Accessibility

The target is WCAG 2.2 AA,and here is the evidence.

A conformance target is a claim until somebody says how it is checked. This page states the target, states how each part of it is tested, names what is known not to conform yet, tells you how to report a barrier and what happens after you do, and names the routes that do not depend on HUREAL agreeing with you.

Four of the checks below are running in the page you are on right now rather than sitting in a report. Turn reduced motion on, put the mouse down, or turn images off, and watch. Testable from this page, without asking anybody

The conformance target

One standard,stated at one level.

hureal.ca is designed and tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.2, at level AA. That is the standard the Canadian accessibility legislation points at, and it is the standard HUREAL designs every client build to as well.

Version 2.2 is deliberate. Ontario's accessibility regulation names version 2.0 at level AA, with two success criteria about captions and audio description left out of the requirement. Targeting 2.2 rather than 2.0 is the site holding itself to the current version of the standard rather than to the version a regulation was written against, and it costs nothing to do because the newer criteria are things a site should do anyway: a visible focus indicator that is not obscured, a target big enough to hit, and a way through a process that does not depend on remembering something.

Level AA is the working target for a business website. Level AAA is not claimed, and a site that claimed it would be claiming things like sign language interpretation for every piece of media and a reading level no business writing sustains. Where a AAA criterion is met here it is met because it was the right call, not because the level is being asserted.

HUREAL designs to a standard, tests against it, and documents what was built. It does not certify itself.

Nowhere on this site does HUREAL describe itself, or a client, as having met a standard. That determination is somebody else's to make, it has to be defensible on the day it is challenged, and a blanket claim about a whole site is the hardest kind to defend. What is published instead is the target, the method, and the exceptions, which is more useful to read and easier to stand behind.

How it is tested

Six checks,four of them running now.

  • Contrast on flat groundComputed before use, published

    What the build doesEvery colour pairing was computed before it was used, and each ratio is written into the stylesheet beside the declaration that produced it. The brand colour measures 3.95 to 1 on the page ground, so it is legal at display sizes only, and a guard rule demotes it to the 6.05 to 1 action colour anywhere it lands on smaller type. The accent colour measures 2.40 to 1 on a light ground and never carries small text there.

    How to check itSample any two colours on any page and measure them. The full table, including the pairing that was rejected, is on the build record.

  • Contrast over a photographRead back at runtime, in your browser

    What the build doesNothing about contrast over artwork is asserted on this site. Every frame that composites type over a photograph is measured in the browser, at the real viewport, against the real composited pixels, after the crop has decided which part of the file is on screen. If the worst pixel under the copy box comes in under 5 to 1, a full point above the standard's floor, the veil is darkened and it reads again. Below 980 pixels wide the frames stop compositing at all and stack, because a crop that has not been measured is a crop nobody can make a promise about.

    How to check itResize any page that carries an artwork band and watch the copy leave the photograph rather than shrink onto it.

  • KeyboardEvery path, no mouse

    What the build doesFocus is visible on a two pixel outline offset from the control it is on. Every interactive element is a real button or a real link rather than something else listening for a click. The menu moves focus into itself on open and back to the button that opened it on close, and Escape closes it. The cookie switches are real buttons carrying a switch role and a checked state, which is the only version of that control a keyboard reaches without extra work.

    How to check itPut the mouse down and tab through this page from the top. Nothing should trap you and nothing should disappear.

  • MotionAdditive, transform only, removable

    What the build doesEverything readable on this site is visible at rest on load. Nothing readable is tied to scroll position by opacity, anywhere, which is the rule that stops a page from being unreadable for somebody who does not scroll the way the animation expected. The only things that move on scroll are transforms, and a reduced motion preference removes every animation and every transition on the page.

    How to check itTurn reduced motion on in your system settings and reload. Nothing disappears, because nothing was hiding.

  • Structure, text and drawingsThe content exists as text

    What the build doesHeadings are in order and describe the section rather than the styling. Every diagram carries its content as a numbered walkthrough in the page body, not only in an alt attribute. Every alt attribute describes the picture rather than the point the picture is illustrating. Tables are real tables with real scopes, because a screen reader should be told when data is tabular. Every answer on the site is open at rest: there is no accordion anywhere and there is a comment in the source saying not to add one.

    How to check itTurn images off, or raise the text size to 200 percent, and read the page again.

  • Assistive technologyRead end to end by a person

    What the build doesCheck two of the fourteen HUREAL publishes requires every path to be completed with no mouse and the page to be read aloud end to end before a build goes live. Automated tools catch a minority of real barriers and this one is not delegated to them.

    Not published yetThe record of that pass on this site: the software, the version, the date, and what it found. assistive technology record to set

Known exceptions

What is notsettled yet.

A statement with nothing on this list has been tested by nobody. These are the items known today, and the list is updated as things are found rather than as things are launched.

