Built to a standard, not yet audited against it
This statement covers pontis.company. It sets out the standard we build to, what has actually been tested, what we know is imperfect, and how to tell us when something blocks you.
What we build to
The design system underneath this site was written against WCAG 2.2 level AA from the first component, rather than corrected towards it afterwards.
Building to a standard is not the same as being certified against it. We make no claim of full conformance, because no independent audit has been carried out — see what we know is imperfect.
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One structure, honestly marked up
Every route has exactly one level-one heading, headings descend without skipping levels, and landmarks — header, main, footer, navigation — are real elements rather than styled containers.
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Operable from the keyboard alone
Every control can be reached and used with a keyboard, focus is always visible, and a skip link jumps straight to the main content. Dialogs return focus to the control that opened them.
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Targets and spacing
Buttons and form controls are at least 48 pixels on their smallest side, comfortably above the 44-pixel floor, so a control is not a game of precision on a phone. Inline text links sit within the flow of a sentence and are sized by the text around them.
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Colour that carries no meaning alone
Colour pairings are defined as tokens and asserted by a contrast script that runs against the design system. Status is never signalled by colour alone — icons carry text, and external links announce themselves to assistive technology.
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Motion as enhancement, never as a gate
Reveal animations are progressive: with JavaScript unavailable, or with reduced motion requested, content appears immediately rather than staying hidden. Nothing is trapped behind an animation that never runs.
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Text that survives being resized
Type and spacing are set in relative units on a fluid scale, so zooming or enlarging the browser’s base font size reflows the page instead of clipping it.
What has actually been checked
Four things have been done. It is worth being precise about them, because the gap between them and a full audit is the honest subject of this page.
Automated scans
Routes are scanned with axe-core, driven through a browser test runner. These runs catch machine-detectable failures: missing names, broken heading order, insufficient contrast, invalid ARIA.
Keyboard review
Pages are walked with the keyboard only — tab order, focus visibility, skip link, dialog focus trapping and escape behaviour, and whether anything can be reached but not operated.
Contrast asserted in code
Every colour pairing used on the site is listed in a contrast script that fails if a ratio drops below the threshold, so a token change cannot quietly break legibility.
Reduced-motion and no-JavaScript checks
Pages are reviewed with reduced motion requested and with scripting unavailable, to confirm that content remains readable and that no consent-gated script loads regardless.
No independent accessibility audit has been commissioned, and no third party has assessed this site. Nothing on this page should be read as a certificate of conformance.
What we know is imperfect
Listed plainly, so nobody has to discover them the hard way. This list is incomplete by definition — it contains what we have found, not everything there is.
- The alliance diagram
- The stakeholder diagram on the homepage is decorative. It is hidden from assistive technology, and the meaning it illustrates is carried in the text beside it — the diagram adds emphasis, not information. If you find a point the text does not make, that is a defect worth reporting.
- The Frontline preview
- The product surface shown for Frontline is illustrative: it demonstrates the structure of an entry, not live content, and is labelled as such on the page. Anyone who needs the actual intelligence should go to the product itself at frontln.com.
- Wide tables
- The cookie inventory is a genuine table and scrolls horizontally inside its own container rather than forcing the page sideways. The container is keyboard-focusable so it can be scrolled without a mouse, but on a narrow screen reading the full row still requires horizontal movement.
- Screen reader coverage
- We have not run a formal test matrix across screen reader and browser pairings. Behaviour has been checked in development, not certified across NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver and TalkBack.
- What automated tools cannot see
- Automated scanning catches only a minority of accessibility problems. Passing axe is a floor, not a conformance claim — judgements about meaningful link text, sensible reading order and clear language need people.
- Destinations we do not control
- This site links to third-party destinations, including frontln.com, event sites and social platforms. Their accessibility is governed by their own operators, and we cannot make commitments on their behalf.
If something blocks you, tell us
A barrier you hit is more useful than any scan we run. Write to [email protected] and put “accessibility” in the subject line.
What helps us reproduce it
- The address of the page, and what you were trying to do there.
- What happened instead, in your own words — a screenshot is not required.
- Your browser and operating system, and any assistive technology you were using, if you are comfortable sharing that.
What happens next
A person reads it. We try to reproduce the problem, and we tell you what we found — including when we could not reproduce it, or when a fix is harder than it looks. Where a fix will take time, we will offer you the same information by another route: plain text over email, or a conversation.
We do not publish a response-time commitment, because we would rather not make a promise we cannot yet keep to everyone. Reports are not queued behind commercial enquiries.
Email [email protected]Turn a strategic gap into a working ecosystem.
Bring us a concrete use case, a market failure or a capability gap. We will help define the context, the stakeholders and the format needed to move it towards a decision.
For problem owners, problem solvers, capital providers and market standard-setters.