Accessibility

Last updated October 8, 2026

Equal Area aims to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 at level AA. This page says what that means here, how it was checked, and where the page still falls short.

The Maps Are Also Text

The two maps are pictures drawn on a canvas. What they show is also written out. The table beside them gives the carried country’s true area, its drawn size on each map compared with its size at home, and the areal scale at its centre and at home, and a screen reader hears a summary each time the country is moved or changed. The readout prints the distortion at any point as numbers: the areal scale in figures and in words, the largest angle error, and the scale along the meridian and the parallel. The legend prints the range of every colour class.

Without a Mouse

Every control is reachable with the keyboard, and focus is always visible. With the large map focused, the arrow keys move the carried country 5 degrees (Shift moves it 15) and Home sends it home, and the readout shows the distortion at the country’s centre. A country is chosen from a list, and a projection and the ellipse spacing from standard controls. Dragging is never the only way: a single tap or click on the sea moves the country there.

Motion, Colour and Size

Nothing on the page moves on its own, so reduced motion changes nothing. Text contrast is at least 4.5:1. Colour is never the only signal: every class in the legend prints its range, each ellipse’s size shows the same thing its fill does, and the readout gives the number. Selects are 16 pixels or larger, and every button, link and segment is at least 44 pixels tall.

How It Was Checked

Before this release the live page was checked with axe-core at phone and desktop widths, and for tap sizes and horizontal scrolling at three device sizes. The keyboard path (Tab to the map, the arrow keys, Home) was walked in a scripted browser. It has not yet been tested by a screen reader user, and reports from one are the most useful kind.

Known Limits

The inset map responds to pointer and touch only; the large map and the controls do everything it does from the keyboard. On a small screen the maps are small, and the ellipses at the finest spacing crowd near the poles; the spacing control can thin them or turn them off.

Contact

If something on the page does not work for you, email support@painted.app with what you were trying to do. PaintedApp, LLC, 1327 SE Tacoma St #394, Portland, OR 97202.