Accessibility

Writer's Grove is built for everyone who reads and writes here, including people who use a screen reader, a keyboard alone, magnification, voice control or any other assistive technology. Every page and every task on the site, from reading a chapter to publishing one, is built and tested to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at level AA.

How we test

Every change is tested by hand before it goes live, not only by automated scanning. Every control has to be reachable and usable with a keyboard alone, and the focused element has to be visible at every step. The site is tested with real screen readers, TalkBack with Chrome on Android and NVDA with Chrome and with Firefox on Windows, walking whole tasks from start to finish, such as signing up, reading a chapter, following an author, posting a comment and filling in every form. Every page is also checked for text contrast, control contrast, heading order, labels, text spacing, layout at 320 pixels wide and the browser's own text scaling at 200%, on a desktop and on a phone. Each pass is written down with the date, the devices and the assistive technology used, and what was found and fixed.

If something does not work for you

We do our best to get every page right, and testing by hand catches a great deal, but no site can promise that every page works with every combination of browser and assistive technology. If something on Writer's Grove is hard or impossible for you to use, that is a mistake we would like to know about and fix. Email accessibility@writersgrove.net or use the form below. It helps to know which page you were on, what you were trying to do, and what assistive technology you were using. We reply within three business days, and a report that shows a real barrier is fixed as a priority.

What happens to a report

Each report is read by a person. We keep a record of what was reported, when it was answered and what was changed, without any personal details, alongside our record of accessibility testing. Reports sent through the form are limited to five a day from one internet connection; if you hit that limit, the email address always works.