Accessibility statement
Last updated: 2026-05-01This statement describes how Confinity Ltd ("we", "us") meets the accessibility needs of the people who use our website and product. We treat accessibility as a product law, not a checkbox: a memory archive that fewer people can use is a smaller archive of human experience, and that defeats our purpose.
- Conformance target: WCAG 2.2 Level AA across the marketing site, the public-UGC pages (profiles, remembrance pages, spaces), and the signed-in studio shell.
- What we test: every public route is exercised against axe-core on three viewports (320 / 390 / 1280) on every PR. Critical and serious findings block merge.
- Assistive technologies: we test the most-used screen reader / browser pairings — VoiceOver + Safari (macOS, iOS), NVDA + Firefox / Chrome (Windows), TalkBack + Chrome (Android), JAWS + Chrome / Edge (Windows). An external screen-reader study is scheduled before our public launch.
- Known limitations: see §4 below. We publish the open list, not just the closed list.
- Report a barrier: email accessibility@confinity.com. We aim to acknowledge within 2 business days and propose a fix path within 10 business days.
We conform to WCAG 2.2 Level AA. This includes the new 2.2 success criteria for focus appearance, dragging movements, target size (minimum), consistent help, and accessible authentication.
We do not claim AAA conformance. Some AAA criteria conflict with the warmth and editorial character that Confinity is built for; where AA is met but AAA would compromise the product voice (for example, AAA enhanced contrast on every body-text colour), we hold the AA line and document the trade-off.
We do not claim conformance for embedded user-generated content (UGC). When a member writes a journal entry, uploads an image, or composes a memorial, the content carries the voice and accessibility posture they chose. We provide tooling (alt-text prompts, captioning helpers, voice-memo transcripts) to make the most accessible choice the easiest one.
- Tokens: every colour, spacing, type-size, focus-ring, and motion duration is a Once UI design token. We never inline a hex code or pixel value in a component. This means a single change at the token layer (e.g. raising body text contrast) propagates everywhere.
- Focus rings: every interactive element has a visible focus indicator (confinity-focus-ring class) that meets WCAG 2.4.7 and the 2.2 focus-appearance criterion.
- Reduced motion: prefers-reduced-motion: reduce collapses every animation and transition to 0ms at the :root layer. Tested on every key surface in e2e/agent-b-10-10-sweep.spec.ts.
- Keyboard-first: every flow is keyboard-operable. Skip-link to main content on every page. No keyboard trap in dialogs, sheets, or overlays.
- Live regions: time-sensitive announcements (offline state, migration banner, preview banner, save status) use role="status" with aria-live="polite" so screen readers are informed without interrupting the current flow.
- Semantic HTML: Once UI primitives compose to semantic landmarks. Every page has exactly one <h1>. Heading levels never skip.
- Form labels: every form input has a visible, programmatically-associated label. Error text is aria-live="polite" and references the input via aria-describedby.
- Colour independence: no information is conveyed by colour alone. Status uses an icon + text, never just a colour.
- Time-out warnings: session expiry is announced before it happens, with a one-action extend.
- Print-friendly: legal pages, the Yearbook PDF preview, and Trust Centre sub-pages all carry a print stylesheet so paper is a first-class output.
- CI enforcement: every PR runs the axe sweep on Tier-A surfaces; merges block on critical or serious findings. The full sweep runs nightly across every public route.
3. Assistive technology coverage
4. Known limitations (the honest list)
- Visual regression baselines for dark-mode parity: a small number of dark-mode token contrasts are within the WCAG AA threshold but read as "muddy" against the warm cream surface. We are tightening these in the V2 design polish pass.
- Voice-first onboarding: the elder-friendly voice flow (/welcome/voice) is being tested with a small cohort of older adults and assistive-technology users. Until that study completes, voice onboarding is opt-in and the type-only fallback is the default.
- AI-assist composer: the AI suggestion overlay is keyboard-operable but the spatial relationship between a suggestion and the source memory is conveyed primarily by visual proximity. We are adding a "linked-source list" view that reads cleanly as a list to non-visual users.
- Heritage page tables: some Heritage pages contain data tables imported from MDX. A subset still ships without a <caption>. The content team is fixing these in the next content sweep.
- Yearbook PDF: the printed Yearbook is generated from MDX. We are extending the generator to emit tagged PDF semantics so screen readers can navigate the printed artefact in the digital preview.
If you encounter a barrier not in this list, please tell us — see §6 below.
5. Standards we measure against
- WCAG 2.2 Level AA (W3C). Our SSoT for accessibility conformance.
- EN 301 549 v3.2.1 (European Accessibility Act technical standard). We meet the relevant clauses for ICT for non-government bodies.
- UK Equality Act 2010 anticipatory duty (we make reasonable adjustments without waiting for individual requests).
- Section 508 (US) as a courtesy for any institutional pilot served from a federal context, although we are not a federal contractor.
We do not publish a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) at this time; one is in the work queue for any institutional pilot that requires procurement-grade documentation.
If you cannot do something on Confinity because of an accessibility issue, please tell us.
- Email: accessibility@confinity.com — a real person reads it.
- What helps us help you: the page URL, the assistive technology you were using (screen reader name + version, browser + version, OS), and a one-line description of what you were trying to do.
- Acknowledgement SLA: we aim to reply within 2 business days.
- Fix-path SLA: we aim to propose a fix path within 10 business days. We will tell you honestly if a fix takes longer; we will not ghost you.
- Escalation: if the response is not adequate, write founder@confinity.com and the founder reviews personally.
If you are a UK resident and we have not adequately addressed an accessibility concern, you can contact the UK Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS). If you are an EU resident, the European Disability Forum publishes country-specific complaint paths.
7. Updates to this statement
- Accessibility: accessibility@confinity.com
- Legal & privacy: privacy@confinity.com
- Founder: founder@confinity.com
We are based in the United Kingdom. Our registered office is on the Trust Centre subprocessors page.