Legal · Document 04 · Accessibility

Accessibility statement.

Effective26 September 2026

Version1.1

Applies toSeven surfaces, named below

This statement follows the structure the Government Digital Service model statement uses, because the councils, schools and colleges we sell to are asked for one in that shape. It names each surface separately, because their conformance differs and a single blanket claim would be false. Where something does not conform, we say so and say when.

What this statement covers

ComplyChat is operated by CIaaS Limited. This statement covers seven surfaces, and treats each one separately:

The marketing site at chat.org.uk, which is what you are reading now.
Free sign-up at chat.org.uk/free.html, the mobile web flow that creates a Free ComplyChat account.
The member app at comply.chat.org.uk – the messaging app that staff, volunteers, families and residents use, in a browser or installed to a home screen.
The iOS app, the native ComplyChat app on the App Store, which shares its sign-in and its record with the browser and home-screen version.
The Android app, the native ComplyChat app, built and reviewed against the same standard ahead of its Google Play release.
The client portal, which a customer organisation's administrators use to manage channels and people, review the record and read the transparency feed.
The operator console, used only by CIaaS Limited's own staff to run the service. It is not a customer surface, but people who use it are entitled to the same access, so it is assessed and reported here.

It does not cover Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Purview, which customers use under their own Microsoft licences, nor the content that customers and their members put into channels.

How accessible ComplyChat is

Our target across every surface is full conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2, level AA. We do not claim more than that, and section 07 lists exactly what stands between each surface and it. In summary:

The member app is the most tested surface. Its automated audit, re-run on 25 September 2026, found no violations beyond the pinch-zoom viewport exception disclosed in section 03; expert review still found a number of manual failures, corrected through the same 26 September 2026 fix train, with what is left open listed in section 07; pinch-zoom of the whole app is deliberately switched off (section 03); and the app adopts the iPhone and iPad system text styles so that the Dynamic Type setting scales most of it, with the exceptions stated in section 03 and device verification listed in section 07.
The client portal was clean of automated violations at its most recent audit (25 September 2026); section 07 lists the manual findings automated checks cannot catch, including its 12-hour administrator session.
The operator console had a contrast defect on its Replay drawer, found at the 5 September 2026 re-run and fixed on 26 September 2026 (see 'Fixed since the first audit' in section 07); the audit of 25 September 2026 found the console clean of automated violations.
The marketing site is covered by the same audit harness as the product surfaces; the 25/26 September 2026 re-run found one new violation, listed in section 07, and what else remains open is listed there too.

No surface has been tested with assistive-technology users. Section 09 says so plainly and section 08 says what we are doing about it.

Text size and zoom.

A design decision, stated as one

In the member app, pinch-zoom of the whole screen is switched off on purpose. The app is built to feel like the messaging apps people already use, with a fixed viewport, so that the message list, the composer and the keyboard behave predictably on a phone. That is a choice we have made, and we are not describing it as a defect we intend to fix.

What we do instead: text follows the text-size setting of your device – the browser's or Android's text-size setting, and on iPhone and iPad the Dynamic Type setting (Settings, Accessibility, Larger Text), which the app opts into through the system text styles – and the layout is designed to stay usable at large sizes; photographs and images in a conversation can be zoomed individually. On iPhone and iPad the browser does not honour the viewport setting on its own, so the app also blocks the pinch gesture itself; the outcome is the same on every phone. Disabling pinch-zoom does not meet WCAG success criterion 1.4.4 (Resize text) in the way that criterion is usually read, and we list it under section 07 for that reason.

Two elements keep a fixed design size rather than scaling with Dynamic Type: a chat's name and its 'Recorded' tag in the conversation header. That is a deliberate choice, made on 14 September 2026, that follows Apple's own pattern for a compact navigation bar; both appear at their full, scaled size one tap away, in Chat info. Scaling everywhere else is capped at 200% of the base size, which is what WCAG success criterion 1.4.4 asks for; we do not scale past that cap even where a device's own setting goes further. Documents previewed in the app – PDF, Word and PowerPoint files – render at the size of the page itself and rely on the viewer's own zoom control rather than your device's text-size setting.

The marketing site, the client portal and the operator console do not disable zoom.

Feedback and contact

If you cannot access part of ComplyChat, need information in a different format, or want to tell us about an accessibility problem, contact us; we aim to acknowledge every message within one UK working day:

Email: enquiries@chat.org.uk
24-hour voicemail and text: 020 3095 1100 – leave a voicemail or send a text at any time.

If you use ComplyChat through an organisation – a charity, care provider, school, college, chartered body or regulator – you can also raise it with that organisation, which can pass it to us.