  • The assistive technology pass is not recorded

    The design decisions are made and the markup is built for it. What has not been published is a dated record of a person reading the site end to end with a screen reader, and which software and version they used.

    status: not run

  • Third party typefaces

    The two typefaces are requested from a domain HUREAL does not control. If that request is slow or blocked, the text still renders in a fallback face immediately rather than waiting, which is deliberate, but the fallback metrics are not identical.

    status: mitigated, not removed

  • Some tables need a horizontal scroll on a narrow screen

    The capability tables, the service diagrams and the collection table on the privacy page are wider than a phone. Each one carries a visible instruction saying so, each is reachable by keyboard, and the diagram's content is repeated as text in the page body so nobody has to scroll it to get the argument.

    status: signposted

  • The two intake forms are built and not finished

    The discovery call form and the audit form exist, with a real label on every field and required fields marked as required. What does not exist is the part of a form that carries most of its accessibility: error messages, an error that is announced rather than only shown, the field hints connected to the fields they describe, and an acknowledgement path. None of it can be built or tested until a submission reaches something, and today it reaches a static page.

    status: partly built, not connected

  • Anything published after launch

    Articles, documents and images added later are held to the same target, and an article that fails it is a defect rather than an acceptable variation. This line exists so that a barrier found in something published next year is covered by this page rather than outside it.

    status: standing

  • One language

    This site is published in English only. That is a decision about which people it serves rather than an accessibility exception, and it is recorded here because it affects somebody's ability to use it.

    status: by decision

Each of these is either a defect with an owner or a decision with a reason, and the difference is stated rather than left for a reader to work out. None of it is described as coming soon.

Reporting a barrier

If something heregets in your way.

Tell us what you were trying to do, what happened instead, and what you were using. Any of that is enough to start with, and none of it is required: a sentence saying a page did not work is a valid report and gets the same answer.

  • By email

    The fastest route, read by a person. address to set

  • By phone

    For anyone who would rather not write it down. number to set

  • By post

    For a formal request or anything that has to arrive on paper. postal address to set

  • In an alternative format

    Any document on this site can be provided in another format on request, at no charge and within a reasonable time, and the request itself can be made in any of the ways above. Ontario's accessibility regulation requires this of an organization with at least one employee in Ontario, in a timely way, at no more than the regular cost, and in consultation with the person asking about which format actually works for them. HUREAL charges nothing, and this one is written as a commitment rather than as a courtesy.

  • Somebody else may report it for you

    A report from a colleague, a family member or a support worker is treated the same as one from the person who hit the barrier, and we reply to whoever wrote.

What happens when you report one

  1. It is acknowledged by a person rather than by an autoresponder, within a stated window.
  2. You are told whether it is a defect, a decision, or something we do not yet understand.
  3. If it is a defect you get a fix or a date, and if there is no date you are told that too.
  4. The known exceptions list on this page is updated, whether or not the item is fixed quickly.
  5. The report is kept, so that a pattern across several reports is visible rather than each one being treated as the first.
  6. Reporting a barrier is never a condition of getting the thing you were trying to get. If a page stopped you, tell us what you needed and we do it another way while the page is fixed.

Not decided yet: feedback address to set A report is acknowledged by a person within 2 business days. No mailbox is printed until one is monitored. A barrier report form that reaches nobody is the single worst thing an accessibility page can contain, because it is the page a person only reaches after something has already failed them. Two business days is the acknowledgement window because it is short enough to mean something and long enough to be kept by a company this size, and it is an acknowledgement rather than a fix.

If you are not satisfied

Three routes,and none of them needs our agreement.

If HUREAL's answer does not resolve it, there are routes that exist independently of this company. They are named here with the test each one binds on, because an accessibility page that says "the applicable legislation carries its own route" is telling somebody who is already stuck to go and find it themselves.

  • Ontario's Human Rights CodeNo size threshold at all

    What it isThe province's human rights legislation carries a duty to accommodate disability in the provision of services, and it does not turn on how many people a company employs or how big it is. An application about a service in Ontario goes to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, which has its own process and its own time limits.

    Why it is named firstBecause it is the one that binds regardless of HUREAL's size, and because a page that only named the two accessibility statutes could be read as saying that a small company owes nothing. It does not, and this is why.

  • The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities ActTwo different tests inside one Act

    What it isOntario's integrated accessibility standards apply to every organization that provides goods, services or facilities to the public or to other businesses and has at least one employee in Ontario, and they carry duties on two different tests. The website rule, WCAG 2.0 level AA since 1 January 2021 with live captions and pre recorded audio description left out, binds the Government of Ontario, the Legislative Assembly, designated public sector organizations and organizations with 50 or more employees in Ontario. The duties to provide accessible formats and communication supports on request, and to take feedback in an accessible way, reach an organization with at least one employee in Ontario. The Act is enforced by directors appointed under it, who can order an organization to comply and impose administrative penalties, rather than through a tribunal, and a member of the public can report a concern to the Ontario ministry responsible for accessibility.

    Where HUREAL standsThis page meets the formats and feedback duties now. The site is built to WCAG 2.2 level AA, a newer standard than the one the regulation names, because building to it after the fact costs more than building to it now.

  • The Accessible Canada ActA question about sector, not about size

    What it isThe federal accessibility legislation and its regulations require a published accessibility plan, a feedback process and progress reports, and they bind entities the federal government regulates, such as banking, telecommunications, broadcasting and interprovincial transport, along with the federal public service. Size affects the deadlines inside that group rather than whether an organization is in it. Complaints under it go to the Accessibility Commissioner, who sits within the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

    Why it is on this page anywayBecause HUREAL builds for clients who are inside that group, and a supplier whose work sits on a federally regulated client's website is part of how that client meets its own obligation. It does not bind HUREAL itself: a software company is not a business the federal government regulates. It binds the client.

HUREAL designs to a standard, tests against it, and documents what was built. It does not certify itself, it does not certify a client, and nothing on this page is legal advice about which of these three reaches you. Naming them is not the same as asserting that they apply, and the difference is the whole reason this section is written this way.