Accessibility statement
DRAFT — placeholder copy, not yet approved. The conformance claim below is based on our own testing of a small number of pages. It must not be presented as a formal or audited statement until independent testing with blind and partially sighted people has been completed.
This statement applies to abilitybeyondvision.org.uk and to trust.abilitybeyondvision.org.uk. It says how accessible the site is, what we know is still wrong, and how to get anything here in a different format.
How accessible this website is
We believe this website is partially conformant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2, level AA. Partially conformant means it meets the standard on the pages and criteria we have tested, but not every page has been independently audited yet, so we are not claiming full conformance.
We are choosing the cautious wording deliberately. An organisation about sight loss claiming a clean bill of health it has not earned would be worse than a modest claim it can back up.
The controls on every page
Every page carries the same accessibility controls, under Accessibility settings near the top of the screen. They work with the keyboard, are announced correctly by screen readers, and remember your choice on your device.
- Five colour schemes: light, dark, high contrast (white on black at 21:1), yellow on black, and following your operating system's own setting.
- Text size from 100% to 200%, without losing any content or function.
- Page zoom from 100% to 200%, on top of your browser's own zoom.
- Reset, to put everything back.
You do not need these controls to use the site. It also responds to your operating system's dark mode and reduced-motion settings on its own, and it works with browser zoom, browser text size, custom stylesheets, and with our CSS switched off entirely.
What we have tested, and how
- Keyboard only: every page operated start to finish with no mouse.
- Reflow: checked at 320 pixels wide, and at 200% text with 200% zoom together, with no horizontal scrolling and no loss of content.
- Colour contrast: every text and border pairing calculated in all five colour schemes.
- No JavaScript: every page read and used with scripting disabled.
- No CSS: every page read in document order with styling removed, to confirm the underlying HTML makes sense on its own.
- Structure: headings, landmarks, lists and tables checked for correct semantics, including table header scope.
Testing so far has been carried out by us, not by an independent auditor.
Criterion-by-criterion results
These are the WCAG 2.2 level AA criteria most often failed, and where we stand on each.
| Criterion | Result | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1.1 Non-text content | Meets | Meaningful images are described. Decorative repeats of the logo carry empty alt text so screen readers skip them. |
| 1.3.1 Info and relationships | Meets | Real headings, lists, landmarks, fieldsets and table headers with scope. No layout tables. |
| 1.3.5 Identify input purpose | Meets | No fields collect personal data yet. Autocomplete will be set on every such field when they exist. |
| 1.4.1 Use of colour | Meets | No status is shown by colour alone — every label carries its own word, and links stay underlined. |
| 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum) | Meets | Body text is between 9.1:1 and 21:1 in every scheme, against a 4.5:1 requirement. |
| 1.4.4 Resize text | Meets | 200% via our own slider and via browser zoom, with no loss of content or function. |
| 1.4.10 Reflow | Meets | No horizontal scrolling at 320px, or at 200% text plus 200% zoom. Wide tables scroll inside their own container, not the page. |
| 1.4.11 Non-text contrast | Meets | Borders and control outlines are at least 4.6:1; focus indicators at least 6.8:1, against a 3:1 requirement. |
| 1.4.12 Text spacing | Meets | No content is clipped when line height, letter and word spacing are increased to the specified limits. |
| 2.1.1 / 2.1.2 Keyboard, no trap | Meets | Everything is operable by keyboard. There are no custom widgets and no focus traps. |
| 2.4.1 Bypass blocks | Meets | A skip link is the first focusable item on every page, plus proper landmarks. |
| 2.4.3 Focus order | Meets | Focus follows document order. No positive tabindex is used anywhere. |
| 2.4.7 Focus visible | Meets | A 3px outline with 2px offset, in a colour chosen per scheme. |
| 2.4.11 Focus not obscured (2.2, new) | Meets | Nothing on the site is sticky or floating, so focused content cannot be covered. Scroll margin is set as an extra guard. |
| 2.5.7 Dragging movements (2.2, new) | Meets | The sliders can be operated with arrow keys; nothing requires a drag. |
| 2.5.8 Target size (2.2, new) | Meets | All controls and navigation links are at least 44 by 44 pixels, against a 24 pixel minimum. |
| 3.1.1 / 3.1.2 Language | Meets | Every page declares British English. No passages are in another language. |
| 3.2.3 / 3.2.4 Consistent navigation and identification | Meets | The same navigation, in the same order, with the same labels, on every page. |
| 3.3.1 / 3.3.2 Error identification and labels | Meets | Every field has a visible label. There are no live forms yet, so no error handling is in use. |
| 3.3.7 Redundant entry (2.2, new) | Meets | Nothing asks you for the same information twice. |
| 3.3.8 Accessible authentication (2.2, new) | Partly | Pages that are not yet public sit behind a sign-in that emails a one-time code. No puzzle or CAPTCHA is involved, and the code can be pasted. See what is not accessible yet. |
| 4.1.2 / 4.1.3 Name, role, value and status messages | Meets | Native HTML controls throughout. The few ARIA attributes used are on standard patterns. |
What is not accessible yet
This is the honest list. Each item has an owner and a date.
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Independent testing has not happened
Everything above is our own assessment. Machine-checkable criteria are the easy half; the half that matters needs blind and partially sighted testers using their own screen readers and magnifiers.
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Page zoom needs a recent browser
The zoom slider uses a CSS feature supported by Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox 126 and later. On older browsers the slider does nothing. Colour schemes, text size, and your browser's own zoom all still work, so nothing is lost — but the control is misleading there.
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Signing in to the pages that are not public
While the site is being built, most pages require a sign-in that sends a one-time code to an approved email address. This is a third-party screen we do not control. It has no CAPTCHA and the code can be pasted rather than memorised, so it should not create a cognitive barrier, but we have not tested it with a screen reader.
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Documents and third-party content
We have not published any PDFs or embedded any third-party content yet. When we do, each will be checked before publication, and any PDF will be offered as accessible HTML alongside it.
Getting information another way
Anything we publish, you can have in another format: large print, braille, plain text, audio, or read to you over the phone. There is no charge, and you do not have to explain why you need it.
Email access@abilitybeyondvision.org.uk and tell us what you want and the format you want it in. We aim to reply within five working days and to send the document within 15.
Reporting a problem
If something on this site is hard or impossible for you to use, we want to know. You are not complaining — you are doing the testing we have not managed to do yet.
- Email access@abilitybeyondvision.org.uk.
- Tell us the page and what happened, in as much or as little detail as you like. “The donate page will not work with my screen reader” is a perfectly good report.
- It helps, but is not required, to know your browser and any assistive technology you use.
We aim to acknowledge within five working days, and to fix confirmed level AA failures within 20 working days. If a fix will take longer, we will tell you why, give you a date, and offer the content another way in the meantime.
If we do not respond properly
If you contact us about an accessibility problem and are not happy with our response, you can complain to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which enforces the Equality Act 2010, through the Equality Advisory and Support Service at equalityadvisoryservice.com.
You can also use our complaints process, and you do not have to try us first.
How this statement was prepared
- Prepared: .
- Last reviewed: .
- Method: self-assessment against WCAG 2.2 level AA, using manual keyboard and screen-reader checks, calculated contrast ratios, and reflow testing at 320px and at 200% text with 200% zoom.
- Scope: abilitybeyondvision.org.uk and trust.abilitybeyondvision.org.uk.
- Next review: whenever the site changes materially, and in any case by .