Website Accessibility Remediation Log
Website: www.gracehealthmi.org
Standard: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Level AA
Review and remediation date: October 12, 2026
Last updated: June 21, 2026
Grace Health is committed to making its website usable by everyone, including people who use assistive technology such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, voice control and keyboard-only navigation. This log documents an accessibility review of www.gracehealthmi.org against WCAG 2.2 Level AA and the changes made as a result. It is published for transparency and compliance review and will be updated as further work is completed.
How the review was done
- Automated testing: every page in the site's page sitemap (54 pages) and the 15 most recent news posts were tested with axe-core 4.10 (Deque Systems) using the WCAG 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 A/AA rule sets plus best-practice rules.
- Manual review: keyboard-only navigation of the main menu, visible keyboard focus, the skip link, pinch-zoom, the homepage slideshow, the page heading structure, and alternative text for each informational image (each image was viewed and described).
- Re-test: all 69 pages were tested again after the changes were made. Automated testing finds many, but not all, accessibility issues, so key manual checks (zoom, keyboard menu operation, visible focus, slideshow controls and image alt text) were also re-verified on the live site.
Summary of results
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| WCAG 2.2 A/AA failures (total instances) | 1,302 | 0 |
| Pages with at least one WCAG A/AA failure | 69 of 69 | 0 of 69 |
| Best-practice advisories (not WCAG failures) | 116 | 83 |
| Content images missing alt text (manual review) | 62 | 0 |
Changes made
| # | WCAG 2.2 criterion | Issue found | Change made | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1.4.4 Resize Text (AA) | Pinch-to-zoom was turned off on mobile devices (user-scalable=0, maximum-scale=1). | Zooming enabled (up to 500%) in the theme settings. | All pages |
| 2 | 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (AA) | The brand gray (#7E7F74) and brand orange (#BE531C) did not reach the 4.5:1 contrast ratio required for normal-size text (572 instances), including the main menu, footer, buttons and body text. | Brand colors adjusted to the nearest compliant shades: gray #6C6D64 (5.2:1 on white) and orange #B34E1A (5.2:1 on white). Applied in the theme settings and to colors hard-coded in page content. | All pages |
| 3 | 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (AA) | Other low-contrast text: light-gray, green and magenta text on the telehealth page; orange headings on the appointments page; white text on light-teal buttons (OB/GYN, CenteringPregnancy); white heading on light gray (COVID-19 page); pale text on the school-based health page; the wait-time "last updated" stamp; the current-page item in the top bar. | Each color darkened to a shade that meets 4.5:1. | Listed pages and site header |
| 4 | 2.1.1 Keyboard (A); 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A) | The "About", "Patient Resources" and "News" menu items could not be reached with the keyboard, so their submenus were unavailable to keyboard users; the menu used ARIA attributes that are not valid on those elements. | Menu items made keyboard-focusable and identified as buttons. Enter or Space opens a submenu and moves focus into it; Escape closes it. | Main navigation, all pages |
| 5 | 2.4.7 Focus Visible (AA) | The theme removed the keyboard focus outline from menu links and form fields. | A 3-pixel high-contrast focus outline added to all links, buttons and form fields. | All pages |
| 6 | 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (A) | The "Skip to main content" link was present but needed a guaranteed visible style when focused. | Skip link shown clearly at the top left of the screen when it receives keyboard focus. | All pages |
| 7 | 2.4.4 Link Purpose (A); 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A) | 318 links had no accessible name: icon-only links (Appointments, Patient Forms, Patient Portal), Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram icons, staff photos that link to provider profiles, news thumbnails and the post "share" icon. | Each link given a descriptive accessible name (for example "Grace Health on Facebook (opens in a new tab)", "Patient portal login", or the provider's name). | All pages |
| 8 | 1.1.1 Non-text Content (A) | Staff and provider photos in the provider directory (Team Showcase) had no alt text. | Each photo now uses the provider's name and credentials as its alt text. | Service and provider pages |
| 9 | 1.1.1 Non-text Content (A) | 62 content images had no alt text, including flyers and notices that contain text (COVID-19 information, pre-visit notice, language-assistance notice, 2026 Healthy Lifestyles event schedule, TRUE METRIX device correction notice), telehealth instruction screenshots, the services graphic, the "Advancing HIT for Quality" award badge, Family Medicine residents' photos and news photos. | Each image was reviewed and given alt text describing its content or purpose; for text-based flyers, the alt text conveys the key information. Alt text was also saved in the Media Library so future uses of these images carry it. 38 images received descriptive alt text. 24 images whose meaning is already given by adjacent text are marked decorative so screen readers do not repeat it: Family Medicine resident photos (the resident's name and credentials appear in the same link), news thumbnails shown beside their linked headline, arrows and a tracking pixel. | 21 pages and posts; site footer |
| 10 | 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide (A) | The homepage slideshow advanced automatically and repeated indefinitely with no way to pause it. | Start/Stop slideshow buttons added, and the slideshow now pauses when the pointer is over it. | Homepage |
| 11 | 1.4.1 Use of Color (A) | Links inside paragraphs were distinguished from surrounding text by color alone (72 instances). | Links within body text are now underlined. | All pages |
| 12 | 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) (AA, new in WCAG 2.2) | Provider-name links and list links were shorter than the 24 × 24 pixel minimum target size (48 instances). | Minimum 24-pixel target height applied. | Service pages |
| 13 | 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A) | Embedded frames (video, Google Translate, reCAPTCHA) had no title; the news search button had no accessible name. | Frames given descriptive titles; search button labeled "Search". | Pages with embeds; News pages |
| 14 | 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (A) | The news search field was labeled only by placeholder and tooltip text. | Field given an accessible label: "Search the Grace Health website". | News pages |
| 15 | 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A); 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (AA) | The homepage had no top-level (H1) heading; news posts contained two "main" landmarks; some empty headings. | Homepage H1 added for screen readers ("Grace Health – Battle Creek, Michigan"); a single main landmark per page; empty headings hidden from assistive technology. | Homepage; news posts; Billing Information |
Known remaining items and planned work
- Heading order (best practice): some pages skip heading levels for visual styling (for example, an H4 directly after the page title). This is an advisory item, not a WCAG failure; headings will be re-leveled as pages are next edited.
- Page regions (best practice): the floating "share" bar on news posts sits outside the page's landmark regions. This is an advisory item, not a WCAG failure, and will be addressed with the next theme update.
- Text-based images: several notices are published as images of text (COVID-19 flyers from 2020, the language-assistance table, the pre-visit notice, the 2026 event schedule). Each now has a text alternative; we plan to publish these as regular web text (WCAG 1.4.5 Images of Text) and to review the 2020 COVID-19 materials for currency.
- Older news posts and PDF documents: this review covered all site pages and the 15 most recent posts. Older posts and downloadable PDF forms will be reviewed next.
- Video: captions and transcripts for embedded videos will be verified.
- Third-party services: the patient portal (Medfusion), telehealth (OTTO) and other linked third-party sites are operated by their vendors and are outside the scope of this review.
Feedback and assistance
If you have difficulty using any part of this website, or need information in a different format, please contact us at (269) 965-8866 or through our Contact page. Please tell us the page address and the problem you encountered, and we will work to provide the information you need and fix the issue.
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Donations to Grace health
Community Health Center Quality Recognition (CHQR)
Grace Health, Inc., Battle Creek, Michigan
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