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Accessibility

Last reviewed: March 15, 2026 · Michigan Legal Publishing Ltd.

Michigan Legal Publishing Ltd. is committed to making Court Rules Network accessible to everyone, including people who use assistive technologies such as screen readers, voice control software, or keyboard-only navigation.

Conformance status

We aim to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at Level AA. Court Rules Network is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 Level AA. "Partially conformant" means that some content does not yet fully conform to the standard. We are actively working to address known gaps.

What works well

  • Keyboard navigation. All interactive elements (navigation menus, tabs, forms, and links) are reachable and operable by keyboard alone. The tab widget on rule pages supports arrow-key navigation (Left/Right/Home/End) per WCAG 2.1 guidelines.
  • Skip to main content. A skip link appears at the top of every page, allowing keyboard users to bypass repeated navigation and jump directly to page content.
  • Screen reader support. Pages use semantic HTML5 elements (<main>, <nav>, <header>, <footer>, <article>) with ARIA labels where needed. Tab panels, navigation landmarks, and interactive controls are labeled for assistive technology.
  • Focus management. The disclaimer notice that appears on first visit moves keyboard focus to the acknowledgment button. The Escape key dismisses it.
  • Color and contrast. Body text uses dark type on a white background. We do not rely on color alone to convey information.
  • Text resizing. Page layouts are fluid and respond correctly when browser text size is increased up to 200% without loss of content or functionality.
  • No time limits. No content times out or auto-advances.
  • No flashing content. Nothing on this site flashes more than three times per second.
  • Self-hosted fonts. All fonts are hosted on our servers and load with font-display: swap, so readable system fonts are shown immediately while custom fonts load.

Known limitations

  • Rule text complexity. Federal and state rule text can be highly nested, with multiple levels of indentation. While we mark up subsections using semantic list-like formatting, some complex tables within rule text may not fully convey their structure to screen readers.
  • AI-generated summaries. Plain-English summaries are generated by artificial intelligence. While the text itself is accessible, the accuracy of summaries has not been reviewed for accessibility-specific concerns (e.g., whether a summary conveys the same information as the full rule text for users who rely on it).
  • Contact and search forms. These forms use inline styles for layout rather than a shared stylesheet. Functionality is unaffected, but the code structure is less consistent than the rest of the site.
  • No formal AT testing. We have not yet conducted formal testing with real screen reader users or with automated accessibility audit tools on every page. We rely on manual review and ARIA best practices.

Supported assistive technologies

We design for compatibility with commonly used assistive technologies, including:

  • Screen readers: NVDA + Firefox, JAWS + Chrome, VoiceOver + Safari on macOS and iOS
  • Voice control: Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Voice Control on macOS/iOS
  • Keyboard-only navigation in all major browsers
  • Browser zoom up to 200%

Technical approach

This site is built with standard HTML5, CSS, and minimal JavaScript. We use ARIA roles and attributes where HTML semantics alone are insufficient. We do not use Flash, PDF-only content, or other formats known to present accessibility barriers for rule text display. No content requires JavaScript to read; rule text, summaries, and navigation are all server-rendered HTML.

Feedback and contact

If you encounter an accessibility barrier on this site (a difficult page, content that is hard to read with assistive technology, or any other issue), please contact us. We take these reports seriously and will work to address them.

We aim to respond to accessibility feedback within five business days.