What was tested,
and what still falls short.

This site aims to meet WCAG 2.2 level AA. It was last tested on 8 September 2026 and the next review is due by 7 September 2027.

What was tested, and how

• An automated pass with axe-core against the WCAG 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 A and AA rulesets, on every page the site publishes, at desktop and at 390px. It reports no violations. The script is in the repository and runs against the built site, so the test is repeatable rather than a one-off claim.
• A keyboard-only pass through every page and the enquiry form — tab order, a visible focus indicator on every stop, no keyboard traps, and the skip link as the first stop.
• Heading order checked on every page: one h1, no skipped levels.
• Colour contrast measured against the brand’s own palette rather than eyeballed, on every background the site uses, and twice the palette has had to change rather than the page. The supporting grey was darkened in August 2026 after measuring under AA on every ground including the one it was designed for. The accent gold went the same way on 16 August, when it was found at 4.20:1 as small text on a tinted background: there is now a darker accent for anything that has to be read, measuring at least 4.55:1 on every ground here, and the lighter one is kept for rules, hairlines and large display type where the threshold is lower or none applies.
• The audit measures the settled page: it waits for the webfonts and switches off the fade-in animation first. Testing mid-animation was reporting a pass on content that had not finished rendering, and hiding four real contrast failures behind elements the checker skipped while they were still transparent.
• Form labels, required fields and error messages checked for correct association — each error is written into the field’s own accessible description, so it is announced rather than only shown, and it carries a word rather than only a colour.
• Rendered with reduced-motion preferred, to confirm nothing stays hidden behind an animation.
• The film on the showcase page is silent — it has no soundtrack, which is why it carries no captions track — and it does not start by itself for anyone who prefers reduced motion: they get a still frame and a play button. The floating card it moves into can be dismissed, and every control on it is reachable by keyboard.
• Every specimen on the showcase page is operable from the keyboard. Where something can be dragged or pushed with a pointer — the colour panel, the box you can turn, the moving type — there is a labelled slider or button that does the same job, because a demonstration only a mouse can reach is not a demonstration of anything I would sell.
• That page carries a dozen invented brands with their own colours, so the colour contrast of each one is measured against WCAG AA by a script in the repository before it can ship, rather than checked by eye afterwards. The focus indicator is measured the same way: the site’s usual gold ring is invisible on the darker panels, so those carry their own.
• One specimen animates as you scroll it — tied to the scroll position rather than playing on its own — and with reduced motion preferred it does not animate at all: the words simply sit there, legible, which is what they do anyway. Nothing else on the showcase page animates by itself for more than a moment. The colour panel draws a single frame and stops until you touch it; there is a button to let it run, and the same button stops it. With reduced motion preferred, that button is not offered at all and the panel simply stands still.
• Sound on the showcase page is off unless you switch it on, and the switch is visible rather than buried. Nothing plays on hover — only when you press something.
• The typefaces are served from this site rather than from a third party, so no font request discloses a visit to anyone else.

What is known to fall short

Everything below is a real limitation of this site as it stands today. A statement claiming no known issues, on a site nobody has tested, is worse than no statement at all.

• It has not yet been tested with a screen reader by a person.

  The automated and keyboard passes above are real and repeatable, but they are not the same as somebody using the site with VoiceOver or NVDA. That pass is scheduled, and anything it finds will be listed here.

Reporting a problem

If you find something on this site you cannot use, tell me and I will fix it. Email hello@bowerswebdesign.co.uk. I will acknowledge within one working day and tell you what I am going to do about it.

hello@bowerswebdesign.co.uk

What this means if I build for you

The same standard applies to your build: accessibility is designed in from the start rather than tested for at the end, and you get a written statement like this one for your own site — what standard, what was tested, when, and what is outstanding. On the Assured care plan it is reviewed and rewritten every year.

If you are a public sector body, note that the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 set out what your statement must contain and where it must sit. I will build to that format where it applies to you.