Accessibility statement.
1. Commitment
SweetNote is committed to making the platform usable by people with the widest range of abilities. The reveal page (the surface every recipient encounters) is held to the most demanding standard because we do not control the device, network, or assistive technology a recipient is using. The brand-facing dashboard is held to the same target with a longer remediation horizon as the product matures.
Conformance target: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. Because the U.S. Section 508 standard incorporates WCAG 2.0 Level AA by reference (and our 2.1 AA target is a superset of it), our work also informs Section 508–relevant evaluations in federal-procurement contexts; SweetNote has not completed a separate Section 508 assessment or published a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) / Accessibility Conformance Report at launch. We do not currently claim full Level AAA conformance.
Honest framing. WCAG 2.1 AA is the target we build and design against; it is not a representation that every surface currently passes every Level AA success criterion. No formal third-party WCAG audit or Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) has been completed at launch. Known issues are disclosed openly in Section 4. We address reported issues in good faith and update this statement as each one is fixed. A formal third-party audit and VPAT is on the platform roadmap; we will publish the VPAT here when complete.
2. Recipient-facing reveal page
The reveal page is the most-used surface across the platform and our highest-priority accessibility target.
- Keyboard navigation: every interactive element (poster play button, consent-ribbon Count me in / Not this time buttons, immersive-player controls, three-tap reactions, brand call-to-action) is reachable and operable via keyboard alone, with visible focus indicators.
- Screen-reader support: semantic HTML, descriptive labels, and ARIA where landmark or live-region semantics are needed. Tested with VoiceOver (iOS / macOS) and NVDA (Windows).
- Color contrast: minimum 4.5:1 for body text, 3:1 for large text and meaningful UI elements. Tenant-supplied brand colors are checked at onboarding; combinations that fail the floor are flagged before the reveal goes live.
- Reduced-motion respect: every CSS animation honors
prefers-reduced-motion; recipients who set the OS preference see static layouts. - Captions for prerecorded media (WCAG 2.1 SC 1.2.2). The platform automatically generates a captions track for each Customer-supplied video at upload, rendered through the reveal-page video player’s native captions track, recipient-toggleable via the player controls. Customer reviews the generated transcript before launch and remains responsible, under the Acceptable Use Policy, for the accuracy of the captions as published, including any edits. Customer may replace the generated track with its own WebVTT (
.vtt) file. - Mobile-first: touch targets meet at least the 24×24 px minimum (WCAG 2.2 SC 2.5.8); the play control is never smaller than 44 px and the consent-ribbon buttons never smaller than 36 px; the reveal page is designed primarily for phone use.
3. Brand-facing dashboard
The dashboard is used by trained operators inside Customer's organization. Conformance target is the same WCAG 2.1 AA, with a longer remediation horizon for complex visualizations.
- Keyboard navigation: primary navigation, filters, and KPI cards are keyboard-operable. Some custom chart components remain in remediation (see Section 4).
- Screen-reader support: data tables are properly marked up; chart visualizations have text alternatives summarizing the same data. Decorative chart elements use
aria-hidden. - Color contrast: the dashboard ships with a single approved palette that meets contrast minimums by default; Customer cannot override the dashboard chrome to a non-conformant palette.
- Print and PDF export: dashboard reports export to PDF in a layout that maintains semantic structure for downstream screen-reader use.
4. Known issues and remediation timeline
SweetNote operates under a "disclose openly" policy on accessibility. The current known issues:
- Custom chart components: some interactive chart elements (drill-down hover states, sparklines) do not yet expose a complete keyboard-operable interaction model. Remediation on the accessibility roadmap.
- Downloadable transcript: captions auto-generate at upload and Customer-supplied VTT files are supported; a separately downloadable full-text transcript is on the accessibility roadmap.
- High-contrast mode: the dashboard renders correctly in OS-level high-contrast modes; a dedicated high-contrast theme is on the accessibility roadmap.
- Disabled sample-size slider on the pricing calculator: before a methodology is selected, the recipient-count slider renders in a dimmed inactive state whose label sits below the 4.5:1 body-text ratio. This is retained deliberately. WCAG 2.1 SC 1.4.3 exempts text that is part of an inactive user interface component, and dimming a disabled control is the conventional signal that it is not yet operable. An automated scanner will flag it; we are recording here that it is an exemption rather than an oversight. The control meets the ratio as soon as it becomes active.
5. Testing approach
Accessibility is checked at three layers:
- Automated: axe-core (or equivalent) is run against the reveal-page and dashboard surfaces during development; flagged failures are triaged and tracked in the development backlog.
- Manual: periodic review with VoiceOver, NVDA, and keyboard-only navigation, conducted by the founder before each material reveal-page release, and otherwise as the surface changes.
- External audit: on the post-launch roadmap, scheduled after the first cohort of paid customer studies. Reports shareable under NDA on request.
6. Reporting an issue
If you encounter an accessibility barrier on any SweetNote surface, the marketing site, a reveal page, the dashboard, please report it directly to accessibility@thesweetnote.com. Include:
- The URL or surface where the issue occurred.
- The assistive technology in use (if applicable: NVDA, VoiceOver, JAWS, etc.).
- What you expected to happen, and what happened instead.
We respond within five business days with an acknowledgement and remediation plan.
7. Changes to this statement
This statement is updated when conformance changes or a new issue is identified, and reviewed at least annually. The canonical version is published at thesweetnote.com/legal/accessibility.