Accessibility Statement

1. Our Commitment

usa-arrests.org/ is read by people in difficult moments — locating a family member who's been arrested, tracking a court date, requesting their own records before a job interview, navigating an expungement petition. None of that is the time to be wrestling with a website that doesn't work with a screen reader, can't be operated by keyboard, or is unreadable at the magnification level a low-vision reader needs.

We treat accessibility as a core editorial requirement, not a compliance afterthought. The site is designed to be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for the widest possible audience.

2. Standards We Follow

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA — published by the W3C and the de facto international standard for web accessibility
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title III — covering accessibility of public accommodations
• Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act — applicable to federal-facing content; we follow it as best practice
• California Unruh Civil Rights Act — civil rights protections covering web accessibility for California users
• New York State Human Rights Law — accessibility protections covering New York users
• Other applicable U.S. state web-accessibility laws as they take effect

3. Built-In Accessibility Features

4. Assistive Technology Compatibility

The site is tested against and known to work with:

• Screen readers: NVDA (Windows), JAWS (Windows), VoiceOver (macOS and iOS), TalkBack (Android), Narrator (Windows)
• Voice control: Dragon NaturallySpeaking, macOS Voice Control, Windows Speech Recognition, iOS Voice Control
• Keyboard-only navigation with no pointing device
• Browser zoom up to 400% without loss of content or function
• High-contrast mode in operating systems and browsers that support it
• Switch access on devices that support it
• Reading-assistance browser extensions (Read Aloud, Speechify, etc.)

5. Supported Browsers

Older browsers may still load the site but accessibility features may not be fully supported. If you cannot upgrade, please contact us — we can sometimes provide content in an alternative format.

6. Keyboard Navigation

7. Known Limitations

We are honest about gaps:

• Outbound links to law-enforcement and court portals — accessibility quality on third-party sites varies widely. Some state DOC inmate locators and county sheriff jail rosters do not meet WCAG AA. We have no control over those sites and cannot fix them; if you encounter a state portal that’s inaccessible, the agency itself is the right party to escalate to.
• Older archive content — content from before our current accessibility standard may have minor inconsistencies. We are reviewing on a rolling basis.
• Third-party advertising — display ads served by ad networks may not meet WCAG AA in every instance. We use ad networks that are committed to ad-accessibility standards and report ad-accessibility issues to them.
• PDF documents — where we link to government-published PDFs (forms, instructions), the PDF’s accessibility is the issuing agency’s responsibility, not ours.

8. Third-Party Content

9. Alternative Formats

If you need content from the site in an alternative format — large print, plain text, audio summary — please email us. We will provide an alternative version where reasonably possible. There is no charge for this.

10. Testing Approach

• Automated audits — Axe, WAVE, and Lighthouse run on every page before publication and on a sitewide basis quarterly
• Manual screen-reader testing — every new template or major redesign is tested with NVDA and VoiceOver
• Manual keyboard testing — every interactive component is tested without a pointing device
• Zoom testing — pages are tested at 200% and 400% zoom for layout integrity
• Contrast checking — color combinations are checked against WCAG AA contrast ratios
• Reduced-motion testing — animations are checked under the prefers-reduced-motion setting
• Real-user feedback — accessibility-issue reports are logged, triaged, and addressed on priority

11. Reporting an Accessibility Problem

If you hit something on the site that doesn’t work with your assistive technology, please tell us. Email info@usa-arrests.org with subject line “Accessibility issue” and include:

• The page URL where the problem occurred
• What you were trying to do
• What didn’t work — the screen reader skipped past something, the keyboard couldn’t reach a button, the contrast was too low to read, etc.
• Your assistive technology (screen reader, browser, OS)

12. Escalation If You’re Not Satisfied

If we don’t resolve your accessibility concern to your satisfaction:

• U.S. Department of Justice — Civil Rights Division — handles ADA complaints: ada.gov
• U.S. Access Board — Section 508 and accessible-design guidance: access-board.gov
• State Attorney General Civil Rights Division — most states have one; California, New York, Massachusetts, and Washington are particularly active on web-accessibility

13. References and Standards Documents

• WCAG 2.1 Quick Reference — w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/quickref
• Section 508 — section508.gov
• U.S. Access Board — access-board.gov
• ADA.gov — ada.gov
• WebAIM — accessibility evaluation resources: webaim.org