TABLE OF CONTENTS

Guardian Accessibility Improvements

Guardian Accessibility Improvements

Last updated: August 25, 2026

Guardian is committed to improving the accessibility and usability of the platform. This article documents confirmed accessibility improvements deployed in response to findings identified through accessibility reviews. It will be updated as additional improvements are validated and released.

August 11, 2026 Deployment

This deployment included 69 accessibility improvements across Student Incident Reporting, Email Templates, and shared interface components. These updates improve keyboard navigation, screen-reader support, visual presentation, form instructions and validation, dialogs, and content behavior at increased zoom levels.

Student Incident Reporting

Added visible keyboard focus indicators to the Go Back and Submit Report buttons.
Added visible focus indicators to the email-assistance and email-assistance close controls.
Improved focus placement after users add or remove an involved party.
Added a visible focus indicator to the supporting-document upload control.
Improved focus handling when a form is submitted with incomplete required fields.
Added visible focus indicators to the Individual and Organization radio-button options.

Accessible Names, Labels, and Instructions

Aligned the accessible names of the Incident Report Type, Location, Specific Location, and Building fields with their visible labels.
Added instructions explaining that an asterisk identifies a required field.
Updated the Primary Details editor with a clear, descriptive accessible label.
Improved accessible labels for the Course and Section, Assignments of Concern, and Nature of This Report fields.
Aligned the accessible name of the Name search field with its visible label.
Aligned the accessible names of the ID Number, Phone Number, Email Address, and Role fields with their visible labels.
Defined the programmatic purposes of Name, Phone Number, and Email Address fields to improve compatibility with assistive input and autofill features.
Updated the accessible name of the email-assistance control so its purpose is communicated more clearly.
Added unique, descriptive accessible labels to involved-party removal controls.
Updated the supporting-document upload control with an accessible label that aligns with its visible instructions.
Extended accessible-name alignment to additional report type and location-related selection fields.

Color and Visual Presentation

Updated link styling so links are distinguishable through more than color alone.
Increased the contrast of borders surrounding Course and Section and Assignments of Concern fields.
Increased the contrast of radio-button and checkbox controls.
Increased the contrast of placeholder text used in involved-party fields.
Increased the contrast of the Clear and Today controls in the date picker.

Programmatically grouped related Yes and No radio buttons so their relationship is announced by screen readers.
Programmatically grouped additional radio-button options, including Hybrid and Online selections.
Programmatically grouped related checkbox options so their shared purpose is communicated to screen-reader users.
Corrected the heading structure within the Email Assistance dialog.
Programmatically grouped involved-party fields so their relationship and purpose are communicated more clearly.

Dialogs, Status Messages, and Validation

Improved the Email Assistance dialog so keyboard and screen-reader users can identify and navigate its content.
Added assistive-technology feedback confirming when an involved-party section has been removed.
Added text-based error messaging so required-field errors are not communicated through color alone.
Improved validation messages for required radio-button and checkbox selections.
Improved date-picker accessibility by identifying it as a dialog and announcing the current and selected dates to screen-reader users.

Zoom and Reflow

Updated the Email Assistance dialog so its content remains available at 200% zoom.
Improved content reflow in the Email Assistance dialog at 400% zoom.

Email Templates

Added visible focus indicators to template actions, including loading, adding, and deleting templates.
Added keyboard support for selecting and opening available email templates.
Updated the Type selector so it no longer activates solely because it receives keyboard focus.
Added visible focus indicators to controls within the Letterhead and Special Code Hints dialogs.
Improved keyboard and screen-reader access to rich-text editor functions.

Accessible Names, Labels, and Instructions

Added unique, descriptive accessible labels to email-template deletion controls.
Added accessible labels to file-upload controls throughout the template workflow.
Updated the Message editor with a clear, descriptive accessible label.
Added an accessible label to the Include Letterhead Image checkbox.
Added a descriptive text alternative for the organization logo displayed in the Letterhead dialog.
Replaced non-descriptive link wording with text that communicates each link’s destination or purpose.
Identified Template Title, Subject, and Message as required fields before form submission.

