Reading, choosing a pickup place and reserving the ride by keyboard or ear

Aiming at WCAG 2.1, level AA

Our working target is level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.1, published by the World Wide Web Consortium. Every page is written and laid out with those success criteria in hand: text alternatives, keyboard operation, visible focus, enough contrast and labeled fields. It is a target the office works toward, and this page makes no claim that every screen already meets it. Where we know a part falls short, the third section below names it.

Choices made in the code and the wording

These measures belong to every page, from the main page with its request form to the short legal pages linked at the foot. Each one answers a specific criterion of the target above, and most can be tried with nothing more than a browser and a keyboard:

• A text alternative for each picture, written after looking at that picture; a picture that only repeats the link beside it carries an empty one and is skipped
• Full use by keyboard, with a Skip to the page link as the first stop
• A clear focus outline, crimson on white and apricot on the dark bands
• Dark red text on white paper, and white on the crimson buttons at 5.54 to 1, above the 4.5 to 1 asked of body text
• A written label above every field of the form, and errors spelled out in words
• Tables of places and figures that turn into stacked cards on a phone, each figure with its own label
• Transitions switched off when your device asks for reduced motion

A drawing, a split form and phone tables

On the main page, a drawing of the Missouri River shows the five bridges a car can cross on its way north. It is decoration only: it carries no links, screen readers pass over it, and below 900 pixels of width it leaves the screen entirely. Everything it shows is repeated directly beneath it as a plain list of six links, one for each area, with the crossing written out in words.

The request form on the main page comes in two parts. The first three fields (the place, which way and the day) sit in a card near the top, and the rest wait lower down under Then the rest of the request, joined by a Continue link (it reads Continue to your details on wider screens and to screen readers) that jumps between them. Both parts send as one request, but a screen reader may present them as two separate regions. Wherever else the form appears, it is in one piece.

On a phone, the tables of places become stacked cards with a small label printed beside each figure. Some pairs of browser and screen reader then stop announcing a table and read the rows as plain lines. The labels stay with the numbers, so each line still says which figure it holds, but moving by column and row is lost at that width.

When a page stops you partway

If something on a page stops you, tell us which page it was, what you were trying to do, and what you were using: the browser, the screen reader or magnifier if any, and the device. A few plain sentences are enough, and there is no need to name a guideline. Call +1 (816) 842-4783 during the phone hours printed at the foot of every page, or write to the request address shown there and on the contact page.

If the problem stopped you partway through a request, say so in the same message. The office can take the rest of that request from you by phone or by email, so a broken field never decides whether you get a written fare.

Same details, by voice or in writing

Nothing on these pages exists only on screen. On the phone the office can read out the figure for any pickup place, how early to send a request around the holidays, and the rules for changes, or send the same details by email in plain sentences. A ride can be reserved without the form at all: give the pickup place, the day, the flight number and how many people are going, and the written fare arrives by email like any other.

For the ride itself, ask for a vehicle with a ramp or lift with the box on the form or by phone, and the car company that takes the ride confirms it in writing before you say yes. A service animal rides with you; mention it in the note so the company knows ahead of the pickup time.