YahHeard

Accessibility

Accessibility Statement

This site targets WCAG 2.2 AA, and accessibility is treated as a feature of every YahHeard app, not an afterthought.

Last reviewed:

Commitment

YahHeard builds for the person holding the phone — whoever they are, however they read, point, listen or navigate. This site targets WCAG 2.2 AA and is tested with keyboard-only navigation, reduced motion, high-contrast modes, 200% zoom and screens down to 320 pixels wide.

On-Site Accessibility Controls

The accessibility button in the header (available on every page) opens a preference panel with immediate effect:

  • Themes: Dark, Light, High-Contrast Dark, High-Contrast Light.
  • Colour palettes labelled for different kinds of colour vision: Protanopia-Friendly, Deuteranopia-Friendly, Tritanopia-Friendly, and Grayscale. These adjust accent colours for comfort — meaning on this site is never carried by colour alone, whichever palette is active.
  • Text size steps, stronger text, increased line and letter spacing.
  • Underlined links and enhanced focus indicators.
  • Reduce Motion and Simplified Backgrounds.
  • Reduced transparency, narrow reading width, and the Atkinson Hyperlegible reading font.
  • A one-click reset.

Preferences are stored only in your browser and never transmitted — the privacy page describes this storage.

Keyboard and Screen Readers

  • Every interactive element is reachable and operable by keyboard.
  • A skip link jumps straight to the main content.
  • The mobile menu and dialogs trap focus while open, close on Escape and restore focus afterwards.
  • Pages use semantic landmarks, correct heading order and labelled controls.
  • Only one logo element is exposed to assistive technology — decorative animation layers are hidden.
  • Search and filter results are announced politely to screen readers.

Motion

The site's signature animation — the logo that docks into the header as you scroll — and all ambient decoration automatically switch off when your system requests reduced motion, and can also be disabled in the accessibility panel regardless of system settings. Animation pauses in hidden tabs and never carries information that isn't also available as text. Nothing on the site flashes.

Colour and Contrast

  • Text contrast meets WCAG AA on all surfaces in every theme.
  • High-contrast themes push well beyond AA for low-vision comfort.
  • Windows High Contrast (forced colours) is supported — decorative layers disappear and real borders remain.
  • Status and category information always appears as text, never as a colour dot alone.

Text and Zoom

  • Layouts remain usable at 200% browser zoom and at 320px width.
  • All type is fluid and respects your browser's text-size settings.
  • The Atkinson Hyperlegible font option (designed by the Braille Institute for character clarity) applies everywhere.

Known Limitations

  • Decorative generated artwork is hidden from screen readers; it carries no information that isn't also in text. Some artwork contains low-contrast detail by design — it is never the only source of anything.
  • The Grayscale palette uses a browser filter that may slightly soften image quality on some devices.

Report a Problem

If anything on this site is hard to use with your setup — screen reader, switch access, magnification, voice control, anything — that is a bug. Please describe what you were trying to do, the assistive technology and browser involved, and what went wrong, via the contact page.