Holmes Training Academy™ mark

Access & Inclusion

Accessibility at Holmes Training Academy

Holmes Training Academy is committed to creating a digital learning environment that is accessible, inclusive, and welcoming to every learner.

Our Commitment

Accessibility is not simply a compliance requirement. It is part of our educational mission and reflects our commitment to serving students with excellence.

We continually evaluate and improve the accessibility of our digital campus and welcome suggestions that help us better serve our community.

Need Accessibility Assistance?

If you encounter any accessibility barriers or require assistance, our team is committed to helping you.

admissions@htacampus.online

You may also reach Admissions & Student Services at (646) 653-9080, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

Our Standard

The Holmes Digital Campus is built and maintained to conform with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Level AA. We regard accessibility as a matter of institutional character rather than of compliance: a certification, a classroom, a tuition agreement, and a conversation with Admissions must all be available to a visitor using a screen reader, a keyboard, magnification, or a phone, on the same terms as anyone else.

This report describes the work completed under HTA Accessibility 1.0, an audit and remediation of the public campus, the student portal, the faculty tools, and the administrative wings.

Issues Corrected

Navigation and Wayfinding

  • Skip links now open every public page, carrying the visitor past the campus navigation to the main content or directly to the contact block.
  • The header, the mobile wing drawer, and the campus search are operable by keyboard alone, and the current location is announced with aria-current.
  • Each page has one main landmark, one first-level heading, and an unbroken heading order beneath it.
  • Arrival on a new page is announced to screen-reader users through a single polite live region.

Focus and Keyboard

  • A visible two-tone focus ring — light over dark, dark over light — replaces the former single outline, so focus is never lost against a photograph, a gradient, or the office interior.
  • Hand-built dialogs (the Virtual Admissions Office, the mobile drawer, the leave-confirmation sheet, the command palette) trap focus, close on Escape, and return focus to the control that opened them.
  • Background scrolling is locked while a dialog is open, without the layout shift that previously moved the page beneath the visitor.
  • No positive tabindex values remain; reading order and focus order agree.

Forms

  • Every field on the admissions handoff, contact, registration, and authentication forms has a programmatically associated label; placeholders are no longer used as labels.
  • Required fields are marked in text as well as with aria-required, so requirement is not conveyed by an asterisk alone.
  • Errors are delivered in an alert region, in words, and in the accent reserved for correction — never by color alone.
  • Autocomplete tokens are supplied for name, email, and telephone (WCAG 1.3.5).

The Virtual Admissions Office

  • The office is a labelled modal dialog with a described purpose, a named close control, focus containment, and Escape to leave.
  • Angela's turns are mirrored into a screen-reader log, so each reply is announced once, in full, without the visible transcript being re-read.
  • Her state — joining, ready, listening, considering, responding — is announced as it changes.
  • Captions are on by default and render everything Angela voices over her picture; the visitor may switch them off from the office controls.
  • The message field is labelled, describes its Enter and Shift+Enter behaviour, and uses a 16px type size so mobile browsers do not zoom on focus.
  • All office controls meet the 44×44 pixel target minimum on touch devices.

Visual Design and Motion

  • Body text, muted text, and text over the parchment and ink surfaces were measured and adjusted to meet 4.5:1; large display type meets 3:1.
  • prefers-reduced-motion now silences every campus animation — the launcher sheen, the count-up statistics, route fades, reveal-on-scroll, and the office progress indicator.
  • prefers-contrast: more firms the hairline rules, strengthens muted text, and thickens focus rings.
  • Layouts reflow without horizontal scrolling at 200% text zoom and at a 320px viewport width.

Images, Icons, and Controls

  • Icon-only buttons across the campus, the portal, and the administrative wings carry accessible names.
  • Decorative rules, gradients, and ornaments are hidden from assistive technology; meaningful photography carries descriptive alternative text.
  • Status, progress, and count indicators expose their value in text as well as in form.

WCAG 2.2 Checkpoints Satisfied

The following success criteria were reviewed and are met across the campus.

  • 1.1.1Non-text Content
  • 1.2.4Captions (Live) — Angela's spoken responses
  • 1.3.1Info and Relationships
  • 1.3.2Meaningful Sequence
  • 1.3.4Orientation
  • 1.3.5Identify Input Purpose
  • 1.4.3Contrast (Minimum)
  • 1.4.4Resize Text — to 200%
  • 1.4.10Reflow — to 320 CSS pixels
  • 1.4.11Non-text Contrast
  • 1.4.12Text Spacing
  • 1.4.13Content on Hover or Focus
  • 2.1.1Keyboard
  • 2.1.2No Keyboard Trap
  • 2.2.1Timing Adjustable
  • 2.3.3Animation from Interactions
  • 2.4.1Bypass Blocks — skip links
  • 2.4.3Focus Order
  • 2.4.4Link Purpose (In Context)
  • 2.4.6Headings and Labels
  • 2.4.7Focus Visible
  • 2.4.11Focus Not Obscured (Minimum)
  • 2.5.3Label in Name
  • 2.5.8Target Size (Minimum)
  • 3.2.1On Focus
  • 3.2.2On Input
  • 3.3.1Error Identification
  • 3.3.2Labels or Instructions
  • 3.3.3Error Suggestion
  • 4.1.2Name, Role, Value
  • 4.1.3Status Messages

Verified With

  • VoiceOver on macOS with Safari
  • VoiceOver on iOS with Safari
  • TalkBack on Android with Chrome
  • NVDA on Windows with Firefox
  • JAWS on Windows with Chrome
  • Keyboard only, no pointer
  • 200% browser text zoom, 320px viewport

Remaining Recommendations

  • Captioning of Angela's speech is derived from her written reply. When word-level speech timing becomes available from the streaming provider, captions should be synchronised to her voice rather than rendered as a whole.
  • Long-form manuscripts in the Knowledge Center and the Reading Room would benefit from a per-article reading-position indicator that does not rely on scroll alone.
  • Uploaded course media does not yet require captions or a transcript at the point of upload; a faculty-facing requirement should be added when the media library is next revised.
  • A full assistive-technology regression pass should be repeated before each public launch, and after any change to the Virtual Admissions Office.
  • Third-party framing inside the office (the provider's own presentation) is outside our direct control; the written conversation is maintained as an equivalent path for every visitor.

If You Encounter a Barrier

Please tell us. Describe what you were trying to do, the page you were using, and the assistive technology or browser in hand. We treat accessibility reports as a priority and will respond with a remedy or a timeline.

Admissions & Student Services · (646) 653-9080 · htacertification@gmail.com

Accessibility Statement

Last Reviewed: August 2026

Holmes Training Academy continually evaluates and improves the accessibility of its digital campus. As technology evolves and accessibility standards continue to advance, we remain committed to providing an inclusive educational experience for every learner.