Accessibility.
This site should work for everyone, whatever device or assistive technology you use. Here is what we do about that, and how to tell us when something is wrong.
Horizon Digital Co. wants everyone to be able to read this site, use it and get in touch, including people who use a screen reader, move through a page by keyboard, enlarge the text, or turn off motion. This page says what we do to make that true, where it may still fall short, and what to do when you hit a problem.
The standard we work toward.
We use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) at level AA as our measure. It is the standard most accessibility laws and audits point to. We treat it as a working target rather than a badge: every page is written against it, and when a problem is reported, we fix it.
What this site does.
These practices are built into every page of horizondigitalco.com.
- Keyboard. Everything you can do with a mouse, you can do with a keyboard: the menu, buttons, links, the questions on the FAQ page, the trade switcher on the framework example, and the forms. Tab moves between controls in reading order.
- Visible focus. The control you have reached with the keyboard is outlined, so you can always see where you are on the page.
- Reduced motion. If your device is set to reduce motion, the fade-in effects, the moving backgrounds and the rotating framework example are turned off, and jumping to a link on the same page happens at once instead of gliding.
- Reduced transparency. If your device is set to reduce transparency, the frosted panels and the navigation bar become solid.
- Text alternatives. Every image that carries meaning has a written description. Decorative graphics and icons are hidden from screen readers so they do not get in the way.
- Color contrast. Text and background colors are chosen to meet the WCAG AA contrast ratio, on the light pages and the dark sections alike.
- Forms. Every field has a label. If something is missing or wrong, the message says what to fix, is announced to screen readers, and the cursor moves to the field that needs attention.
- Structure. Headings run in order, lists are real lists, and the navigation, main content and footer are marked as regions, so you can move around a page by heading or by landmark.
The websites we build.
The framework every Horizon website uses is built to follow the same practices as this site: keyboard access, visible focus, text alternatives on images, labeled forms and readable contrast. The structure of the framework stays fixed, which is part of why it holds up: the headings, landmarks and form labels are the same on every site we launch. Your own words matter too. Clear headings and plain service descriptions help every visitor, and you can change them anytime in the editor.
You can look at it yourself. The live framework is up now. It shows placeholder text in brackets where your details go, and some image slots are still empty; that is where your photos go.
Where it may fall short.
No site gets everything right, and we would rather hear about a problem than assume there is none. A few things we know to watch:
- The example of the framework that appears on the home page and several other pages is an illustration, not a working website. A screen reader hears a short description of it, then the example business's name, headline and a few lines of its text, rather than a working page. Every section of the framework is written out in full on the framework page.
- The screenshots of the framework on some pages are pictures of a website. Each one has a description of what it shows, but the text inside the picture cannot be read by a screen reader or enlarged as text.
- Some steps, such as secure checkout, run on services whose code we do not control. If one of them gets in your way, email us and our support will help you through it.
Report a problem.
If any part of this site is hard to use, email support@horizondigitalco.com. Our support reads it and replies by email within 24 hours. It helps to include:
- The page address, or the name of the page.
- What you were trying to do, and what happened instead.
- The browser and device you were using, and any assistive technology, such as a screen reader, screen magnifier or voice control.
If you would rather not open your email app, write to that address from any email service, or go through the contact page; our support answers there as well, within 24 hours. There is no phone line, the same as everything else at Horizon.
What this statement covers.
This statement covers horizondigitalco.com. We update it when the site changes.