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We build this site to WCAG 2.2 Level AA. This page describes what that actually meant in the code, where the limits are, and how to tell us when we have got something wrong.
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The target is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2, Level AA, across the whole site. Not one page, and not a widget bolted onto the corner of the screen.
We chose that standard because of who reads this. People arrive here after a death, often in their sixties or seventies, often on a phone, frequently upset, and needing to understand something about money and deadlines. Every accessibility decision below doubles as a decision about whether that person can actually read the page.
In practice
Every item here is a decision in the code rather than an intention. Anyone is welcome to check them.
Not the 16px and 1.5 that most sites default to. The people reading this are often older, often on a phone, and often distressed. Comfort beats density here, so the base size and the line spacing were both set larger on purpose.
A script checks every text and background pair in the palette, in light and dark, against the WCAG ratios. Every pair meets AA and most meet AAA. The check runs against the stylesheet that actually ships, so it cannot drift from what you see.
Three pixels, offset from the element, on everything focusable, in both themes. Thin or invisible focus styling is one of the most common accessibility failures, and this audience uses keyboards and switch devices more than average.
That is the WCAG 2.2 minimum, and buttons here are larger again: 48px at the standard size and 56px at the large size. A missed tap on a phone is a real cost when someone is already having a bad week.
Real headings in order, one h1 per page, real lists, real buttons and links, proper landmarks, and a skip link to the main content as the first thing in the tab order. The questions and answers are built on native details and summary elements, so they work without JavaScript.
You can reach and operate every control with a keyboard, in an order that matches the page. The mobile menu keeps focus inside itself while it is open, closes on Escape, and puts focus back on the button that opened it.
If your device asks for reduced motion, the entrance animations do not run at all. Even with motion on, content moves eight pixels and fades. Nothing on this site slides, bounces, autoplays or moves while you are trying to read it.
The two steps in the probate sequence that cost money if you miss them carry the word Deadline and a filled marker as well as a colour. Roughly one man in twelve cannot separate red from green, and this is exactly the information they cannot afford to miss.
Light and dark are designed and tested separately rather than one being a filter applied to the other. Your system preference is respected on the first visit, and the toggle in the footer overrides it.
We run axe against the site before every release, in three configurations: desktop in light mode, desktop in dark mode, and a phone width. It checks the WCAG 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 A and AA rule sets, and any violation fails the run rather than producing a report somebody ignores.
Automated tools catch a minority of accessibility problems. They are good at contrast ratios, missing labels, broken landmarks and invalid markup. They cannot tell you whether a heading makes sense, whether alternative text describes the useful part of a photograph, whether an error message explains how to fix the error, or whether a page is understandable to someone reading it the day after a funeral.
We check those by hand, and we will still get some of them wrong. Treating a clean automated report as proof of an accessible site is a mistake, and we are not going to claim it as one.
If any part of this site is hard to use, we want to hear about it, and a rough description is plenty. You do not need to know the name of the problem or which guideline it falls under. Telling us the page, what you were trying to do, and what happened instead is enough for us to find it.
It helps if you can say what you were using: a screen reader and which one, a keyboard only, magnification, a phone, or a particular browser. It is not required.
Send it through the contact form. Here is what we will do:
We treat an accessibility report as a fault report, not as feedback. Nobody should have to argue for the ability to read a page about their own family.
Ask, and we will do it. Larger text, a printed copy in the post, a plain text version, or somebody reading it to you over the phone. There is no charge for any of that and you do not need to explain why you want it.
It is reviewed when the site changes in a way that affects any of it, and the date at the top of the page changes when the statement does. It describes the site as it is, not as we hope it will be. If we ever fall short of what is written here, the right response is to fix the site or to change this page, and we would rather do the first.
Tell us who died, which county they lived in, and what is worrying you most. If the answer is that you need a probate attorney rather than us, we will say so.
Free, and there is no obligation afterwards.