Enforcement

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 in England, Scotland and Wales. Where ComplyChat is supplied to a public sector body, those regulations apply to the body's use of it. If you are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS), which handles enquiries on behalf of the EHRC in Great Britain, including Scotland. In Northern Ireland the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland has that role.

Technical information and compliance status

CIaaS Limited is committed to making ComplyChat accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 as they apply to the public bodies we supply.

Compliance status. ComplyChat is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and the design decision listed below. We do not claim a higher level of conformance for any surface.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the reasons given. Each item names the surface, the success criterion, what we found and where it stands.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Surface	What does not conform	WCAG 2.2 criterion	Status
Member app	Text scaling on iPhone and iPad through the Dynamic Type setting. The app adopts the system text styles so that Larger Text scales it; the change is verified on a physical iPhone and iPad before this row is removed.	1.4.4 Resize text	Built, and awaiting verification on a physical iPhone and iPad. This row is removed at the review that follows it.
Member app	Pinch-zoom of the whole app is disabled by the viewport declaration (see section 03). Text still scales with the operating-system text-size setting, and images zoom individually.	1.4.4 Resize text	Deliberate design decision with the mitigation stated in section 03. Not scheduled for change. Reviewed at each statement review.
Member app	A chat's name and its 'Recorded' tag in the conversation header keep a fixed design size rather than scaling with Dynamic Type (see section 03); both appear at their full, scaled size one tap away, in Chat info.	1.4.4 Resize text	Deliberate design decision (14 September 2026) with the mitigation stated in section 03. Not scheduled for change. Reviewed at each statement review.
Marketing site (chat.org.uk)	Automated checks only. Every published page is checked with axe-core against WCAG 2.2 A and AA at 1440px and 390px wide, in the default state of each page plus the contact-form dialog. Expanded states (the FAQ accordions, the "show all" folds and the showcase panels) are covered by review, not by the automated scan. The site presents in a light appearance only and honours the reduced-motion preference throughout.	Not assessed by automation beyond the default state	Re-audited 25 September 2026; re-run on each audit cycle.
Marketing site (printed collateral)	The trustee briefing and the other printed briefing and deployment notes are handed over as PDF. Their HTML sources pass the automated checks; the PDF renders have not been checked against PDF/UA and carry no accessibility tagging.	PDF/UA (documents)	Tagging and a PDF/UA check are planned. Until then the same content is available as HTML on request.
Client portal	An administrator's session ends 12 hours after sign-in with no warning and no way to extend it. If the session ends while you are mid-edit, what you had typed is restored once you sign back in, so nothing is lost silently, but the timing itself is not adjustable.	2.2.1 Timing adjustable	Open. The 12-hour absolute session is an authentication control judged unsafe to lengthen unread; reviewed at each statement review pending a decision on a longer or extendable session.
All surfaces	No testing with screen-reader or other assistive-technology users has been carried out.	Not assessed	Testing with assistive-technology users is commissioned; this statement is updated with its findings. Until it is done, no surface is described as accessible to assistive-technology users beyond what automated checks and keyboard probes can show.

Calls

In the member app and the iOS and Android apps, text messaging in a chat's conversation runs alongside a call: a 'Chat' control on the call bar brings the message list forward without ending the call, and the summary sent after a call ends is text. Real-time text and captions during a call are not provided, so calls do not meet EN 301 549 clause 6.2 (real-time text) for a member who is deaf, hard of hearing or cannot use voice; this is on our list for a further brief. On a video call there is also no indicator that the other person is speaking: on the web and in the member app in a browser this is fixed by a visual and text cue on the remote video tile, and on the two native apps' lock-screen call screens it remains open, disclosed here rather than in the table above because EN 301 549 6.5.5, not WCAG, is the criterion it falls under.

