Accessibility
Last updated August 22, 2026
Health Matters Clinic exists to remove barriers to health. A website that somebody cannot use is one of those barriers, so accessibility is not a side project here. If a page stops you finding a free screening, reading a resource, or signing up to volunteer, that is a health access problem and we want to know about it.
This page says what we are working to, what is already in place, what is not there yet, and how to tell us when something does not work for you. We would rather be honest about the gaps than claim a standard we have not met.
The standard we work to
We work toward the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at Level AA. That is the benchmark referenced by the Americans with Disabilities Act and by Section 508 for federally funded programs.
We do not claim full WCAG 2.1 AA conformance today. Parts of our platform have not been tested end to end with a screen reader, and we are not going to describe ourselves as conformant until they have been. What follows is what we know, both ways.
Where this applies
Everything Health Matters Clinic runs, not only the main website:
- healthmatters.clinic, the main site
- The HMC Event Finder
- The Member Hub
- The Volunteer Portal and the Partner Portal
- CalmKit
- The Resource Directory
- education.healthmatters.clinic and our program sites
What is in place
Reduced motion is respected
Our program sites use scroll animation. If your device or browser is set to reduce motion, those animations are switched off rather than merely slowed down, and the content still appears. That setting is honored, not ignored.
Skip to content
Every program site starts with a skip link, so somebody using a keyboard or a screen reader can jump past the header straight to the page content instead of walking through navigation on every page.
Spanish
Our public tools are available in Spanish, and the English and Spanish versions are written to say the same thing rather than one being a thinner version of the other. Consent and safety wording in particular is checked for this.
Built for a phone, and for a thumb
Most people reach us on a phone. Controls are sized to be tapped rather than aimed at, with a minimum target of 44 pixels, and pages are built to work at one hand and one thumb.
Structure a screen reader can follow
Pages use real headings in order, real lists, and text alternatives on images that carry meaning. Form fields have labels attached to them, not placeholder text standing in for a label.
Nothing important behind color alone
Where we show status, it carries a word or a shape as well as a color, so it still reads if you do not distinguish those colors.
What is not there yet
Named plainly, because a list of strengths with no gaps is not an accessibility statement.
We have not completed a full screen reader audit
Individual pages have been built with structure in mind, but we have not sat down and worked through every flow, in particular the volunteer application and the Member Hub, with a screen reader from start to finish. Until we have, we cannot tell you those flows are clear.
Some of our documents are large PDFs
The Unstoppable Digital Companion Guide is a 36MB file. On a slow connection or a limited data plan that is close to unusable, and a PDF is rarely the most accessible way to read something. We are working on lighter and web readable versions of our reports.
Captions on video
We are auditing every video we publish for captions and will say here when that is complete. If you need a transcript for something now, ask and we will send one.
Third party tools
Some parts of our platform use services we do not control, including our donation form and our spam protection challenge. We chose them partly on accessibility, but we cannot guarantee them, and if one of them blocks you we want to hear it, because we can offer you another route.
If you need something in a different format
Anything we publish, we will get to you another way. Large print, plain text, a transcript, a document read aloud, or a person on the phone who walks you through it. This is not an exception we grudgingly make, it is a normal request and there is no charge and no form.
Tell us about a barrier
If something on any of our sites does not work for you, please tell us. You do not need to know why it is broken or what to call it.
What helps us most:
- The page you were on, or what you were trying to do
- What happened, in your own words
- What you were using, if you know it, for example a phone, a screen reader, or voice control
We aim to reply within two business days, and we will tell you either what we fixed or when we expect to. If we cannot fix something quickly, we will find you another way to get what you came for in the meantime.
If you need help right now
No problem with our website should stand between you and help.
If you are in crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available 24 hours a day in English and Spanish. If it is a medical emergency, call 911.
For anything else, email contact@healthmatters.clinic and a person will answer.
How we keep this honest
Accessibility is checked as part of building and changing our sites, not once a year. When we find a barrier we write it down, and this page is updated when the picture changes, including when it changes for the worse. The date at the top is the date it was last true.
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