Manifest is built and maintained by one lab for MIT Biology, not by a dedicated accessibility team — but every request in it is real work someone needs to get done, so it should work for everyone who needs to use it. This page is an honest account of where that stands, not a compliance claim.

What's in place

• Every control is a real button, link, or form field — not a div pretending to be one — so keyboard and screen-reader navigation follow the same order a sighted mouse user sees. Rows that once only responded to tap/click (Lab View's tables, History cards, My Requests items, order history) now take Tab and Enter/Space too.
• Keyboard focus is always visible; nothing relies on a mouse hover to be usable.
• Every search box, sort menu, and unlabeled field now has a real name for screen readers, not just a placeholder or nearby text.
• Pinch-to-zoom works. It used to be disabled; that was never a deliberate choice.
• Status is never color alone — Requested/Ordered/Received always pairs a color with the word itself.
• Body text meets WCAG AA contrast (4.5:1) against its background — checked directly, not assumed. Teal, blue, and green were darkened everywhere they're used, including Cnidarian's own brand color, so this covers backgrounds under white text too (buttons, badges), not just labels.
• Sheets and modals close on Escape, not just by tapping outside them. Opening one now moves keyboard focus inside it, and closing it returns focus to whatever you had focused before — nothing gets you lost in the page behind it.
• Toasts and form status messages (errors, "saving…", confirmations) are announced to screen readers as they appear, not just shown visually.

Known gaps

• Tab doesn't yet stay trapped inside an open sheet or modal — it's reachable and returns focus correctly, but a keyboard user can still Tab past it into the page behind.
• Lab View's tables are laid out as styled rows, not real HTML tables, so a screen reader won't announce row/column position the way it would for actual table markup.
• The app hasn't been tested end to end with a real screen reader (VoiceOver, NVDA, JAWS) — the fixes above are based on markup and contrast checks, not a live listen-through.

Something not working for you?

Tell the purchasing manager directly — the person who set you up in Manifest. This list gets fixed by someone hearing about the problem, not by someone guessing what to prioritize.

Last reviewed August 2026.

Manifest tracks lab supply requests from Requested to Ordered to Received, so status is visible without chasing anyone down. Sign in with your MIT email and we'll send you a code.

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Everything waiting to be ordered or already on order — nothing received yet, regardless of date.