Accessibility Statement

People reach this site in a wide range of circumstances, and some of them are stressful. A site that is difficult to use adds friction at exactly the wrong moment. Accessibility here is treated as part of doing the job properly rather than as a compliance exercise.

1. Our commitment

We are committed to making vaderbarclay.com usable by as many people as possible, regardless of ability or the technology they use. Where we fall short, we want to know, and we will fix it.

2. The standard we aim for

This site has been designed and built to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at Level AA. This is the standard referenced by the Equality Act 2010 in the United Kingdom and by public sector accessibility regulations.

We believe the site meets that standard. We have not commissioned an independent third-party audit, and we say so rather than implying a certification we do not hold.

3. What has been built in

Structure and navigation

Semantic HTML landmarks (header, navigation, main and footer) on every page.
One h1 per page, with headings in logical order and no levels skipped.
A “skip to main content” link as the first item on every page, visible when focused.
Breadcrumbs on every inner page, marked up for assistive technology.
The current page is indicated in the navigation both visually and programmatically.

Keyboard and focus

Every interactive element can be reached and operated with a keyboard alone.
A visible focus outline appears on every focusable element, at a contrast that is legible on both the light and dark sections of the site.
Focus order follows the visual order of the page.
Opening the mobile menu moves focus into it; closing it returns focus to the button that opened it; the Escape key closes it.
Accordion questions are real buttons with aria-expanded, not clickable text.

Colour and contrast

Body text meets or exceeds the 4.5:1 contrast ratio required at Level AA, in both the light and dark sections.
The accent colour used for links and labels was chosen partly for contrast: it measures 6.02:1 on the light background and 6.58:1 on white.
Colour is never the only means of conveying information.

Text and zoom

All type scales fluidly with the viewport and respects the browser’s own text size setting.
The page reflows without horizontal scrolling at 320 pixels wide and at 400% zoom.
Line length is limited for readability, and text is never set in an image.

Images and media

Every meaningful image carries descriptive alternative text.
Decorative graphics, including all icons, are hidden from assistive technology with aria-hidden.
The site contains no video, no audio and no auto-playing media of any kind.

Motion

Animation is limited to short, subtle reveals as content enters the viewport.
Where a visitor’s system requests reduced motion, all animation and smooth scrolling is disabled and content appears immediately.
Nothing on the site flashes, and nothing moves automatically or continuously.

Forms

Every field has a visible, permanently associated label. Placeholders are not used as labels.
Required fields are marked in text as well as by colour.
Error messages appear next to the field concerned, are announced to screen readers, and describe how to fix the problem.
Fields carry appropriate autocomplete attributes so stored details can be filled automatically.
The form works without JavaScript.

Independence from technology

All content is readable and all navigation works with JavaScript disabled.
The site loads no third-party scripts, fonts or trackers, so nothing outside our control can interfere with it.

4. How it was tested

Keyboard-only navigation of every page and every interactive component.
Automated checks for contrast, heading order, landmark structure, alternative text and form labelling.
Layout verified with no horizontal overflow at 320, 390, 517, 768, 991, 1180, 1440 and 1920 pixels, deliberately including widths that fall between standard device sizes.
Rendering verified with the reduced-motion preference active.
Text scaling verified up to 200% and page zoom to 400%.

5. Known limitations

We would rather list these than claim perfection.

No independent audit. Testing has been carried out by the team that built the site. An independent audit would carry more weight and we would welcome one.
Limited screen reader coverage. The site has been tested with automated tooling and by keyboard, but not yet in a full manual pass across every screen reader and browser combination in common use.
Stock photography. Alternative text describes what each photograph shows. Where an image is purely atmospheric, the description is necessarily general.
Documents. Should we publish downloadable documents in future, we will ensure they are produced in an accessible format and will update this statement.

6. Getting information in another format

If you need anything on this site in a different format (large print, plain text, or read to you over the telephone), write to contact@vaderbarclay.com and tell us what would help. There is no charge and no need to explain why.

If a particular part of the site is difficult for you to use, you are also welcome simply to email us your question. A person will answer it.

7. Telling us about a problem

If you find something on this site that is not accessible, please tell us. It is genuinely useful and we would rather hear it than not.

Email:contact@vaderbarclay.com
Subject line: Accessibility

Please tell us the page address, what you were trying to do, and what happened. We aim to reply within five working days and to tell you when we expect to have it fixed.

If you are not happy with our response, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service, which provides free advice on discrimination and human rights issues in England, Scotland and Wales.

This statement describes the site as built and tested at the date above. It will be updated whenever the site changes materially, and if an independent audit is carried out its findings will be reflected here.