Accessibility

Our commitment

We aim to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 at Level AA across this website. That standard is the reference point regulators and courts use, and more to the point it maps onto real barriers: text nobody can read, controls nobody can reach with a keyboard, and motion that makes people ill.

What has been built in

• Semantic HTML with real landmarks, so screen reader users can jump to the main content, the navigation, and the footer.
• A skip link as the first focusable element on every page.
• Full keyboard operation. The navigation menus open with Enter, close with Escape, and return focus to the button that opened them. Nothing on this site requires a mouse.
• Visible focus outlines on every interactive element, never removed for looks.
• Dropdown menus that open from a button announced with aria-expanded, never from a link that pretends to be a menu. The Conditions menu pairs a real link to its main page with a separate button for the submenu.
• Alternative text on every image.
• Form fields with real labels, required fields marked in text as well as color, and errors announced in a live region rather than shown only as a red border.
• Color used to support meaning, never as the only way information is conveyed.
• A layout that reflows to a single column and stays usable at 390 pixels wide and when text is enlarged.
• Support for the reduce motion setting: if your device asks for less animation, the scroll effects and transitions stop.
• No auto-playing audio or video anywhere on the site, and no flashing content.
• No third-party scripts, so no widget can override these choices after the page loads.

What we deliberately did not do

This site does not use an accessibility overlay: one of those floating icons that promises to fix a site automatically. Overlays are widely criticized by the people who actually use screen readers, and they tend to paper over problems rather than fix them. We would rather build the page correctly.

Known gaps

• The photographs on the site are currently placeholder graphics. Their alternative text describes the image that will replace them, and the alt text will be rewritten when real photography is added.
• The illustrated map on the contact page conveys location only in a decorative way. The full address is given in text next to it, which is the thing that actually matters.
• Any PDF forms added later, such as intake paperwork, will need to be tagged for accessibility. Until they are, the office will provide the same information in another format on request.

If you hit a barrier not listed here, please tell us. That list is what we know about, not what exists.

Getting help another way

If any part of this website does not work for you, the phone always does. Call (860) 838-8799 and the office will do by phone whatever the site was supposed to do, including taking an appointment request and answering questions about insurance.

If you need information from this site in large print, in plain text, or read aloud, ask and we will provide it. If you need an interpreter or other accommodation for an appointment, tell the office when you schedule so it is arranged before you arrive rather than at the door.

Telling us about a problem

Describe what you were trying to do, what page you were on, and what got in the way. If you know what browser or assistive technology you were using, that helps, but do not let it stop you from writing.

Email: info@newhorizonbehavioralhealth.com
Phone: (860) 838-8799
Mail: 10 Princeton St, Ste N, West Hartford, CT 06110