| Accessibility Evaluation

Caribe Royale

When Aesthetics Fail Accessibility

| Overview

The following research details the accessibility of the Caribe Royale Orlando Resort homepage and Suites & Villas subpage. The evaluative methodology includes both manual and industry standard automated assessments. Accessibility violations are categorized by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) four principles, perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust (POUR).

Caribe Royale is a tropical resort located near major Disney and Universal theme parks in Orlando, Florida. This resort markets to families and couples looking for an upscale and relaxing getaway near the Disney and Universal park locations. This report will evaluate accessibility within the Caribe Royale homepage and the Suites & Villas subpage through a series of industry standard methodologies.

Role

UX Researcher

Affiliation

DePaul University, Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media

Areas

Accessibility, UX Research

Methods

| Overview

I evaluated the Caribe Royale homepage (https://www.cariberoyale.com) and the Suites and Villas subpage (https://www.cariberoyale.com/orlando-suites-villas). These two pages were chosen due to the high likelihood that a user will visit the homepage then wish to select an accommodation in the subpage. Screen captures of the homepage and subpage can be found in the appendix. The mentioned pages were evaluated using Safari and Chrome browsers, last accessed 10/01/2025.

| Automated Tests

  • WAVE - Web Accessibility Evaluation

  • TAW - Web Accessibility Test

  • WebFX - Readability Test

| Manual Tests

  • Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) Evaluation

  • W3C ‘Easy Checks’ Evaluation

  • Screen Reading Test

  • Keyboard Navigation Test

Findings

| Perceivable

| Guideline 1.1 Non-text Content Alternatives

  • Automated testing revealed four cases of missing alternative text.

  • Manual inspection revealed similar results with specific instances of insufficient or missing alternative text.

  • Examples:

    • The WorldHotels Rewards alternative text reads “a logo for a hotel”.

    • The small logos that credit awards and prestige to the accommodations provided by the resort lack properly detailing

    • The image beside the Suite Autumn Getaway text is missing alternative text.

    • The footer image in the homepage reads “image footer flamingo”.

| Guideline 1.4 Color Contrast

  • Automated testing revealed 83 violations on the homepage and 26 on the Suites & Villas subpage.

  • Manual inspection revealed a variety of significant color contrast violations.

  • Examples:

    • The homepage’s hero feature video with text overlaying, does not pass.

    • The ubiquitous white text over the pink background for buttons does not pass.

    • A significant portion of the text on both pages result in color contrast violations.

| Operable

| Guideline 2.1 Keyboard

  • Both pages were keyboard navigable

| Guideline 2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide.

  • Manual inspection revealed media that presents no capability for adjusting speed, pausing, or hiding.

| Guideline 2.4 Link Purpose

  • Automated testing revealed significant link purpose violations on both pages.

  • Manual inspection revealed similar violations.

  • Examples:

    • A button on the homepage simply reads simply as “Read More”.

    • Clickable images on the subpage provide no context as to the navigation.

| Understandable

| Guideline 3.1 Readable

  • Homepage Evaluation:

    • Overall score of 39.3 out of 100.

    • Easily understood by 14 and 15 year olds.

    • 25% of words categorized as complex.

  • Subpage Evaluation:

    • Overall score of 27 out of 100.

    • Easily understood by 16 and 17 year olds.

    • 28% of words categorized as complex.

| In-depth Homepage Readability Evaluation

  • Homepage Evaluation:

    • Readability index of 7.1.

    • Flesch Kincaid Grade Level score of 9.5.

    • Gunning Fog Scored 5.9.

    • Coleman Liau Index scored 15.4.

    • 371 total complex words.

| In-depth Subpage Readability Evaluation

  • Homepage Evaluation:

    • Readability index of 9.4.

    • Flesch Kincaid Grade Level score of 11.4.

    • Gunning Fog Scored 5.2.

    • Coleman Liau Index scored 17.8.

    • 281 total complex words.

| Guideline 3.2 Predictable

  • Navigation elements were consistent throughout both pages, focus on an element of the page did not alter the content to a degree that would denigrate understanding of the content significantly.

| Guideline 3.3.6 Error Prevention

  • In the footer of the homepage and subpage, the email sign up form does not give feedback for when a user clicks ‘submit’. Any error preventive capability is not present in this form.

| Robust

| Guideline 4.1 Name, Role, Value

  • Upon manual inspection of ARIA within both the homepage and subpage, a significant number of empty or insufficient ARIA labels were found. WAVE and TAW were unable to automatically catch these violations.

| Guideline 4.1.3 Status Messages

  • Upon manual inspection, status messages are present throughout both pages.

Recommendations

| Findings suggest significant accessibility violations that can be corrected by the following:

  • Adding missing alternative text and enhancing the detail of current alternative text.

  • Develop an accessible design system, paying close attention to color contrast.

  • Enhance the readability of both pages through the reduction in unnecessary complex words.

  • Ensure all submission forms provide confirmation and error presentation feedback to the user.

  • Add missing ARIA labels across both pages, ensuring detailed descriptive text is present.

  • Enable all forms of video media to be hidden, paused, or slowed.

| Simple High Impact Design Recommendations

By following this accessible and scalable design system I developed, Caribe Royale’s website would reach the following goals:

  • Reduce color-contrast accessibility violations by 100%.

  • Achieve full WCAG AA/AAA contrast compliance across all pages.

A color palette chart showing Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Grey colors with color swatches, names, and their hex codes.
A typographic scale chart showing three columns of text styles: the left column displays headings 1 through 6 in a regular font, the middle column shows the same headings in bold, and the right column presents the headings in italics. The chart is titled '1.200 - Minor Third Typographical Scale' and includes descriptions of headings, subheadings, and body text styles.
A user interface with buttons labeled "Check Availability" and "Learn More" in three different states: Default, Hover, and Disabled, surrounded by a dotted purple border.
A screen capture of Caribe Royale's homepage depicting two people in swimming pools sharing champagne glasses, enjoying a sunny day at the resort.

Figure 1. Caribe Royale Homepage (https://www.cariberoyale.com/)

A screen capture of Caribe Royale's Suites & Villa's subpage depicting a hotel room with a bed, bedside lamps, a window with a view of a building and trees, and a bench with patterned pillows.

Figure 2. Caribe Royale Suites & Villas Subpage (https://www.cariberoyale.com/orlando-suites-villas)