Accessibility

The standard we work to

We aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 at Level AA throughout. We believe the site currently meets that standard. Where it does not, we would like to know, and section 6 says how to tell us.

This is a commitment about the product rather than a legal statement about a public sector body; the public sector website regulations do not apply to us.

The timeline has a text equivalent

Overlapping bars on an axis are not accessible on their own, so every timeline on this site is accompanied by a plain-text list giving each feature, what was observed, and the interval it points to — followed by the interval where they agree and any clash between them.

The list is not a summary. It contains everything the figure contains, and it is what a screen reader is given: the graphic itself is marked as decorative so it is not read twice.

In the worked figure on the home page, the interval as it narrows is announced through a live region, so the narrowing is perceivable without seeing the bars.

Nothing depends on colour

Interval bars are told apart by hatch pattern and a printed label, never by hue. Every bar is drawn in the same ink at the same opacity, so the figure survives being printed in black and white, being viewed in high contrast mode, and being read by anyone who cannot separate one hue from another.

A clash between two clues is marked by shape — an outlined diamond and a dashed connector — and never by an alarm colour. There is no red anywhere in the palette.

In the contents column on policy pages, the section you are in is marked by position and weight, not by colour.

Body text is at least 4.5:1 against its background everywhere, and most of it is far above that: the primary pairing is 17.7:1. Interface text is at least 4.5:1 and non-text controls at least 3:1.

Motion

There is one animated element on the site: the worked reading on the home page, which adds a clue every second and a half.

If your system is set to prefers-reduced-motion: reduce, the sequence does not run at all. The final state — every bar, the converged interval and the clash — is rendered immediately, and the replay control is not shown. Transitions elsewhere on the site are reduced to nothing under the same setting.

Nothing flashes, nothing autoplays with sound, and there is no video or audio anywhere on this site.

Keyboard, structure and zoom

• Everything interactive is reachable and operable by keyboard, in the order it appears, with a visible focus outline that meets the contrast requirement on both light and dark grounds.
• A skip link is the first focusable item on every page.
• Headings are properly nested, landmarks are used for the navigation, the main region and the footer, and the page language is declared.
• Text reflows without horizontal scrolling at 320 CSS pixels wide, and remains usable when zoomed to 200%. Text can be resized to 200% without loss of content.
• Form fields have real labels, errors are described in text next to the field they belong to, and no error is signalled by colour alone.
• Images that carry meaning have alt text. Decorative plates are hidden from assistive technology.

Known limits

Reading construction from a photograph is a visual task, and the upload step needs a photograph that shows the feature clearly. We have not found a way around that, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise.

Where a photograph cannot be judged, the result says which feature could not be read rather than guessing, and the interval stays wide accordingly.

Telling us about a barrier

If something on this site is hard or impossible for you to use, write to support@darcyclothinguk.shop or telephone +44 1273 471586.

Tell us the page and what happened; the browser and any assistive technology you use helps but is not required. We acknowledge within one working day and will tell you what we are going to do and when.

If you need something on this site in another format, ask and we will provide it.