Accessibility

We want BlazingStar to be usable by everyone who works with federal budget data, including people who use screen readers, keyboard navigation, magnification, or high-contrast settings.

Our target is WCAG 2.2 Level AA. BlazingStar is under active development, and we ship improvements most weeks. We test against WCAG 2.2 Level AA as we build, and we fix what we find. Because the product is changing quickly, we are not yet claiming full conformance. Here is exactly what we have done, what we found, and what is still open.

This statement covers the BlazingStar application at app.blazingstaranalytics.com.

What we tested

• September 29, 2026: sign-in and sign-up screens. Automated testing with axe-core against WCAG 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 A/AA rules, cross-checked with pa11y, plus manual checks of keyboard focus, target size, and accessible authentication. We fixed every failure we found, including raising the contrast of secondary text across the whole application.
• September 30, 2026: every page of the application. The same automated tests on 66 page states (including open menus, dialogs, filters, and expanded tables) at desktop and tablet widths, plus manual testing of keyboard navigation, focus visibility, target size, 400% zoom (reflow), and whether any meaning is carried by color alone.

What we fixed

Before launch we fixed the issues that testing found, at the component level so every page benefits:

• Controls that screen readers could not name (a display toggle, filter menus, fiscal-year pickers) now have accessible names, and our line charts carry a text summary of what they show.
• Text and chart elements that fell below contrast minimums now meet them.
• Chart series and timeline markers no longer rely on color alone.
• Small click targets were enlarged to at least 24×24 pixels.
• Scrollable data tables can be reached and scrolled by keyboard.
• The dashboard, agency pages, state location pages, account pages and every account (TAFS) tab, and search reflow without sideways scrolling at 400% zoom (320 pixels wide), except the four detail pages listed under known limitations.
• The add-watch dialog closes with the Escape key and returns focus to where you were.

Known limitations

We would rather tell you than have you discover them:

• Four detail pages still scroll sideways at 400% zoom: recipient, assistance listing (program), ZIP code, and award pages. We are fixing them.
• Charts are summarized in text for screen readers, but the full series is not yet available as an accessible data table on every chart. The underlying figures are available in the tables on the same page, and award search results and staffing tables can be exported to CSV.
• Wide data tables scroll horizontally inside their own frame on narrow screens and at high zoom. This is permitted by WCAG, but it can be tedious; we are working on better layouts.
• Phones. The application is designed for desktop and tablet (768 pixels and wider). It is not yet optimized for phone screens.
• Source documents we link to (appropriations acts, OMB and Treasury files, and other government PDFs) are published by their agencies. We don't control their accessibility; where we extract their content, we present it as accessible text.

Get help or report a problem

If anything on BlazingStar is hard to use with your assistive technology, please tell us at hello@blazingstaranalytics.com. Include the page and what happened if you can. We will respond within 5 business days, and if something blocks your work we will help you get the information another way while we fix it.

Last reviewed: October 4, 2026. We re-test after significant changes.