Accessibility

What we are aiming at

WCAG 2.2 Level AA. That is the target the site is built against, and we hold it as a working commitment rather than a claim of certified conformance — no independent audit has been carried out, and we will say so until one has.

What is built in

• Semantic HTML throughout: real headings in order, real lists, real form labels, real tables with captions and row headers.
• Full keyboard operation. Every interactive element is reachable and operable without a mouse, and focus order follows reading order.
• A visible focus indicator with a three-pixel outline and clear offset, on every focusable element.
• A skip link to main content as the first item in the tab order.
• Errors announced through live regions and linked with aria-describedby — never signalled by colour alone.
• Colour contrast checked programmatically against WCAG AA for every foreground and background pairing in the design system, in both light and dark presentation.
• prefers-reduced-motion fully respected. With it set, transforms, fades and animations are switched off rather than merely shortened.
• Text reflows to 320px width without horizontal scrolling, and the site remains usable at 200% zoom.
• The sector portal is a proper ARIA tablist with arrow-key navigation and roving tabindex.
• Frequently asked questions use native disclosure elements, so they work with assistive technology and with browser find-in-page.
• No hover-only interaction anywhere. Nothing is revealed only on hover.
• No CAPTCHA. Spam is handled with a hidden honeypot field and rate limiting, because CAPTCHAs are an accessibility tax on the people this site is built for.

Where we know we are not there yet

Being specific about this is more useful than a general assurance.

• No independent accessibility audit has been carried out. Automated checks and manual keyboard testing are not the same as a professional review, and one is planned.
• No screen-reader testing with actual daily screen-reader users has taken place yet. Automated tooling does not catch what real use catches.
• Photography is not yet in place, so alt text throughout is currently placeholder shot briefs rather than descriptions of real images.
• Video and audio are not yet published. When they are, captions and transcripts will ship with them rather than after them.

Workshops and sessions

Every event listing states its access provision. Booking and contact forms both ask what would make the session work for you, and that field is not decorative — tell us and we will arrange it.

If a format on this site does not work for you, ask and we will provide the content another way: large print, plain text, a phone call, or something else you suggest.

Tell us when something does not work

Write to hello@heirloompraxis.com with what you were trying to do, what happened, and what you were using. We treat accessibility defects as ordinary bugs with a real priority, not as feature requests.

You do not need to know the technical term for the problem. 'The buttons disappear when I zoom in' is a complete and useful report.