Accessibility

Last reviewed: October 30, 2026

ExploreBoston.com should work for everyone who wants to explore Boston, including people who use screen readers, keyboards, magnification, voice control or other assistive technology. This page sets out the standard we aim for, where the site stands today, the problems we know about, and how to reach us if something gets in your way.

Our target

We aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at Level AA across ExploreBoston.com, including the City Guide pages, the events calendar, our forms and our live pages (transit, weather, traffic and sports).

Where we stand today

ExploreBoston.com partially conforms to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. That means most of the site meets the standard, but some parts do not yet. We checked the site ourselves on October 29, 2026, using automated tools and manual keyboard and screen-reader checks on more than 30 pages. We have not had an outside audit.

What we already do

• A “Skip to content” link on every page, and labelled page regions (header, navigation, main content, footer).
• Text alternatives for photos, and text labels on our maps and icons.
• Menus, dialogs and forms that work with a keyboard. Our sign-up dialogs keep keyboard focus inside them, and the optional ones close with the Escape key.
• Labelled form fields, with error messages that are announced to screen readers.
• Pages that reflow at 200% zoom and on small screens, with pinch-zoom left on.
• Animations that switch off when your device is set to reduce motion.
• No audio or video that plays on its own.

Known issues

These are the problems we know about. We are working through them, and we will update this list as they are fixed.

• Color contrast. Some small gold text on cream backgrounds (for example chapter labels and the “›” link marks in the City Guide) falls just short of the 4.5:1 contrast ratio. A few labels use a lighter brass color that is too faint as text.
• Heading structure. A few pages use more than one top-level heading, skip a heading level, or start without one, which can make them harder to scan with a screen reader.
• Repeated navigation regions. The site menu is built twice (one copy for phones, one for larger screens), so some screen readers list two navigation regions with the same name.
• Focus visibility. On a few top-menu links the keyboard focus outline is thin and hard to see.
• Small tap targets on phones. Some small links, such as “Details” on event cards and some transit and weather links, are smaller than 24 by 24 pixels.
• Maps. Our neighborhood and transit maps are labelled, but the detail inside a map (streets, stops, numbered sights) is only available as text in the listings that follow each map, not in the map itself. On narrow phone screens, part of the transit map on the Getting Around page can be cut off.
• Third-party content. Advertising and some reader tools on the site come from other companies (such as Google and Mediavine’s Grow). We do not control their markup, and it may not meet the standard.
• Brand guide. Our brand guide page is a design reference for partners, built as a standalone page without the site’s usual menus and page regions. Its downloadable PDF may not be fully tagged for screen readers; ask us and we will send the content in another format.

Tell us about a problem

If something on ExploreBoston.com does not work for you, please tell us. Let us know the page (a link is perfect), what you were trying to do, and the device, browser or assistive technology you use, if you are comfortable sharing it. We will try to fix it, and in the meantime we will get you the information another way.

Email: info@exploreboston.com
Or use our contact page.

We read every message and aim to reply within five business days.

Who is responsible

ExploreBoston.com is published by Explore Boston Media LLC, 1 Beacon St, Floor 15, Boston, MA 02108. This statement covers exploreboston.com. It does not cover sites we link to.