Accessibility
Our Commitment to Accessibility
The Big Chill Festival is committed to ensuring our website is accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. We believe that all visitors — regardless of ability — should be able to access information about the festival, browse the lineup, explore Armidale, and get involved.
Accessibility Standard
This website has been designed and developed to conform with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AAA, the highest internationally recognised standard for web accessibility. This standard is published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
As of 16 February 2026, all five pages of our website achieve a 100/100 Lighthouse accessibility score.
What We’ve Done
To make our website accessible, we have implemented the following:
- Alternative text — All images include descriptive alternative text so screen reader users can understand the content. Purely decorative images are hidden from assistive technology.
- Keyboard navigation — Every feature on the site can be accessed using a keyboard alone, including the navigation menu, FAQ accordion, carousel, and forms.
- Skip navigation — A “Skip to content” link is the first focusable element on every page, allowing keyboard users to jump directly to the main content.
- Semantic structure — The site uses proper HTML5 landmarks, sequential heading levels, and labelled regions to help screen readers understand the page structure.
- Colour contrast — All text and background colour combinations meet the enhanced AAA contrast ratio of 7:1.
- Focus indicators — A visible focus outline appears on all interactive elements when navigating with a keyboard.
- Forms — All form fields have visible labels, autocomplete hints for common fields (name, email, phone), and accessible error messages that are announced to screen reader users.
- Language — The page language is set to Australian English so screen readers use the correct pronunciation.
- Abbreviations — Common abbreviations (e.g. AEDT, NSW, NERAM) are expanded so screen readers can announce the full meaning.
- External links — Links that open in a new tab include a screen reader announcement: “(opens in new tab)”.
- Line length — Text blocks are limited to 75 characters per line for comfortable reading.
- Line spacing — Body text uses a minimum line height of 1.5 for readability.
- Animations — All animations respect your operating system’s “Reduce motion” setting. No content flashes or strobes.
Accessibility Toolbar
We use the UserWay Accessibility Widget to provide additional customisation options. Look for the accessibility icon on the page to access features including:
- High contrast mode
- Font size adjustment
- Text spacing controls
- Cursor size options
- Colour saturation controls
Known Limitations
- Logo — Our festival logo is a stylised SVG image rather than CSS text. This is an intentional design choice essential to our brand identity. The logo image includes descriptive alternative text for screen readers.
- Third-party content — Embedded content from Spotify and YouTube is labelled with descriptive titles, but the internal accessibility of these players depends on their respective providers.
Feedback
We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of The Big Chill Festival website. If you experience any difficulty accessing content or have suggestions for improvement, please let us know:
- Contact form: Get Involved
- Response time: We aim to respond within 5 business days.
We take accessibility feedback seriously and will work to resolve any reported issues as quickly as possible.
Technical Details
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Standard | WCAG 2.2 Level AAA |
| Conformance date | 16 February 2026 |
| Lighthouse score | 100/100 |
| Pages covered | Homepage, Lineup, FAQ, Get Involved, Explore the Razzle |
Further Information
For more information about web accessibility standards, visit:
This accessibility statement was last updated on 16 February 2026.