Rule 4 — Equality Act 2010 / WCAG 2.1 AA

Accessibility

Last updated · 22 June 2026

I aim for this website to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA, the accessibility standard the UK government uses and that most Equality-Act-2010 case law refers to as the “reasonable adjustments” floor for public web content.

What that means in practice

  • Text contrast against backgrounds is at least 4.5:1 for body copy, 3:1 for large text.
  • You can navigate the entire site with a keyboard alone — Tab to move, Enter or Space to activate, Escape to close.
  • All meaningful images have descriptive alt text. Decorative-only images are marked accordingly.
  • Headings follow a logical hierarchy (one H1 per page, nested H2-H3 below it).
  • Focus rings are visible on every interactive element. They’ve not been removed.
  • There’s a “skip to main content” link as the first focusable element on every page.
  • Animations and transitions respect the prefers-reduced-motion setting in your operating system. If you have it on, motion is disabled.
  • Body text is at least 16px equivalent. You can zoom to 200% without horizontal scrolling.

What might still fail

Honest disclosure. The site is new — first published 2026. It hasn’t been independently audited yet. I’ve tested with axe DevTools and WAVE, but those tools don’t catch everything. If you find something:

Reporting a problem

Email hi@jaycosten.co.uk with:

  • The page URL where you hit the issue
  • What you were trying to do
  • What went wrong (a screenshot or short description is fine)
  • The browser and assistive tech you’re using (if relevant)

I’ll reply within five working days, and aim to fix any genuine accessibility barrier within fourteen days of confirming it.

What I do for client sites

Every site I build for a client meets the same WCAG 2.1 AA floor. It’s part of Rule 4 of my standing build rules — non-negotiable, audited before deploy. If you’re a client and your visitor reports an issue, loop me in.

If I’m not responding

If you’ve emailed and I haven’t replied in a reasonable time, you can escalate to the Equality Advisory and Support Service: equalityadvisoryservice.com.