Our commitment to digital accessibility
Fireside is built by a small team, and accessibility is something we work at rather than something we've finished. This page describes what we actually do today, what we know isn't right yet, and how to tell us when we've got something wrong.
What We Aim For
We build toward the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. We don't claim to meet it everywhere. Where we fall short and you tell us, we treat it as a bug and fix it like any other.
What We Build In
Semantic Markup
Pages are built from semantic HTML elements, with ARIA attributes where a native element won't do the job. This is the foundation screen readers and other assistive technology rely on.
Text Alternatives
Images carry alt text describing what they show, and decorative images are marked so assistive technology skips them.
Color and Contrast
Text colors come from a shared set of design tokens rather than being chosen per page, so contrast is consistent and can be corrected in one place. Light and dark modes are both accounted for. We are still finding and fixing individual spots that fall short.
Responsive Layout
Pages reflow to the width of your screen and stay usable when text is enlarged, on phones and tablets as well as desktops.
Keyboard Access
Pages are navigable with a keyboard, and focused elements show a visible focus indicator. See Known Issues below — this is the area we most need to improve.
Known Issues
We would rather tell you what's broken than imply everything works:
- Tab order is not correct on every page, and some interactive elements need better keyboard support. This is known and being worked on.
- Some text and buttons don't yet meet our contrast target. We're fixing these as we find them.
- We do not currently run formal accessibility audits or structured testing with assistive technology users. We'd like to; we don't today.
- Some third-party embeds and integrations have accessibility limitations we don't control.
- Older content may not meet the standards we hold new work to.
Tell Us What's Broken
If you hit an accessibility barrier anywhere on Fireside, email us and we will look at it. Reports from people actually using assistive technology are the most useful thing we get, and they go to the developers who build Fireside, not to a queue.
- Email: [email protected]
- Subject line: "Accessibility Feedback"
Tell us the page, what you were trying to do, and what got in the way. If you use assistive technology, knowing which software and version helps us reproduce it.
Accessibility Resources
For more information about web accessibility:
Contact Information
Very Good Software, LLC14196 Brick Rd.
Granger, IN 46530
Email: [email protected]
