Accessibility Statement

This statement explains how Access Shift approaches digital accessibility — the standard we measure against, the policies we aim to align with, what our remediation widget does at a high level, and the limits of automated remediation.

Important: Access Shift is an accessibility automation tool. It is not a certification, and no automated tool — ours included — can guarantee conformance with WCAG, the ADA, the EAA, EN 301 549, Section 508, AODA, ACA, or any other accessibility law on its own. We strongly recommend pairing the service with periodic source-level audits and manual testing by people who use assistive technologies, and consulting qualified counsel about your specific legal obligations.

Our commitment

Access Shift believes the web should work for everyone. We design, build, and operate our own products with that principle in mind, and we ship tools that help our customers do the same on their sites. This page describes how we approach accessibility on accessshift.com and across the dashboard our customers use.

Accessibility is treated as ongoing work rather than a one-time checklist. We re-test as we change the product, take feedback seriously, and prioritize fixes that meaningfully improve the experience for people who rely on assistive technologies.

Standard we target

Our technical baseline is the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2, Level AA (WCAG 2.2 AA). WCAG 2.2 AA covers a broad set of success criteria for people with visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive disabilities, and it is the level most modern accessibility laws point to.

WCAG 2.2 AA is a strong technical baseline, not a legal certification. Conforming to it does not by itself mean a website meets every obligation under every applicable law, and automated tooling cannot evaluate or remediate every success criterion.

Policies we aim to follow

In addition to WCAG 2.2 AA, we work toward alignment with the following accessibility policies and requirements. These are the regimes we design for; alignment is not the same as a formal certification or audit by the relevant authority.

  • ADA — Americans with Disabilities Act (United States).
  • Section 508 — Revised Section 508 standards for US federal electronic and information technology, which incorporate WCAG by reference.
  • EAA / EN 301 549 — European Accessibility Act (Directive 2019/882) and the EN 301 549 harmonised standard for ICT products and services in the EU.
  • AODA — Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and its Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation.
  • ACA — Accessible Canada Act and the standards being developed under it by Accessibility Standards Canada.

Several of these laws cover more than the public web (for example, hardware, documents, and support channels under EN 301 549 chapters 6 and 7). Our product targets the web-content portions.

How the Access Shift widget helps

The Access Shift remediation widget runs on each page load and applies non-destructive, runtime fixes to the live DOM so visitors get a more accessible experience without source-code changes on the host site.

Screen reader and ARIA improvements

The widget annotates page elements with ARIA roles, labels, and states so assistive technologies can describe them accurately. That includes alternative text for images, labels for icon-only buttons and SVG controls, accessible form fields with required and invalid states, ARIA-compliant dropdowns, properly identified data tables, and live regions for asynchronous updates.

Keyboard navigation

Interactive elements are made reachable with the Tab key, custom widgets get keyboard handling for arrow keys and Escape, modals receive focus traps, and skipped or duplicated landmarks are disambiguated. Focus indicators are strengthened to satisfy WCAG 2.2's focus-appearance criterion.

Color contrast and visual presentation

The widget evaluates foreground and background pairs against the WCAG contrast ratios and adjusts colors when the page allows it, within safe limits to avoid breaking visual designs.

Motion, multimedia, and authentication

Auto-playing media is muted, embedded iframes get accessible titles, animations respect the visitor's prefers-reduced-motion setting, and password and one-time-code fields get the autocomplete and paste-friendly behavior required by WCAG 2.2's Accessible Authentication criterion.

WCAG 2.2 additions

The widget specifically addresses the new WCAG 2.2 success criteria where they can be improved at runtime: Focus Not Obscured, Dragging Movements, Target Size Minimum, Consistent Help, and Redundant Entry.

Every fix is wrapped in defensive error handling so the widget never crashes the host page, and a revert function (window.__accessai_revert()) is exposed for debugging.

Assistive technology and browser support

We test against the major modern browsers — Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Microsoft Edge — on current desktop and mobile operating systems. Our widget is designed to work alongside the most widely used screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA on Windows, VoiceOver on macOS and iOS, and TalkBack on Android.

Older browser versions and less common assistive technologies may still work, but we cannot guarantee the same level of coverage on them.

Limitations and ongoing work

Automated runtime remediation has real limits. The widget can recognize and fix many common barriers, but some accessibility requirements depend on judgement that only a human can apply. These typically include:

  • Meaningful sequence and reading order on highly customized layouts.
  • Complex cognitive support, including plain-language rewrites and content simplification.
  • Channels and artifacts outside the live web page — for example, downloadable PDFs, native mobile apps, hardware, and non-web-based support flows covered by EN 301 549 chapters 6 and 7.
  • Editorial decisions about alternative text where the author's intent matters.

Because of this, we recommend pairing Access Shift with periodic source-level audits and manual testing by people who use assistive technologies.

Contact us

If you run into an accessibility barrier on an Access Shift property, or if you have feedback on how we could do better, we want to hear from you. Email us at accessibility@accessshift.com. Please include the page URL, a short description of the issue, and the browser and assistive technology you were using if relevant.