Accessibility

ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT FOR IPA SOURCE

IPA is a digital diction performance resource providing the tools you need for clear and correct pronunciation. We are committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. We are continually improving the user experience for everyone and applying the relevant accessibility standards.

MEASURES TO SUPPORT ACCESSIBILITY

IPA Source takes the following measures to ensure accessibility of IPA Source:

  • The IPA Source team is dedicated to providing easily accessible PDF translations to help vocalists prepare for a flawless performance. Our PDF files contain three languages: the original language, an IPA translation of the original language, and the English translation.
  • All the IPA Source translations are provided in PDF format. If a different format is required, we are willing to provide assistance that suits the needs of the customer.

CONFORMANCE STATUS

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) defines requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. IPA Source is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 level AA. Partially conformant means that some parts of the content do not fully conform to the accessibility standard.A Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) document is available upon request.

FEEDBACK

We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of IPA Source. We want to hear your thoughts about our product and assist you in any way we can. Your feedback is helpful to us. Please let us know if you encounter accessibility barriers on IPA Source:

  • Please reach us via our Contact Form. We are available during business hours, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Eastern time in the USA (-5 GMT) and will respond in a timely manner.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Accessibility of IPA Source relies on the following technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and any assistive technologies or plugins installed on your computer:

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript

These technologies are relied upon for conformance with the accessibility standards used.

LIMITATIONS AND ALTERNATIVES

Despite our best efforts to ensure the accessibility of the IPA Source site. Although our PDF files are set to be read for screen readers, in practice there may be some limitations beyond our control. Below is a description of known limitations and potential solutions. Please contact us if you identify an issue we have not addressed.

Known limitations for IPA Source:

  1. The IPA font. It is our aim to promote the accurate pronunciation of foreign language texts in art song and opera through the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), a visual, phonetic representation of sound. To this end, we present pronunciation in a written format using the Sil Sophia IPA9 font. Although the font is embedded in our PDF files, the special IPA font has no screen reader equivalent.
  2. Multiple languages. All our PDF files contain multiple languages (the original language(s) of the text with English translations). Since PDF norms allow only one reading language to be set, even with proper tagging our PDF files remain unsuitable for the visually impaired.
  3. Audio files are not provided. At IPA Source we believe the best practice in learning pronunciation for the visually impaired is through listening and imitation of the sound. As our aim is to present the foreign language text solely through the use of phonetic symbols, audio files are not provided. We offer our visually impaired subscribers help finding single language, reader-compatible copies of the texts contained in this site upon request.

ASSESSMENT APPROACH

IPA Source assessed the accessibility of IPA Source by the following approaches:

  • Self-evaluation