​​​​​​​PetRescue - a platform for all!

Spencer from Project Underdog Rescue

Every week, hundreds of humans from all walks of life visit PetRescue, hoping to meet the furry love of their life. And because we believe that there’s a match for everyone, we're working towards designing a platform that's accessible and inclusive to give humans out there their best chance at finding a pet. 

Over the past few months, our tech team has been making upgrades under-the-hood to the PetRescue website towards meeting the WCAG 2.1 compliance standards. These efforts are a big step in ensuring that all our users have the same access to our tools and content.

Changes that have been made include:

1. Undertaking a colour audit.

The usage of green has been adjusted and now includes pops of orange, to make it more user-friendly. This will ensure that individuals with visual impairments or low contrast sensitivity don’t have trouble deciphering all the furry furry important content!   

Before the tweaks

After switching to contrasting colours for better visibility

2. Keyboard access

Enabling tab navigation for users who cannot use a mouse and rely on keyboards temporarily or permanently, thus giving them access to all interactive elements on the platform
 

           A “Skip to main content” for increased keyboard accessibility

3. Describing image content

Using “alternative text” on images so that it provides a description of the visuals for people using assistive tech, allowing them to access the content in the image as described by the alt text

4. Describing elements 

Adding Aria labels which provide text for objects such as a button, giving users more access to features on the PetRescue website, such as being able to bookmark their favourite profiles by clicking on the little heart-shaped icon on pet listings

5. Improved modals

The websites modals or “pop-ups” have been given a bit of a makeover, making it easier to use on mobile and adjusted to ensure that they ~pop up~ only when you need em’! You can now close pop-ups by clicking anywhere off the pop-up or the use the ESC button if you’re a keyboard user.

“At PetRescue, we believe that EVERY life matters!"

This ethos will forever guide the decisions we make and believe that it shouldn't stop at the design and tech choices that we make. By applying the smallest of adjustments, we're getting closer to ensuring that the platform works for as many people as possible, not just people with 20:20 vision and/or full mobility," says our GM, Patima.

"A future where every life is respected is one part of our core mission and values. Creating an accessible and inclusive browsing experience is part of this. We still have much more work to do in this area but there's no better time to start than today."

Web accessibility is a practice that ensures that websites and other online applications are designed so that everyone is able to use them as intended, and not excluded from access.

The Web Content Access Guidelines or WCAG are a set of universal guidelines towards having an accessible website. 

Wondering what else we’ve been up to? Click here to check out all our happy news!