Accessibility

TaleTykes aims to meet WCAG 2.2 at level AA on every screen, for parents and children alike. This page says what we have done, what we test automatically, and where we know we fall short. It is written to be useful rather than to be a claim.

What is built in

• Targets a child can hit. Anything a child taps is at least 64 pixels; anything a parent taps is at least 56. The requirement is 24, so this is not a near miss.
• A focus ring you cannot lose. Four pixels, in a colour used for nothing else, offset from the element so it is visible against any background. Nothing is focusable and invisible.
• Nothing depends on colour alone. The word being read aloud is underlined as well as highlighted.
• Motion is optional. Animation respects the operating system setting, and a parent can also turn it down for a child from settings, independently.
• A skip link, as the first thing in the document.
• No dragging. Every action in the product can be done with a single tap. There is no drag-and-drop anywhere, so the requirement about dragging movements is met by there being nothing to drag.
• Sign-in does not test your memory. Password managers work, pasting is allowed, and nothing asks you to transcribe an image. The questions used as an alternative way to prove an adult set up the account are a cognitive test, which is why they are an alternative: the ordinary route is a card.
• Choice of typeface and size belongs to the parent, including OpenDyslexic and Atkinson Hyperlegible. The evidence for OpenDyslexic is weak; it is offered because some readers prefer it, and we say so rather than claiming more.
• The reading voice is not the only route. A child can tap any word to hear it on its own, and read-along works from cached narration with the device voice as a fallback.
• Anything the guide character says is on screen as text at the same time, in a region a screen reader announces.

What is tested automatically

An accessibility check runs over the public pages, the parent dashboard and the child screens on every change, and a change that introduces a serious or critical failure does not merge.

What we know is not covered

• The automated check finds perhaps a third of what matters. A manual screen-reader pass over the reader and the story wizard is done by hand before a release, not continuously.
• We have not tested with a switch device or with voice control.
• The narration highlight assumes a child can see the page. A blind child can hear the book but the highlight tells them nothing; this is a gap, not a design decision.
• Colour contrast is asserted by the palette and reviewed by eye rather than measured on every change.

Telling us

If something here is wrong, or something in the product is unusable for you or your child, write to privacy@taletykes.com. Say what you were using and what happened. We will answer, and we will say honestly whether we can fix it and when.