Accessible web content promotes inclusion and diversity, allowing everyone to participate equally on the web. The need for greater accessibility is felt in all sectors.
Borealis strives to make its software as accessible as possible, and to do so, we use the WCAG guideline. This standard, published by the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is the most used and well respected standard related to content accessibility on the web.
Borealis is targeting the level AA compliance of the WCAG 2.1 standard.
User selected themes
There are three themes offered by Borealis. In particular, the High contrast and Dark themes have been created with accessibility in mind. How to change your theme, along with other preferences, is explained in this article.
This option is related to the 1.4 section of the WCAG Guideline : Distinguishable.
Compatibility with screen readers
The Borealis web interface is compatible with screen readers. Specifically, all the list pages, creation pages, record pages, action popups and the main menu are entirely compatible.
This has been tested using the Google chrome extension Google Screen Reader.
Keyboard interface
The Borealis web application can be browsed using keyboard inputs only.
General navigation
Most pages can be navigated with the following keys
- The Tab key and Shift + Tab combination can be used to navigate the page.
- The Enter key can be used to activate a control.
- The Esc key can be used to exit.
Main menu
The main menu is the menu on the left that allows selecting a section of the application.
- To access the main menu, the Focus on Home keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Alt+H or ^+⌥+H) can be used.
- Once the focus in on the main menu, the arrows can be used to navigate the menu.
- The up and down arrows or the Tab key and Shift + Tab combination to move up or down.
- The right arrow or Enter key to open a sub menu.
- The left arrow to close the sub menu.
Top bar
The top bar allows for quick access to many features in Borealis.
- You can navigate through the header using the Tab key and Shift + Tab combination. From there, you can access the following buttons : Create, Search, Projects, Help, Activities and Profile.
- The Esc key can be use to close a menu.
- The Open the create menu keyboard shortcut (Shift+C) can be used to create new records.
- The Open the search menu keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+F or ^+Shift+F) can be used to search for records.
- The shortcut Ctrl + Alt + P can be used to navigate directly to the user's profile icon.
Creation pages and edit pages
The creation pages are used for creating new records. The edit pages are used to edit existing records. They offer the same functionality in terms of keyboard
- The Tab key and Shift + Tab combination can be used to navigate the page, going from one field to the next.
- The Esc key can be used to cancel.
- The Ctrl + Enter combination can be used to save the changes.
Record pages
The record pages are used for viewing, editing or performing actions on records.
- The Focus on the record menu keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Alt+M or ^+⌥+M) can be used to go to the record menu.
- The record menu can be navigated using arrows or the Tab key and Shift + Tab combination.
- The Focus on the record header keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Alt+B or ^+⌥+B) can be used to go to the record header. From there, the Tab key and Shift + Tab combination can be used to go from one control to the next.
List pages
The list pages are the landing pages for a section, like the Individuals section.
- The Tab key and Shift + Tab combination can be used to navigate the page.
- The Enter key can be used to use the buttons and check boxes, and for opening a selected record.
Keyboard shortcuts
A list of keyboard shortcuts is available here.