Accessibility Statement

The Care Letter is committed to accessibility because the people our readers care for — aging parents, partners, grandparents — frequently have vision, motor, cognitive, or hearing challenges that make inaccessible sites unusable. We hold ourselves to a higher standard because our audience would expect it.

Our standard

The Care Letter targets WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance across the website and every newsletter issue. Where the cost of AAA-level compliance is small (color contrast, reduced motion, semantic structure), we aim for AAA. Where a feature isn't yet built (e.g., audio alternatives for podcast content we don't yet publish), we'll address it before launch of that feature.

Specific commitments

• Keyboard-only navigation. Every interactive element is reachable and operable with a keyboard. A skip-to-content link bypasses navigation for screen reader and keyboard users.
• Screen reader compatibility. Pages use semantic HTML (headings, landmarks, lists). Forms have programmatic labels. Decorative elements have aria-hidden. Live announcements use ARIA live regions.
• Color contrast. Body text contrast meets or exceeds the 4.5:1 WCAG AA threshold. Headlines and large text meet 3:1.
• Resizable text. Pages scale cleanly to 200% zoom without horizontal scrolling or content loss.
• Reduced motion. We respect the prefers-reduced-motion system preference. Smooth scrolling, transitions, and any animations honor the user's setting.
• Touch target sizes. Interactive controls are at least 44×44 pixels per WCAG 2.5.5.
• Clear language. We deliberately avoid jargon, idioms that translate poorly, and "click here" link patterns. Every link's destination is clear from the link text alone.
• Standard primary sources. When we link out for primary sources, we link to government and well-established nonprofit publishers (CMS, CDC, KFF, AARP, NAELA, IRS, DOL) that themselves maintain accessibility standards.

Newsletter accessibility

Beehiiv-delivered issues follow these editorial standards:

• Semantic structure in HTML emails (proper headings, lists, links)
• Sufficient color contrast in every issue (we don't override beehiiv's accessible defaults)
• Plain-text version generated alongside every HTML send
• Alt text on any image we include (almost all issues are text-first; image-heavy issues get extra alt-text review)
• "Click here" / "read more" replaced with descriptive link text
• Subject lines that work via screen-reader text-to-speech (no decorative Unicode, no emoji that screen readers vocalize awkwardly)

What we don't yet do

We're transparent about gaps:

• No formal third-party accessibility audit yet. We rely on automated testing (axe-core, Lighthouse CI) and informed self-review. Once subscriber count crosses 5,000 we'll commission a third-party WCAG audit.
• No published video content. When we add video, every piece will ship with captions and a transcript before publish.
• No audio version of issues. Modern screen readers handle our text well; we don't yet produce a dedicated audio version. Under consideration for the premium tier.
• English-only. Multilingual eldercare resources are an important gap in the broader landscape (Family Caregiver Alliance covers it well in 6 languages). Translation is a Year 2+ consideration.

How we test

• Automated: Lighthouse CI runs accessibility checks on every push to main. Targets: Accessibility score ≥ 95, no critical axe-core violations.
• Manual: Quarterly review of every published page using VoiceOver (macOS) + keyboard-only navigation.
• User feedback: Reports from readers are treated as our most important signal. See "Tell us" below.

Tell us when something's broken

If a page, a newsletter issue, or a tool isn't working for you — for any accessibility reason — please tell us. We treat every report as high priority and aim to fix or respond within 5 business days.

• Email: accessibility@thecareletter.com (catch-all; routes to Jordan)
• Reply to any issue: any inbound reply on a newsletter issue reaches the editor directly

Include: what you were trying to do, what assistive technology you're using (screen reader name and version is the most helpful), and what happened. Screenshots help but aren't required.

Standards we reference

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 — W3C published standard
• Americans with Disabilities Act, Title III — U.S. Department of Justice
• Section 508 — U.S. federal accessibility standard
• ARIA Authoring Practices Guide — W3C reference patterns

This statement is a living document. Last updated 2026-06-01. We expect to update it whenever we ship a new feature with accessibility implications.