Five Star Federal Credit Union Accessibility Audit
Web Accessibility Remediation for Five Star Federal Credit Union website to make it conforms with the WCAG technical standards and comply with the ADA.
This Five Star Federal Credit Union accessibility audit and WCAG 2.1 AA remediation covered a member-owned financial institution’s website, where people come to manage money, not just to read.
A credit-union site carries real tasks: checking rates, applying for membership or a loan, finding a branch or ATM, using calculators, and reaching online banking. Each is an interactive journey, and for a member using a screen reader or a keyboard, the accessibility of those journeys decides whether they can bank independently.
Table of Contents
Why accessibility is critical for a credit union
Financial services is among the most frequently litigated sectors in United States web-accessibility law. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title III, a financial institution’s digital services are treated as a place of public accommodation, and courts have repeatedly used WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the working standard. For a member-owned institution the duty also runs to its members: a loan application a blind member cannot complete, or a rate table a keyboard user cannot read, excludes exactly the people the credit union exists to serve.
Scope and standard
Our Five Star Federal Credit Union accessibility audit assessed the site against WCAG 2.1 Level AA, mapped to ADA Title III, across the journeys that carry the most weight for a credit union: the rates and product pages, the membership and loan application forms, the branch and ATM locator, the calculators, the route to online banking, and contact.
How we ran the Five Star Federal Credit Union accessibility audit
- Screen-reader testing with JAWS and NVDA on Windows, VoiceOver on macOS and iOS, and TalkBack on Android
- Automated audits with Deque axe, Google Lighthouse and WAVE
- Keyboard-only operation of every step, with attention to focus order and a clearly visible focus indicator
- Colour-contrast analysis, plus 400% zoom and reflow testing for low-vision users
What accessibility means on each part of the site
Because Five Star Federal Credit Union is built around financial tasks rather than static pages, our Five Star Federal Credit Union accessibility audit focused on the components members depend on:
- Membership and loan application forms need programmatic labels, clear instructions and announced errors, so applying for an account or a loan is open to every member.
- Rate and product tables need correct table semantics, so rows and columns stay meaningful to a screen-reader user out of visual context.
- The branch and ATM locator needs keyboard-operable controls and results available in text, not by map alone.
- Calculators need labelled inputs and results that are announced to assistive technology.
- The route to online banking, navigation and content need visible focus, sufficient colour contrast and clean reflow at high zoom.
Outcome
This Five Star Federal Credit Union accessibility audit, combining manual and automated testing with remediation, brought the credit union’s applications, rate tables, locator and the path to online banking into line with WCAG 2.1 AA and ADA Title III expectations, so a member using a screen reader or a keyboard can apply, compare and bank without barriers. Because these journeys involve real money, every fix was verified with assistive technology rather than assumed from an automated pass.