Card Carousel

A Card Carousel showcases two or more Overlay Cards, accompanied by text blocks, and an optional link for further details.

Greek text on left, 2 cards with carousel navigation. Left card is all text, right card is an image of ice cream in the background with greek text on top

Dos

Use with 2 or more cards

Can be used with Standard Cards without text or Overlay Cards with images

Don'ts

Minimize text in the title or text block

Variations

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Accessibility

Keyboard Accessible

Users are able to use the keyboard to navigate through the event card using the ‘Tab’ key to navigate/focus and ‘Enter’ or ‘Spacebar’ to activate and focus can be moved away from the component. WCAG 2.1.1: Keyboard; WCAG 2.1.2: No Keyboard Trap This navigation is done in sequential and logical order when there are multiple call to actions grouped together. WCAG 2.4.3: Focus Order

Hover and Focus State

Each actionable element within the carousel (e.g., navigation arrows, call to action links) has distinct styling on hover and focus. This provides a visual cue to the user that the element is focused and an action can be taken. WCAG 1.4.13: Content on hover or focus

Color Contrast

A contrast ratio of at least 4:5:1 between text and background color is ensured to enhance readability WCAG 1.4.3: Contrast (minimum)

Responsive

The component scales in relation to the to the screen size to prevent truncating content and reflows properly when zoomed up to 200% without horizontal scrolling WCAG 1.4.10: Reflow

Best practices

For Information and best practices around cards within a carousel, see Overlay Card

Title

Use a clear and concise title that describes the card content WCAG 2.4.6: Headings and Labels

Body Text

Write body text in clear and simple language. WCAG: 3.1.5: Reading Level Use descriptive link text for inline-links. WCAG 2.4.4: Link Purpose (In Context)

Link

Use effective text to describe what the link is and where it is taking the user. This should be clear, descriptive text that conveys the link content succinctly and the purpose and destination of the link. WCAG 2.4.9: Link Purpose (Link Only)

Example of effective text (preferred): Learn more about Innovate Maryland
Example of generic text (avoid): Learn more

Disclaimer: If the visible link text is not sufficiently descriptive, you can use an aria-label attribute to provide additional context for screen reader users. The aria-label should clearly describe the link's purpose and destination.

If the visible text is not necessary for screen readers (e.g., it's redundant or less descriptive), consider using aria-hidden="true" on the visible text element. This ensures that screen readers will prioritize the aria-label.

Example with aria-label and aria-hidden:

<a href="https://example.com/innovate-maryland" aria-label="Learn more about Innovate Maryland"> <span aria-hidden="true">Learn more</span> </a>

This ensures that the link is accessible while maintaining concise visible text.

Content Recommendations

Recommended character limits

Title

25 characters (50 max)

Text Block

200 characters (400 max)

Overlay Card character limits*

Reduce the length of the title and text block if they obscure a significant portion of the image.

Title

30 characters (50 max)

Text Block

120 characters (180 max)

Tagline/Overline

15 characters (30 max)

**adjusted down to account for smaller space

Layout

A component title is required. A text block to provide more background information is optional. 2 cards are required.