Legal

Accessibility

Last updated: May 9, 2026

Polaris Global News is committed to making our journalism accessible to everyone, including readers with disabilities. We design and build the Site to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA, and we treat accessibility issues with the same urgency as any other user-facing bug.

Conformance status

We aim for full WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance. The Site is reviewed regularly using a combination of automated tools (Lighthouse, axe DevTools), manual keyboard and screen-reader testing (NVDA, VoiceOver), and user feedback.

We are not yet able to certify that every page meets every Level AA criterion at every moment — news content is published frequently and editors don’t always have the full toolset for accessibility testing on a daily basis. We publish a candid “known limitations” section below and we welcome reports.

Features that should help everyone

Keyboard navigation — every interactive element is reachable with the Tab key. The first focused item on every page is a “Skip to content” link that jumps past the header chrome.
Visible focus indicators — a 2-pixel blue ring marks the current focus on every link, button, and form field, so you always know where you are.
Light and dark themes — toggle in the header. Both modes are tested for WCAG-AA contrast on body text.
Reduced motion — if your operating system is set to “reduce motion,” we automatically disable scroll animations, hover transitions, and any other non-essential motion.
Semantic structure — pages use proper heading hierarchy (one h1, then h2 and below), landmark regions (header, main, nav, footer), descriptive link text, and ARIA labels on icon-only controls.
Image alt text — cover images carry descriptive alt text so they make sense to screen readers and when images fail to load.
Forms — every input is associated with a visible label. Errors are announced via aria-live regions where applicable.
Resizable text — the layout reflows cleanly at up to 200% browser zoom without horizontal scrolling on common viewport sizes.
Mobile-friendly — touch targets are at least 44 × 44 pixels; the layout reflows for phone, tablet, and desktop.

Known limitations

We’re actively working on these. If any of them affect you, please tell us — user reports get prioritized.

Embedded YouTube videos — the embedded player follows YouTube’s own accessibility implementation, which we don’t control. Captions are available on videos that have been captioned by the publisher.
Third-party content — embedded social posts and external chart widgets occasionally inherit the accessibility characteristics of the original platform.
Older articles — pre-2025 archive items may be missing alt text or have outdated heading structure. We improve them as we re-edit.
Color-coded categories — section labels (e.g. “World,” “Politics”) include a visible text label so they don’t rely on color alone.

Assistive technology compatibility

The Site is tested with the following combinations. Other combinations should work; please report anything that doesn’t.

NVDA (latest) on Firefox + Chrome on Windows
VoiceOver on Safari on macOS and iOS
TalkBack on Chrome on Android
Dragon NaturallySpeaking on Chrome on Windows
200% browser zoom on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge

Reporting an issue

If something on the Site is hard to use or unreadable with your assistive technology, please tell us. Your reports directly shape our backlog.

Email: polarisworldnews@gmail.com (subject “Accessibility issue”)
Please include: the page URL, your browser and assistive technology, what you were trying to do, and what happened.
We reply within 5 business days and aim to fix verified Level AA issues within 14 days.

Scope of this statement

This statement applies to polarisglobalnews.com and the associated mobile and desktop applications when they ship. It does not extend to third-party websites we link to or to historical content hosted elsewhere.

Standards we follow

WCAG 2.1 (W3C) — primary standard, target Level AA
Section 508 (US) — we align with the Section 508 refresh, which incorporates WCAG 2.0 AA
EU Directive 2016/2102 — for readers in the EU

Last reviewed

This statement was last reviewed on May 9, 2026. We re-review every six months and after significant Site changes.

Accessibility

Last updated: May 9, 2026

Conformance status

Features that should help everyone

Keyboard navigation — every interactive element is reachable with the Tab key. The first focused item on every page is a “Skip to content” link that jumps past the header chrome.

Visible focus indicators — a 2-pixel blue ring marks the current focus on every link, button, and form field, so you always know where you are.

Light and dark themes — toggle in the header. Both modes are tested for WCAG-AA contrast on body text.

Reduced motion — if your operating system is set to “reduce motion,” we automatically disable scroll animations, hover transitions, and any other non-essential motion.

Semantic structure — pages use proper heading hierarchy (one h1, then h2 and below), landmark regions (header, main, nav, footer), descriptive link text, and ARIA labels on icon-only controls.

Image alt text — cover images carry descriptive alt text so they make sense to screen readers and when images fail to load.

Forms — every input is associated with a visible label. Errors are announced via aria-live regions where applicable.

Resizable text — the layout reflows cleanly at up to 200% browser zoom without horizontal scrolling on common viewport sizes.

Mobile-friendly — touch targets are at least 44 × 44 pixels; the layout reflows for phone, tablet, and desktop.

Known limitations

We’re actively working on these. If any of them affect you, please tell us — user reports get prioritized.

Embedded YouTube videos — the embedded player follows YouTube’s own accessibility implementation, which we don’t control. Captions are available on videos that have been captioned by the publisher.

Third-party content — embedded social posts and external chart widgets occasionally inherit the accessibility characteristics of the original platform.

Older articles — pre-2025 archive items may be missing alt text or have outdated heading structure. We improve them as we re-edit.

Color-coded categories — section labels (e.g. “World,” “Politics”) include a visible text label so they don’t rely on color alone.

Assistive technology compatibility

The Site is tested with the following combinations. Other combinations should work; please report anything that doesn’t.

NVDA (latest) on Firefox + Chrome on Windows

VoiceOver on Safari on macOS and iOS

TalkBack on Chrome on Android

Dragon NaturallySpeaking on Chrome on Windows

200% browser zoom on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge

Reporting an issue

If something on the Site is hard to use or unreadable with your assistive technology, please tell us. Your reports directly shape our backlog.

Email: polarisworldnews@gmail.com (subject “Accessibility issue”)

Please include: the page URL, your browser and assistive technology, what you were trying to do, and what happened.

We reply within 5 business days and aim to fix verified Level AA issues within 14 days.