Color and Visual Presentation

Increased the contrast of the Template Title, Subject, and Message editor controls.
Increased the contrast of switches when they are in the unchecked state.
Increased the contrast of visual indicators used to identify selected items.

Added programmatic selected-state information so screen readers announce the current template-page selection.
Corrected the heading hierarchy on the Email Templates page.
Corrected the heading structure within the Letterhead and Special Code Hints dialogs.
Programmatically grouped Letterhead alignment options so their relationship is communicated to screen-reader users.
Removed unnecessary list markup from template navigation and action controls.

Dialogs and Validation

Improved the Letterhead and Special Code Hints dialogs so screen-reader users can distinguish and navigate their content.
Updated validation so required-field errors are presented together rather than one at a time.

Zoom, Reflow, and Text Spacing

Prevented the header and main content from overlapping when custom text-spacing settings are applied.
Improved content reflow and editor visibility at 400% zoom.

Shared Interface Components

Removed keyboard focus from noninteractive page content so keyboard users can move more efficiently between actionable controls.

Accessible Names and Labels

Added accessible labels to font, font-size, and alignment controls within text editors.

Color and Visual Presentation

Increased the contrast of placeholder text used in form fields.
Increased the contrast of involved-party radio buttons and related form controls.

Added page landmarks that identify header and main-content regions for assistive-technology users.
Removed unnecessary heading markup from file-upload instructions.

August 25, 2026 Deployment

This deployment included 20 accessibility improvements across Student Incident Reporting and shared interface components. These updates improve semantic page structure, keyboard navigation, screen-reader support, visual presentation, page identification, form instructions, interactive controls, and validation messages.

Student Incident Reporting

Corrected heading markup so assistive technologies can interpret the incident-reporting page structure more accurately.
Added semantic heading markup to the Role Definitions section so screen-reader users can identify and navigate to it more easily.
Updated role definitions to use structured description-list markup, improving how relationships between roles and their definitions are communicated to assistive technologies.
Associated involved-party instructions with the corresponding selection controls so screen readers announce the instructions while users complete the form.

Visual Presentation

Increased the color contrast of the supported-file-format instructions displayed within the Supporting Documentation section.

Page Titles and Identification

Updated the report-submission confirmation page title so it accurately communicates the page’s purpose.
Updated the New Report page title to place the page’s specific purpose before the Guardian and institution names.

Corrected the keyboard navigation sequence so links within the primary navigation are reached in a logical order.
Added the User Profile menu control to the keyboard navigation sequence and improved its visible focus behavior.
Removed the noninteractive incident-reporting page heading from the keyboard navigation sequence.

Forms and Interactive Controls

Increased the clickable target area of the information icon within the Involved Parties section.
Added guidance informing users that involved-party search results update automatically as a name is entered.
Updated the accessible name of the Supporting Documentation upload control so it corresponds with the instructions displayed visually.
Updated the affected text-entry area to use appropriate form-field semantics so assistive technologies can identify and interact with it correctly.

Form Validation

Improved validation messages so errors are associated with the applicable fields and communicated more effectively by screen readers.

Shared Interface Components

Updated sitewide icon markup so decorative icons are not represented by inappropriate semantic HTML elements.

Visual Presentation

Increased the color contrast of profile role labels, such as Staff, to improve readability.

Added accessible navigation that allows keyboard and screen-reader users to bypass repeated page content and move directly to the main content.
Corrected the focus order among the User Profile menu, Log Out, Case Association, and My Tasks controls.
Improved the Zoom control so it behaves as an accessible toggle, retains keyboard focus, and communicates its current state to assistive technologies.

Ongoing Accessibility Work

Accessibility is an ongoing effort. This article will be updated as additional improvements are validated and deployed across Guardian.

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