Our Commitment to Accessibility
We want everyone who drops by olivesandfeta.blog to feel welcome and find joy in what we share. Whether someone uses a screen reader, keyboard shortcuts, voice commands, or just needs a little extra clarity in design, our space should work for them. No need to dig or figure out tricks, recipes, stories, and tips should be easy to reach, read, and enjoy.
Building a kitchen table online means every seat should be reachable. That’s why we look at fonts, spacing, button shapes, image descriptions, color choices basically everything we can so people of all abilities feel included. No one should be left out of a good meal, and no one should be left out of the conversation around it either.
What We’ve Done So Far
We’re always working on this, but here are some steps already taken:
- Alt Text for Images: Our food styling is lovely to look at, but visuals mean little if they’re locked away from some. We describe photos using plain, direct words. You’ll get the gist even without sight.
- Keyboard Friendly Navigation: No need for a mouse. Tab through everything, menus, links, buttons. We’ve made sure the layout responds cleanly and clearly.
- Readable Fonts and Sizes: Fonts come clean, legible, without odd curls or tiny sizes. Contrast levels are high enough so reading doesn’t strain the eyes.
- Simple Layouts: We use familiar layouts. Fewer surprises, more clarity. That means fewer hidden menus, sliding panels, or overly fancy effects.
- No Audio Autoplay: No sudden sounds. If there’s video, you choose when to press play.
- Mobile Accessibility: Our site adapts well to screens of all sizes. Phones, tablets, laptops, content scales, buttons stay big enough to tap, and nothing disappears off-screen.
What We’re Still Working On
We won’t pretend everything’s perfect. But we’re actively listening, adjusting, and learning. Here’s where we’re focusing next:
- Better Contrast Options: Some color combinations need fine-tuning. We want every text block to be easy on the eyes even in tricky lighting.
- More Consistent Alt Descriptions: Older blog posts need updating. Some captions or image descriptions were rushed or missing. We're filling those gaps now.
- Transcripts and Captions: We’re slowly adding transcripts for video or audio content. If someone prefers to read instead of listen or needs to, no one should miss out.
- Text Resizing: Zooming in shouldn’t wreck the layout. We’re testing how flexible our pages are when fonts grow by 150% or more.
- Better Error Feedback on Forms: If someone submits a message with missing fields, the error response should be clear and kind. We’re rewriting those alerts so they’re easier to spot and understand.
Feedback Is Gold
No fancy words here—if something isn’t working, we want to know. Whether a button didn’t react the way it should, or a screen reader missed something in a list, those tiny clues help us fix things for real.
We’d love to hear about:
- Barriers you’ve run into
- Pages that didn’t read right
- Parts that felt frustrating or confusing
- Anything that worked well (because that helps too!)
You can email us at contact@olivesandfeta.blog. We read everything, and we’ll always try to respond as soon as we can. If your feedback includes accessibility bugs, we’ll prioritize those in our next update.
Who We’re Designing For
Accessibility doesn’t just mean one thing. It’s a lot of little needs, and they come in all forms. Here are some of the folks we’re keeping in mind as we build and tweak:
- Screen reader users
- Keyboard-only users
- Folks with low vision or color blindness
- People who get migraines from poor contrast or flashing images
- Readers who struggle with dense paragraphs or small fonts
- Neurodivergent folks who need clarity, consistency, or breaks in layout
- Deaf or hard-of-hearing users who prefer text over audio
- Mobile users with limited motion or less control over screen size
We’re not perfect, but we want to meet people where they are. That means choosing design that works for more than one kind of brain, body, or screen.
Our Tools and Guidelines
We use current best practices and tools for accessibility testing and improvement, including:
- WAVE Accessibility Tool: Helps us check pages for missing labels, contrast issues, or unclear navigation.
- Lighthouse by Google: Tests how fast our site loads, how readable it is, and how well it performs for people using assistive tech.
- WCAG 2.1 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines): We aim to meet AA standards or higher for every page. That’s a common baseline for making things usable and readable by many.
- NVDA and VoiceOver: These screen readers give us insight into how pages sound, not just how they look.
A Work in Progress
This space grows slowly. Like sourdough, it needs tending, feeding, watching. We try to keep each improvement real, tested, and helpful. Instead of giant redesigns, we often work in layers. Fix a font here, improve contrast there, then update image descriptions once the dough has cooled.
That process helps us make changes without breaking anything. No one likes surprises that knock their access out, so we go slow and steady.
We also test across platforms, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, mobile browsers. We care that things load properly in each one. That means recipes show up neatly no matter what screen gets used to pull them up while stirring something on the stove.
Accessibility Isn’t a Checkbox
It’s not a single update or tool. It’s an approach to building that lasts. Every story, post, and recipe should serve more than one kind of reader. And making food together, even across screens, only works when everyone can sit at the same table.
We ask, “Would this page work for someone reading with their ears? With one hand? On a shaky internet connection? With bright light in the background?” If the answer’s no, we work on it more.
We also learn from others. There are amazing accessibility experts, disability advocates, and tech folks who teach by example. We try to follow those paths with respect and action.
We care. We cook, write, test, and share because we love bringing folks together through food. That only works if everyone can join in, no matter their tech, pace, style, or need.
Accessibility is about respect. Access makes space for more voices, not fewer. More memories, not just pictures. More meals made with hands that might shake, eyes that might squint, or minds that need calm.
This isn’t a legal page to check off. It’s our real-world promise to keep making olivesandfeta.blog better, one fix at a time.