Accessibility

Our conformance statement, including the parts we have not met. Last reviewed 7 August 2026.

EdSmartly is used by teachers, and teachers are not a uniform group. Some navigate by keyboard alone, some use a screen reader, some need larger text or higher contrast, and some work in Arabic with the entire interface mirrored right-to-left. The product is built to be usable by all of them, and this page is an honest account of how far that has got.

What we measure against

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Levels A and AA. We also reference EN 301 549 v3.2.1, which is commonly cited in European and UK procurement, for the WCAG criteria it incorporates.

Where we stand

Of the 55 Level A and AA criteria assessed: 26 are met, 3 are partially met, none are recorded as failing outright, 10 do not apply to a product with no audio or video, and 16 have not yet been evaluated.

That last number is deliberate, and it is the number most conformance statements quietly avoid publishing. Where we gathered no specific evidence, we say Not Evaluated rather than claiming support we have not demonstrated. A conformance claim with nothing behind it is worth less than an honest gap — and it is precisely the kind of statement that collapses under scrutiny at the worst possible moment, usually in front of the people who trusted it.

What has been tested

What has not been tested

Known barriers

Three criteria are partially met, and one of them concerns announcements. Error messages are shown in text and in context, but they are created at the same instant as their message, which is the less reliable pattern for a screen reader to notice — and unlike the status messages, we have not yet sat down and listened to one.

The other two: some generated artefacts may describe images a teacher supplies, which are outside our control; and the progress indicator during a generation cannot be paused.

One we chased for a week is now fixed, and the cause is worth naming.Status announcements — the message telling you a generation has finished — were not reaching NVDA, and three rounds of changes to the component did nothing, because the component was never at fault. A stylesheet rule written to hide empty containers was hiding the announcement region while it sat empty waiting for something to say, which took it out of the accessibility tree entirely. With that removed, NVDA speaks both the start and the finish. Confirmed by listening, on 8 August 2026.

Also fixed: Arabic passages inside bilingual output were not marked for a screen reader, so it read them with an English voice — not accented, but unintelligible. The renderer now marks them, and that criterion moved to fully met on 8 August 2026.

Generated material

EdSmartly applies structural accessibility rules to everything it produces — heading order, short paragraphs, lists, no meaning carried by colour alone, and legibility when printed in black and white. The teacher remains responsible for the final material they place in front of a student. We can make a document structurally sound; we cannot know the needs of the child receiving it.

Tell us about a barrier

If something on EdSmartly is not usable for you, we want to hear about it, and a report from someone actually blocked is worth more than another internal audit.

Email support@edsmartly.com with what you were trying to do, what happened, and the assistive technology you were using if any. We aim to acknowledge within five working days and to tell you either when it will be fixed or, honestly, that it will not be soon.

The full conformance report, with every criterion and the evidence behind it, is available on request from the same address.