GTN Accessibility Policy

Author(s)

Helena Rasche

Overview

Published: Sep 12, 2022

Last modification: Oct 27, 2026

License: Document content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The GTN Framework is licensed under MIT

version Revision: 5

Accessibility

The Galaxy Training Network is committed to making its content accessible to all learners, regardless of disability status. We follow the social model of disability; everyone should be able to use the resources on our pages, and if they aren’t, then it’s a problem with our site.

While we are a volunteer organisation, we are constantly working to ensure that our training materials are accessible to everyone, regardless of their abilities or background. We use a variety of accessibility features and tools, including alt text, closed captioning, and automated testing, to make our content accessible to all learners.

We aim for WCAG 2.0 AA compliance (AAA where possible), under the default theme and styling of the GTN. We are investigating our Section 508 compliance.

Accessibility Features

Visual

• Screen reader support¹
• Dark mode support (including dim and fully “lights out”) via the Extras menu
• “low-js” versions of content for easier navigability; we provide a “plain text” view of slides, in addition to the raw markdown text.

Auditory

• For our automated slides, we provide perfectly captioned content
• SRT files and a transcript are provided of the slides.
• No other sounds are used anywhere on the site.
• Video recordings of GTN tutorials, endorsed on GTN pages, are required to be captioned. Where they aren’t, that is indicated and out of our control (hosted by a non-cooperative account).
• If you notice any issues in subtitles, please let us know! Everyone is welcome to contact us however suits them to report this.

Mobility

• None applicable

Cognitive

• No animations are present
• No videos auto-play
• No sounds are present (excepting videos)

Contact

We know accessibility is an on-going process and there will always be work to do and improvements to be made. If you need support or would like to provide feedback you can contact us on GitHub issues, Matrix, or via email, whichever is most accessible for you. We take all your feedback and suggestions seriously, honestly, and with care.

Additional Features

Auto-expanding boxes:

Tutorials can be viewed with all boxes automatically expanded, just add ?expand-all=true to the URL of the page you are visiting.

Theme changeable via URL

Adding ?theme= will let you control the theme via URL.

JS free experience

The training works completely without Javascript, if that helps you. The only features that are degraded are the automatic Table of Contents, and choose your own adventure style tutorials. This is an ongoing project to work around in a sensible way. Additionally themes do not function without JS, we do not have a workaround currently, as the GTN is a fully static site.