Accessibility
Last updated: 2026-08-17
Our commitment
Money decisions are stressful enough. DuckWater should work whether you use a mouse, a keyboard, a screen reader, voice control, a magnifier, or a phone in bright sunlight — and it should not move under you if motion makes you unwell.
The standard we build to
We build to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. We have not been independently audited or certified against it, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. Where we fall short, we want to hear about it and fix it.
What we do
- Contrast is a build gate. Every colour pair in the design system is checked automatically, and a change that drops body text below 4.5:1 or a control below 3:1 fails before it ships. Rendered pages are swept separately, because a token can pass in a table and still fail on screen.
- Keyboard first. Every control is reachable and operable by keyboard, dialogs trap focus and return it where you left off, Escape closes what it opened, and there is a skip link to the main content.
- One visible focus style everywhere. A single focus ring is used across the light and dark surfaces, contrast-checked against all three grounds.
- Never colour alone. Status is always carried by text as well as colour.
- Reduced motion is respected. With
prefers-reduced-motionset, animation is removed rather than merely shortened, and anything that drifts on its own becomes a scrollable region instead. - Touch targets are at least 44px, including text-style row actions.
- Automated checks in QA. Our QA run drives the site in a real browser on desktop and mobile viewports and runs an axe accessibility pass on each page.
Known gaps
Automated checks catch a minority of real barriers. We have not yet completed a full manual screen-reader pass of the application wizard or the Builder Partner portal, and the internal admin console has not been reviewed for mobile or assistive-technology use. Those are on the list, and we will update this page as they are done.
Tell us what does not work
If any part of DuckWater is hard or impossible for you to use, tell us and we will fix it — and, while we do, we will help you complete whatever you were trying to do by another route. and say what you were trying to do, what happened, and what you use to browse.
See also our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.