Accessibility

Statement published 11 January 2024. Version 1.6.

avorz.com is committed to making the wire usable by everyone, including people who navigate by keyboard, use a screen reader or magnifier, need larger text, or are affected by motion and flashing. This statement sets out the standard we build to, what currently meets it, and the gaps we know about and have not yet closed.

1. Standard we conform to

We build to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2, level AA, which is also the technical basis of the European standard EN 301 549 and of the accessibility requirements applied under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Conformance status: partially conformant with WCAG 2.2 level AA. Partially conformant means most of the site meets the standard and some parts do not. The parts that do not are listed in section 4 rather than described in general terms.

2. What is in place

• No images in the feed. The wire is text. There is no decorative or unlabelled visual content anywhere in the stream, so nothing is lost to a screen reader. Where an item is about numbers, the figures appear as a real data table as well as in any chart.
• Nothing moves. No animation, autoplay, carousel, parallax or self-refreshing content. When new items arrive, a quiet notice waits for you to act on it rather than shifting what you are reading. Reduced-motion preferences are respected.
• Colour never carries meaning alone. Breaking and updated items are labelled in words as well as coloured, and every status is available as text to assistive technology.
• Full keyboard operation. Every control is reachable and operable by keyboard in a focus order that follows the page, and the focus indicator is always visible. The feed can be walked with j and k, s saves an item, / moves to search, and Esc closes any open panel.
• Semantic structure. Real headings, landmarks and lists; icon-only buttons carry accessible names; filters expose their state as pressed or checked; form fields have associated labels.
• Text and zoom. Content reflows to 200 per cent zoom and to a 320 pixel viewport width without loss of information or two-dimensional scrolling. Text spacing can be overridden without content being clipped.
• No time limits. Nothing on the site expires while you are reading it, and no interaction is timed.
• No CAPTCHA anywhere, and sign-in uses a single-use emailed link rather than a password, which removes a common barrier for people using password managers or screen readers.

3. Measured contrast

Contrast ratios against the page background, measured rather than estimated:

Every element that carries information clears the 4.5:1 threshold for normal text. Hairline rules are purely visual separators; no information depends on seeing them.

4. Known gaps

These are open. We state them plainly rather than describing them as roadmap items.

• Filter result counts are not announced. The filter menus expose their options and state correctly, but changing a filter does not announce the new number of results to screen readers. A live region is being added.
• Revision diffs rely on strikethrough with colour. On an item’s revision history, removed and added text are distinguished by strikethrough and colour together. Some screen reader and browser pairings read both without distinguishing them. Explicit text labels are being added.
• Data tables in items are not fully navigable everywhere. Cell-by-cell navigation works in most combinations we test but not all. Header association is being corrected across older items.

5. Compatibility

The site is designed to work with recent versions of the major browsers on desktop and mobile, and with the screen readers commonly paired with them. It does not depend on any particular assistive technology, and it does not require JavaScript to read an item: the wire and every item render as text without it, with filtering and keyboard shortcuts unavailable.

6. How this was assessed

This statement is based on a self-evaluation carried out by avorz.com, combining automated testing across the site with manual keyboard and screen reader testing of the wire, an item, search, the topic index and the account area. The site is reassessed at least twice a year and after any significant change to the interface, and this statement is updated with each assessment.

7. Feedback and how to reach us

If something on avorz.com is not accessible to you, tell us. Write to contact@avorz.com with the address of the page, what you were trying to do, and the browser and assistive technology you were using.

• We acknowledge every report within 5 working days, with either a fix or a date.
• A barrier that prevents someone reading an item is treated as an outage, not as a backlog item.
• If you need an item in a different format, ask and we will provide it.

8. Enforcement

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may raise the matter with the body responsible for enforcing accessibility requirements in your country. In the European Union, each member state designates a national authority for this purpose; in the United Kingdom, complaints may be directed to the Equality Advisory and Support Service. Readers in the United States may pursue remedies available under federal and state disability law. We would rather resolve the matter directly, but that route is yours regardless.

Version 1.6 — published 11 January 2024. Contact: contact@avorz.com.