Conformance status
This site is in substantial conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA (opens in a new tab). “Substantial conformance” means the large majority of our content meets the standard, with the known limitations listed below.
This is the technical bar referenced by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II 2024 final rule (opens in a new tab), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and Washington state public school accessibility expectations.
Built-in accessibility tools
We've built an Accessibility Center directly into this site — open it from the “Aa” button in the top utility bar, or press Alt+A from any page. It includes:
- Text size up to 250% without breaking layout
- Letter spacing and word spacing controls (helpful for dyslexia)
- Atkinson Hyperlegible (low-vision) and OpenDyslexic font options
- High-contrast, dark, and sepia themes
- Saturation and brightness controls
- Reading guide (ruler or focus mask) and stronger focus rings
- Larger tap targets (44px minimum, WCAG)
- Reduce-motion override
- Read-aloud (browser text-to-speech)
How we test
Every code change is automatically tested against the WCAG 2.1 AA rule set by axe-core (opens in a new tab) over more than 110 pages, with Lighthouse (opens in a new tab) performance and accessibility gates that block any pull request falling below a 0.9 accessibility score. Regressions cannot reach production without explicit review.
We also run periodic manual audits covering keyboard navigation, screen reader announcements (NVDA, VoiceOver), 200% browser zoom, and 320-pixel mobile reflow.
Athletics video accessibility
The athletics pages (/athletics, the per-sport pages, and /athletics/schedule) feature embedded highlight reels from Hudl, our third-party athletics media partner. These highlights are silent — they have no audio track and never play sound — so captions (WCAG 1.2.2) do not apply.
Silent video is still subject to WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.2.3 (Audio Description or Media Alternative for Text, Level A), which requires either an audio-description track or a text alternative that conveys equivalent information. We conform via the text-alternative path:
- Each video carries a descriptive accessible name (the sport, the highlight title, the date, and a note that the video is silent and how to pause or expand it).
- Each video is programmatically associated with a written description that screen readers announce on demand, mirroring the visible context (sport, title, date, duration, that the reel is silent and loops).
- A WebVTT description track (
kind="descriptions") is embedded with the video for assistive technologies that surface description tracks.
Player controls are always visible, so anyone using a keyboard, screen reader, or switch device can pause, replay, or expand the highlight at any time (WCAG 2.2.2, Pause Stop Hide). Autoplay is gated behind viewport, data-saver, slow-network, and prefers-reduced-motion checks, so users who have asked their device to suppress motion never see the highlight reel animate (WCAG 2.3.3).
Known limitations
We list these openly so families know what to expect — and what to ask about — when they hit something that doesn't work for them.
- Older uploaded PDF and Word documents.Some documents linked from our pages (district forms, archived policies, historical board materials) were generated before document tagging was standard practice — one example is the 2019-2020 Intent-to-Home-School form, which is still a Word doc rather than a tagged PDF. If you need an accessible version of any specific document, contact us under “Reporting issues” below and we'll provide one within five business days.
- Embedded Facebook page on /pto.The PTO page embeds the live Facebook feed via Facebook's official page plugin (loaded only after you click to consent). The accessibility of the embedded feed itself is determined by Facebook, not by this site. All other external services we use (Skyward family access, RevTrak payments, FinalForms athletic registration) are linked, not embedded — clicking them opens the vendor's site in a new tab, so their accessibility is independent of ours.
Reporting issues
If you encounter an accessibility barrier on this site — or need a document in an alternative format — please contact us. We treat accessibility issues as priority bugs.
Section 504 / ADA Compliance Officer: Shawn Brown
502 E. Spruce Ave, Montesano, WA 98563
Phone: (360) 249-3942
Email: sbrown@monteschools.org
We aim to respond within 5 business days.
Formal complaint procedure
If you would like to file a formal complaint about accessibility (or any civil rights matter), the district has a published procedure:
You may also file with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights: File an OCR complaint (opens in a new tab).
Alternative formats
We can provide most documents in alternative formats — large print, audio, plain text, or screen-reader friendly versions. Contact the District Office and we'll respond within five business days.
About this statement
This accessibility statement was last reviewed on June 9, 2026 and is reviewed at least annually. Conformance is tested continuously in our development pipeline; known limitations are updated as we discover and remediate them.