to minimum contrast requirements for users with visual impairments.
Keyboard interface
Users can use search tools and forms without requiring specific timings for individual keystrokes. In addition to a keyword search tool on each page which loads relevant pages and supporting files, the site has been built with easy-to-navigate drop down links from the main top level menu as well as a quick pick “I want to…” linked list of top site content. There are also section quick links from a left side sidebar on each page. To navigate the site easily, main content sections are grouped together under key headings.
How accessible this website is
This website is designed to be accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability. It is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.
This includes:
- Ability to navigate most of the website using only a keyboard
- Ability to zoom in up to 200% without problems
- No distracting flashing, moving, or scrolling content
- Error messages are clearly identified and explained
Parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- Some audio and video content do not have captions or transcripts
- Some pages and documents are not written in plain English
- Some heading elements are not consistent
- Some of our applications, mobile apps, and websites may not be as accessible as our main website, whistler.ca
- Some images do not have image descriptions
- Some embedded content cannot be navigated using only a keyboard
- Many documents are in PDF format and are not accessible
- Some online services, such as payments, may not function correctly on older browsers
We are continuing to fix content which fails to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. We will update the statement when issues are fixed.
Contact
Planning Department
604-935-8170
planning@whistler.ca