Accessibility

1. What we are aiming for

We are working towards WCAG 2.2 Level AA. We are not claiming to have got there. A statement that claims full conformance without an audit is worth nothing, so this page describes where we actually are.

ace is a small team building in the open. When a barrier is reported to us, fixing it goes to the top of the list rather than into a backlog.

2. What we have done

• Reduced motion is respected. This site is heavily animated. If your system is set to reduce motion, the scroll choreography is switched off and the content is shown as ordinary stacked sections. Nothing is hidden behind an animation you cannot trigger.
• Real text, not pictures of text. Content is selectable, searchable, translatable and readable by a screen reader. Decorative graphics are marked so assistive technology skips them.
• Keyboard use. Links, buttons and form fields are reachable and operable with a keyboard, and focus is visible rather than removed.
• Semantic structure. Headings run in order, landmarks are used, and form fields have labels.
• Colour is not the only signal. Where colour carries meaning it is paired with a word or a symbol.
• Type sizing. Nothing on the marketing site is set below 12px, body text is 17px, and the layout reflows on zoom rather than clipping.
• Native dialogs. The disclaimer uses the browser's own dialog element, so focus handling and Escape behave the way you expect.

3. Known problems

These are real and we would rather say so than let you find out yourself.

• The home page is scroll-driven. The opening sequence tells its story through scrolling. With reduced motion on you get everything as static content, but the experience is plainer than the animated one.
• No formal audit yet. We have not had an independent WCAG audit or testing with a broad panel of assistive technology users. We have tested with keyboard navigation and screen readers ourselves, which is not the same thing.
• Contrast on decorative layers. Some background artwork and the footer gradient are low contrast by design. No information is carried by them, but they may be visually busy.
• Uploaded PDFs. ace reads text from the degree audit you upload. If your PDF is a scan without a text layer, ace cannot read it and will say so. We cannot fix the accessibility of a document the university produced.
• Handwriting imagery. Handwritten notes shown on the home page are images and are marked decorative. Everything they convey is repeated in the text alongside.

4. If something is unusable

If any part of ace stops you getting an answer you need, email us and we will answer your question directly, by email, while we fix the underlying problem. You should not have to wait for a release to get help.

Write to access@acecollege.app.

5. Telling us about a problem

Email access@acecollege.app. It helps if you can tell us:

• The page or part of the product.
• What you were trying to do.
• What happened instead.
• Your browser, device, and any assistive technology you use.

We aim to acknowledge within 5 working days and to tell you what we are doing about it within 15 working days. If a fix will take longer, we will say so and offer a way around it in the meantime.

6. Scope and limits

This statement covers acecollege.app and the ace application at app.acecollege.app.

It does not cover university systems, third-party sites we link to, or documents published by an institution. Where ace points you to a university office or form, that page's accessibility is that institution's responsibility, not ours.

ace is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any university.