Accessibility

Last updated: 2026-04-24

Our Commitment

The Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (OCRA) builds the Research Exchange for patients, survivors, caregivers, advocates, researchers, clinicians, and citizen scientists. Many of the people who depend on this platform live with serious illness or care for someone who does, and many use assistive technology to read, navigate, and contribute. Equal access is core to our mission, not a finishing touch.

We design, build, and review the Research Exchange against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Level AA. Our goal is to meet or exceed Level AA across every public page and to be honest about the gaps that remain.

Conformance Status

The Research Exchange is partially conformant with WCAG 2.2 Level AA. "Partially conformant" means that some parts of the content do not fully conform to the accessibility standard; specific exceptions are listed under Known Limitations below.

Compatibility

The Research Exchange is tested with current evergreen browsers — the most recent two major releases of Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari — on macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android.

We test with the following assistive technologies:

  • VoiceOver on macOS and iOS
  • NVDA on Windows
  • TalkBack on Android
  • Keyboard-only navigation in all supported browsers
  • Browser zoom up to 200% and operating-system text scaling

The Research Exchange is not designed for, and may not work reliably on, browsers that are no longer receiving security updates (for example, Internet Explorer 11).

Known Limitations

We track the following accessibility gaps and are working to resolve them:

Interactive scientific visualizations

The dataset atlas viewer (URLs beginning with /datasets/, /studies/.../atlas, and /preview/) renders charts to Canvas/WebGL. Individual data points are not currently exposed to keyboard navigation or screen readers. The chrome around the viewer (tabs, filters, navigation, and sidebar metadata) is fully accessible, and the same data is available in tabular form on the corresponding dataset and study detail pages and as downloadable Parquet files. We are tracking improvements with our upstream visualization library.

Donation widget

Donations are processed through the third-party Fundraise Up service. The widget's button styling, modal contents, and accessibility behaviour are controlled by Fundraise Up and cannot be modified by OCRA. Automated audits flag the button text contrast as below the 4.5:1 threshold. As an accessible alternative, the "Make a Donation" link in the site footer points directly to our hosted donation page, which can be used in place of the widget.

Embedded third-party content

Maps, social media embeds, and the donation widget include components not under OCRA's direct control. We provide accessible text alternatives wherever possible (for example, list views alongside map views) and select third-party providers with their own accessibility commitments.

Technical Specifications

The Research Exchange relies on the following web technologies for conformance with the accessibility standards used:

  • HTML5 semantic markup
  • CSS3 for layout, color, and typography
  • JavaScript (Next.js 15 / React 19, server-side rendering with client-side hydration)
  • WAI-ARIA roles, states, and properties where native HTML semantics are insufficient

JavaScript must be enabled to use the interactive features of the site, including search, filters, and the data visualization atlas. The dataset atlas, dataset preview, and study atlas routes additionally require browser support for cross-origin isolation (Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy and Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy headers) in order to load DuckDB-WASM. All currently supported versions of the listed browsers meet this requirement.

Assessment Method

OCRA assessed the accessibility of the Research Exchange by self-evaluation, supplemented by automated tooling (axe-core and Lighthouse) and manual code review against the WCAG 2.2 Level AA success criteria. The most recent formal review was completed on 2026-04-24. We re-run automated checks on every release and perform full reviews quarterly.

Feedback

We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of the Research Exchange. If you encounter an accessibility barrier, please let us know:

Email: support@cirro.bio

Response times:

  • Acknowledgment of your report within 2 business days.
  • Substantive response within 10 business days.
  • If a fix requires additional time, we will share a status update with an estimated resolution date within 30 calendar days.

Please include the page URL, your browser and assistive technology, and a description of the barrier you experienced.

Enforcement Procedure

If you are not satisfied with our response to your accessibility feedback, you may contact the U.S. Access Board, the federal agency responsible for accessibility standards under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, at www.access-board.gov.

Date

This statement was last reviewed on .