How the site is built
Overlanding Life is designed and built to be usable by as many people as possible, with whatever they use to browse. These are the things we do on every page.
On every page
- 01Real structure: one main heading, headings in order, landmarks for the header, navigation, main content and footer, and a "Skip to content" link as the first stop.
- 02Everything works from the keyboard, in a sensible order, with a focus ring you can see. Menus, dialogs and the search close with Escape and return you to where you were.
- 03Text and controls are set against their backgrounds with contrast in mind, and nothing relies on colour alone: map layers have names and legends as well as tints.
- 04Motion is restrained and stops for anyone whose system asks for reduced motion. The homepage film does not play for them at all, and has a pause button for everyone.
- 05Photographs that carry meaning have text alternatives. Decorative ones are hidden from screen readers.
- 06Forms have visible labels, say which fields are required, and report errors in words next to the form.
- 07Pages work without JavaScript wherever that is possible: links, lists, guides and forms all do.
Maps, and the way round them
An interactive map is hard to use without sight or without a pointer, and ours is no exception. So nothing on this site exists only on a map.
Every campground on the map is also in a list you can filter by name, agency and rig length, and has its own page with its facts in text. Every state page gives its land figures as a table of numbers as well as a drawing. The place search on the map works from the keyboard and reads out each result as you move through them.
What we know falls short
Panning and zooming the public land map is built for a pointer or a touch screen. The layer controls, the place search and the results are keyboard accessible, but exploring the map surface itself is not yet.
Land status tints are drawn by the agencies’ own services in their own colours, which we cannot change. The legend names each one, and selecting any point gives the manager in text.
The site has not yet been through an independent audit, so we make no claim of conformance with a standard. When that is done, the result will be published here.
Report a barrier
If something on the site stops you, tell us what you were trying to do, on which page, and what you use to browse. We read every report and fix what we can.
