For everyone
Accessibility Statement
Last updated: September 23, 2026
We want as much of this site as possible to be usable by everyone. What follows is an honest account of where it stands, including the parts that are not good enough.
Conformance claim
Written in Real Stars partially conforms to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Partially conforms means some parts of the content do not fully conform. The specific part that does not, and cannot without becoming a different product, is the 3D sky itself, which is described under "Where it falls short" below. The conventional parts of the site, the landing page, the setup form, the panels, the guide and walkthrough, the print sheet, the modals and these static pages, are not currently producing any automated WCAG 2.1 A or AA failures, and a complete purchase can be made with the keyboard alone.
What was tested, and how
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Standard | WCAG 2.1, Levels A and AA |
| Tool | axe-core 4.10.2 in a Chromium browser, with the WCAG 2.1 A and AA rules and its best-practice rules |
| Date | September 23, 2026 |
| Pages and states covered | The landing page; the setup form with every section open; the built sky with the first-run guide open, with its list of every button open, and with the walkthrough running; the sky's star list; the print sheet with a frame chosen; the send-a-link sheet; and the Shop, Contact, Returns, Terms, Privacy, Accessibility and 404 pages. Each at 1280 pixels wide, at 390 (a phone), and at 640, which is what a 1280-pixel screen gives at 200% zoom |
| Result | 0 violations, and 0 best-practice issues, in every state at every width |
| Keyboard | A whole purchase made with the keyboard alone: typing a name on the front page, Enter to the form, Tab to Build, into the sky, Tab to Order a printed plate, arrow keys to choose a frame, Tab to the buy button and Enter into checkout, then Escape to close the sheet |
| Reflow | Every page at 320 pixels wide, with nothing that needs scrolling sideways |
| Needs human review | Colour contrast for text drawn over the animated starfield, which the tool cannot measure because the background moves |
| Not yet done | A manual pass with a real screen reader, and testing with a screen magnifier |
An automated tool of this kind reliably catches only part of what WCAG covers, commonly estimated at a third to a half. A clean automated run is a floor, not a certificate, and this statement does not present it as one.
What that audit found and what was fixed
The first run found three failures, all since corrected:
- The Speed and Glow sliders in the sky controls had visible text beside them but no
programmatic label, so a screen reader announced them as unlabelled sliders. They are now
properly associated
<label>elements. - The photo chooser and the date field in the setup card had the same problem, and now carry explicit accessible names.
- The on-screen hint text under the sky measured 4.24:1 against its background, below the 4.5:1 minimum for text that size. It was being dimmed to 85% opacity; it is now drawn at full opacity and measures about 5.5:1.
What the September 23 audit found and what was fixed
- The sky's star list scrolls, but could not be reached with the keyboard to scroll it. It can now, and it is announced as a named region.
- The walkthrough's title skipped a heading level. It is now in order.
- Much of the app sat outside any landmark, so a screen reader had no way to move between its screens. The sky, the setup form, the gift envelope and the song player are now each a named region, and the reading is a proper dialog.
- At 320 pixels the Shop page's size table pushed the whole page sideways. The table now scrolls within itself and can be scrolled by keyboard.
What's in place
- A skip-to-content link on every page, and visible focus outlines on every interactive element.
- The top navigation bar is ordinary links, operable by keyboard, with the current page marked for screen readers and a menu button that states whether it is open.
- On the Shop page the size choice is a real radio group with a legend, so arrow keys move between sizes, and the price change is announced.
- Tables that scroll sideways on a phone can be scrolled with the keyboard.
prefers-reduced-motionis honoured throughout: the animated starfield, the landing page's motion and the rail's ignition effects all fall back to a static or instantly-settled state.- The landing page's constellation-shaped scroll indicator has proper ARIA roles, labels and full keyboard navigation.
- Every form control has a programmatic label or accessible name, and every field on the setup form says, in words a screen reader reads with it, where what you type will appear.
- The sky opens with a short guide, and offers a walkthrough that rings each control in turn. Both work by keyboard (Tab, the arrow keys, Enter, Escape), move focus with each step so it is read aloud, and never block the controls they point at. Every control in the sky also carries a one-line explanation that is shown on hover or keyboard focus and read by screen readers.
- Colour is never the only signal: text accompanies every state, including chosen format, chosen song and applied settings.
- The list of stars behind any name, the constellation index in the app and the CSV or PDF catalogue that comes with a plate, is real readable text: every star's designation, coordinates, magnitude and distance, usable by a screen reader or any text tool, entirely independently of the 3D view.
Where it falls short
- The core experience is a WebGL canvas operated by dragging, scrolling and, in travel mode, the WASD keys. There is no screen-reader equivalent of the visual constellation, and looking around the main sky view still has no keyboard alternative to dragging. This is the single biggest gap and it is not a small fix.
- The photo-to-stars face reveal is inherently visual and has no text equivalent.
- Contrast for text over the animated starfield could not be measured automatically and has not yet been checked by hand against the range of backgrounds the starfield produces.
- Keyboard use, 200% zoom and reflow at 320 pixels have now been tested, but no testing has yet been done with an actual screen reader or with a magnifier. Until it is, the claim above rests on automated results, those tests and code review.
If the visual sky isn't usable for you
The premise of this product, that every star is real and checkable, means the underlying data was always meant to stand on its own as text. The constellation index inside the app, and the CSV or PDF catalogue included with any plate, give the complete list of stars by designation and exact coordinates, in a form a screen reader or any other tool can read directly. If you want that list for a name without buying anything, ask and we will send it.
Alternative formats and assistance
If any part of this site, or any document it produces, is not usable with the tools you rely on, we will provide the same information another way on request: a plain-text star list, a described version of what a sky contains, or help completing an order over email. There is no charge and you do not need to explain why you are asking.
Where we stand legally
Written in Real Stars is a sole proprietorship in Ontario with no employees. Under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and its Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation, the requirement to bring public websites to WCAG 2.0 Level AA applies to designated public sector organisations and to large organisations of 50 or more employees, so it does not currently bind an operation this size, and the three-yearly compliance reporting obligation, which starts at 20 employees, does not either. We are stating a WCAG 2.1 AA target anyway because the obligation not to exclude people does not scale with headcount. We also sell into the United States, where the Americans with Disabilities Act has been applied to consumer websites, and we would rather be genuinely usable than argue about which threshold applies.
Feedback
If something here is difficult or impossible to use, please tell us at writteninrealstars@gmail.com, call (647) 491-2051, or use our contact page, whichever suits you. We aim to reply within five business days. We cannot honestly promise the 3D sky will ever be fully accessible, given what it fundamentally is, but we do want to know, we will say plainly whether something is fixable, and we will fix the things that are.
Review schedule
This statement is reviewed when the site changes materially, and at least once a year. The next planned step is the manual screen-reader and keyboard pass listed above, after which this page will be corrected to match whatever that finds, including downgrading the claim if it turns out to be too generous.
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