Usable by everyone

What we aim for

We work towards the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2) at level AA. PublicArtMap is a young service built by a small team, so we describe this as an aim rather than a claim of full conformance — the site has not yet had a formal accessibility audit.

What's in place

Pages are built with clear, high-contrast typography and a consistent structure of headings and landmarks. You can navigate by keyboard, including a skip-to-content link, visible focus styles, and keyboard access to the map's artwork pins. Text can be resized in your browser without breaking the layout, and photographs carry descriptive alternative text wherever we have it.

The interactive map is never the only way in: every artwork, city and walk is also available as ordinary browsable pages and lists, so nothing depends on being able to use a map. Many artwork records also note practical visiting details, such as whether a work is outdoors, step-free or free to visit.

Known limitations

Some things aren't where we want them yet. Parts of the map interaction — such as clustered markers in densely covered cities — work better with a pointer than a keyboard or screen reader; the list views cover the same content in the meantime. Older photographs imported from open collections sometimes arrive without good alternative text, and we are improving descriptions as works are reviewed. Some third-party content we link out to is beyond our control.

Tell us what's in the way

If anything on this site is difficult or impossible for you to use, that's something we want to fix — please email joshua@cultural-commons.org and tell us what happened and what you were trying to do. Reports like these directly shape what we work on next. Last reviewed: July 2026.