Accessibility

Last updated September 4, 2026

We want anyone who needs a contractor to be able to use this site and get hold of us — with a screen reader, with a keyboard, at 400% zoom, or on a bad phone connection.

We are aiming at the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Level AA. That is the standard most people mean when they talk about an accessible website. We are not claiming a certificate against it — no one issues one — and we would rather tell you what we actually test and where we know we fall short.

What we test, and how

• Automated checks on every change. Every page listed in our sitemap is checked against the WCAG 2.2 A and AA rules that can be tested by machine, and the check runs before any change goes live. If it fails, the change does not ship.
• Keyboard only. The site is walked through without a mouse. A 'Skip to content' link is the first thing you reach on every page, every control can be reached by tabbing, and whatever you are on is visibly outlined.
• Zoom and small screens. Every page is checked at 320 pixels wide — roughly a phone at 400% zoom — and must not force you to scroll sideways to read a line of text.
• Reduced motion. If your device is set to reduce motion, the opening animation, the scroll effects and the moving backgrounds are switched off rather than merely shortened.
• Forms. Every field has a label that stays visible, errors are announced rather than only coloured red, and the estimate form asks one thing at a time.

What we know is not finished

A statement that lists only successes is not worth reading. These are the gaps we know about today.

• Automated testing only goes so far. Machine checks reliably catch a minority of accessibility problems. They can tell us an image has alt text; they cannot tell us the alt text is a good description. That judgement still needs a person, and we have not yet had this site tested by an accessibility professional or by people who use screen readers daily.
• Our photographs. The project photos are our own work and each has a written description. Those descriptions were written by us, not audited by anyone, and some are better than others.
• The painting calculator. It is the most complicated thing on the site — several steps, live totals and an optional photo upload. It meets the automated checks and it can be completed with a keyboard, but it is the page we would most like a real user's opinion on.