Commitment to Accessibility

The Speak Up! project is dedicated to ensuring digital accessibility, equity, and inclusion for all children and young people across Bangladesh. We explicitly recognize that children with disabilities and marginalized youth are particularly vulnerable to digital barriers, exclusion, and online violence.

We strive to continuously improve the user experience for everyone and apply relevant accessibility standards to guarantee that our digital platforms, educational safety resources, and civic participation channels are accessible to all.

1. Conformance Status

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) define requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, or neurological disabilities.

• Target Standard: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA.

• Current Status: Partially Conformant — Most content meets accessibility guidelines, and active efforts are underway to resolve remaining technical and content gaps.

2. Accessibility Features Implemented

A. Visual & Auditory Support

• Alternative Text (Alt Text): Descriptive alt text for key images, infographics, and graphics across the platform.

• Color & Contrast: High-contrast text-to-background ratios to support low-vision users; color is never used as the sole indicator of meaning.

• Transcripts & Subtitles: Captions/subtitles for video content and text transcripts for audio resources to support deaf and hard-of-hearing youth.

B. Navigation & Assistive Technology

• Keyboard Accessibility: All interactive elements (forms, buttons, links) can be navigated using a keyboard or assistive switches.

• Visible Focus Indicators: Clear visual outlines around active links and buttons when tabbing through web pages.

• Screen Reader Compatibility: Structured semantic HTML and WAI-ARIA landmarks designed to work with screen readers (e.g., NVDA, JAWS, TalkBack, VoiceOver).

C. Inclusive Design for All Environments

• Low-Bandwidth Optimization: Fast-loading, lightweight pages designed to work reliably on basic mobile devices and slow internet connections across rural Bangladesh.

• Plain Language: Resources written in clear, simple language to support children, young learners, and individuals with cognitive or learning disabilities.

3. Known Limitations & Ongoing Work

We are actively addressing the following known areas for improvement:

1. Legacy PDF Toolkits: Some older downloadable PDF resources may not be fully optimized for screen readers. We are systematically converting these into accessible web formats.

2. Sign Language Content: While major awareness campaign videos include Bengali Sign Language (BSL) overlays, smaller educational clips are currently being updated with BSL interpretation.

3. Third-Party Features: Embedded third-party tools or external interactive modules may occasionally present navigation challenges beyond our direct control.