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Ethnologue

Summary

Accessiblu conducted a high-level accessibility evaluation of the Ethnologue: Languages of the World platform (Essentials edition, accessed via University of Washington proxy) to assess its usability for individuals with disabilities. The review was conducted using the JAWS 2025 and NVDA screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, and manual inspection for conformance to select WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria. 

Ethnologue is a comprehensive reference platform cataloging the world's 7,000+ living languages, maintained by SIL International. The platform provides statistical summaries, language family trees, geographic data, and country-level analyses used by academic researchers, linguists, and institutional libraries. 

The platform demonstrates thoughtful design in several areas. The statistical data tables are well-structured with proper column and row scope headers, table captions, and multi-level header relationships that performed well with screen readers. The auditors noted these were among the best complex data tables encountered across LAA evaluations. The platform also provides skip-to-content navigation links and uses semantic heading structures for much of its content. 
That said, our evaluation identified some accessibility barriers that may create challenges for users relying on assistive technologies. The primary navigation menu on the left sidebar could not be accessed or operated using a screen reader or keyboard alone, which prevented testers from reaching key sections like Languages, Families, and Statistics without a direct link. Several interactive map components on language pages lacked focus indicators and meaningful context for screen reader users. Color contrast ratios on multiple interactive elements fell below the 4.5:1 minimum required by WCAG. Addressing these concerns would strengthen the experience for all users and bring the platform closer to full WCAG 2.2 AA conformance. 

Key Findings

Our testing revealed several opportunity areas that, when addressed, would strengthen the platform's accessibility for users with disabilities. The most impactful findings center on keyboard operability of the primary navigation, color contrast on interactive elements, and providing meaningful context for interactive map components. While these barriers affect the ability of screen reader and keyboard-only users to navigate the platform independently, the Ethnologue development team has demonstrated strong accessible coding practices in other areas, particularly in the construction of complex data tables on the Statistics page. Addressing the items below would bring the platform significantly closer to full WCAG 2.2 AA conformance and improve the experience for all users. 

Top 3 Issues

  1. Inaccessible Primary Navigation Menu

    • Brief Description: The left sidebar navigation menu (containing links to Languages, Countries, Families, Maps, Statistics, and Insights) could not be expanded or operated using keyboard or screen reader. The collapse/expand button used bracket characters in its accessible name and did not announce expanded or collapsed states. Users relying on assistive technology had no way to reach these core navigation destinations from the homepage.
    • Impact: Blind and low-vision users, users with motor disabilities who rely on keyboard navigation.
    • WCAG Success Criteria: 2.1.1 Keyboard (A), 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A)

  2. Insufficient Color Contrast on Interactive Elements

    • Brief Description: Multiple interactive elements across the platform have color contrast ratios below the required 4.5:1 minimum. The Login button (white text on cyan, 2.75:1), Shop link (white on gold, 1.74:1), Browse Country Digests button (white on green, 2.5:1), and descriptive text on the homepage (gray on light gray, 3.91:1) all present readability challenges.
    • Impact: Low-vision users, users with color vision deficiencies, users in bright or low-light environments.
    • WCAG Success Criteria: 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (AA), 1.4.1 Use of Color (A)

  3. Interactive Map Components Lack Accessibility Context

    • Brief Description: The Leaflet-based interactive maps on individual language pages (e.g., Egyptian Sign Language) are focusable and include zoom and layer controls but lack meaningful context. Screen reader users encounter zoom in/out buttons and links without understanding what the map displays. Focus indicators are missing on all map controls (outline: none is explicitly set in CSS), and the map region has no descriptive label or role.
    • Impact: Blind and low-vision users, users with motor disabilities, users relying on keyboard navigation.
    • WCAG Success Criteria: 2.4.7 Focus Visible (AA), 1.1.1 Non-text Content (A), 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A)

Disabilities Impacted 

Blind and Low-Vision Users 

  • Issues: The primary sidebar navigation could not be accessed with screen readers, requiring direct URLs to reach platform sections. Multiple navigation regions shared identical labels, making it difficult to distinguish between different areas of the page. Heading hierarchy had gaps (no H1 on the homepage, jumps from H2 to H3). Alt text descriptions on some chart graphics described what the image was rather than conveying meaningful data. The bracket characters in button and link names created confusing screen reader announcements. 
  • Impact: Screen reader users may have difficulty navigating to key content areas, understanding the page structure, and interpreting visual data like maps and charts. The well-structured data tables on the Statistics page are a positive example of how data-rich content can be made accessible. 

Users with Motor Disabilities 

  • Issues: The sidebar navigation menu could not be operated by keyboard. Map controls on language pages had their focus indicators explicitly suppressed with CSS (outline: none). Touch targets on the Turkic language family tree links measured as small as 20px in height, below the 24px minimum. The Expand All/Collapse All buttons on the Families page did not respond when activated by keyboard. 
  • Impact: Keyboard-only users cannot access the primary navigation or interact with map features. Small touch targets on the language family tree page increase the effort required to navigate between language subgroups. 

Neurodiverse Users 

  • Issues: Low color contrast on descriptive text and interactive buttons can increase cognitive effort required to read content. Inconsistent heading levels may make it harder to scan and understand page organization. The lack of a visible footer landmark and the presence of multiple unlabeled navigation regions add to the cognitive overhead of orienting oneself within the platform. 
  • Impact: Users with cognitive disabilities or learning differences may find it harder to locate key content, understand the navigation structure, or process text with insufficient contrast. Improving these areas would benefit all users by creating a clearer, more predictable interface.