Fixed since the first audit, so you know the list above is current

Operator console, 17 August 2026: two selection controls on the customers view had no accessible name; twenty-one disclosure controls on the audit view had no accessible name; one scrolling table on the health view could not receive keyboard focus (WCAG 4.1.2, 2.1.1) – fixed the same day, with a regression test that checks the rendered page; confirmed clean by the audit re-run of 5 September 2026. A different Health table, the client portal's Usage table and the document viewer's sheet grid and page area were later found unfocusable by keyboard at 390px – see 26 September 2026, below.
Member app, 5 September 2026: three text elements – the status line beneath a channel's title, the recorded tag beside it, and the label on the alerts-readiness advisory – fell short of the 4.5:1 contrast ratio (WCAG 1.4.3). Found on 17 August 2026 and fixed on 5 September 2026 by raising their opacity and darkening a colour token, with a test that now measures the ratios on every change.
Client portal, 12 July 2026: four selection controls with no accessible name (WCAG 4.1.2) – fixed; the portal now carries labels or accessible names on each.
Member app, 12 July 2026: 208 colour-contrast failures across the muted text colour used in both portals, and a white-on-green call button (WCAG 1.4.3) – fixed by darkening the tokens; the audit measured zero contrast failures product-wide that night, apart from the items found later and listed above.
Member app, 12 July 2026: the read state of a message was shown as two red ticks, a hue-only change from the grey of a delivered message (WCAG 1.4.1 Use of colour) – fixed by changing read ticks to blue; colour alone still told Read apart from Delivered until the further fix of 26 September 2026, below.
Member app, 12 July 2026: a presence indicator with an attribute not permitted on its element, a list with children that were not list items, and interactive rows nested inside interactive rows (WCAG 4.1.2, 1.3.1) – fixed, though the Archived, back, channel-folder and Live Support inbox rows kept a button wrapped in role="listitem" until the fix of 26 September 2026, below.
Member app, 12 July 2026: the emoji panel could not be dismissed with the Escape key (WCAG 2.1.2) – fixed.
Member app, 26 September 2026: Delivered and Read ticks still drew the identical shape, so colour alone told them apart (WCAG 1.4.1), and the grey used for Sent and Delivered measured as little as 2.42:1 on a sent bubble (WCAG 1.4.11) – fixed by drawing Read with a heavier stroke and darkening the grey token to at least 3:1 against both backgrounds.
Member app, 26 September 2026: the Archived, back, channel-folder and Live Support inbox rows were built as a button carrying role="listitem", which removes its button role (WCAG 4.1.2) – fixed by wrapping each in a plain listitem element around an unrestyled button, as the Live Support inbox row already did.
Member app, client portal and operator console, 26 September 2026: three scrolling regions with no focusable content of their own – the document viewer's sheet grid and page area, the client portal's Usage table, and a Health table on the operator console, each at 390px – could not be reached or scrolled by keyboard outside Chromium (WCAG 4.1.2, 2.1.1); fixed by giving each tabindex="0", role="region" and an accessible name, as the operator console's Customer readiness table already did.
Operator console, 26 September 2026: the Replay drawer's "edited" marker, found on 17 August 2026 at 3.63:1, still measured 3.63:1 at the audit of 5 September 2026 (WCAG 1.4.3) – fixed by darkening it to 5.52:1.
Marketing site (footer), 26 September 2026: the 'get the app on the App Store' link, in the sentence next to the footer, was told apart from the surrounding text by colour alone (WCAG 1.4.1 Use of colour) – fixed the same day with a persistent underline; confirmed clean by the site-only audit re-run.

Disproportionate burden

We are not claiming that any item is a disproportionate burden.

Content that is not within the scope of the regulations

Documents, images, recordings and other files that customers and their members put into a channel are the customer's content, not ours, and are outside the scope of this statement. Where the app displays such a file, the viewer that displays it is within scope.

What we are doing

The automated audit is part of the product's own test harness and is re-run against the live product on each audit cycle; two of its checks run in the product's standard test suite on every change, so a fix cannot quietly regress.
The colour tokens are covered by a test that measures contrast ratios, so a regression fails the build rather than waiting for the next audit.
The marketing site is in the same audit harness as the product surfaces, so this statement reports a measured result for it.
Testing with assistive-technology users is commissioned; this statement is updated with what it finds.

How this statement was prepared

This statement was prepared on 6 September 2026 and last updated on 26 September 2026. The assessment behind it was carried out by CIaaS Limited using its own harness, not by an external auditor, and covers:

Automated checks: axe-core running the WCAG 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 A and AA rule sets across the rendered states of the member app (light and dark), the client portal, the operator console and the marketing site.
Target-size measurement against the WCAG 2.5.8 24-pixel floor and the Apple Human Interface Guidelines 44-point advisory.
Keyboard probes for tab reachability, Escape dismissal and visible focus, with independent expert-review lenses applied to the captured screens.
A review on 25 September 2026: expert and automated, against WCAG 2.2 AA together with EN 301 549, Nielsen's heuristics and ISO 9241-110, the Apple Human Interface Guidelines and the equivalent Android guidance, and the GOV.UK and WhatsApp content conventions; automated checks ran in Chromium only. It covered all four product surfaces, Free sign-up, the iOS and Android apps and the marketing site, and its fixes are reflected throughout this statement.

No manual screen-reader audit and no testing with assistive-technology users has been carried out; that testing is described in section 08, and nothing above should be read as claiming it has happened.

Review

We review this statement whenever an audit is run, whenever a surface changes in a way that affects the items above, and in any event at least every twelve months. The Effective date at the top always reflects the most recent version. Next review by: 26 September 2027.