Accessibility

We want everyone to be able to use this website, whatever equipment or assistive technology you use. This page says how the site measures up, what we’ve fixed, what we haven’t yet, and how to tell us when something gets in your way.

What we’re aiming for

We work to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, level AA. As a charity we’re not required to publish a statement like this — we do it because we’d rather be straight about where the site stands.

How we tested it

On 13 August 2026 we tested every page of this site — 26 pages at the time — with axe-core 4.13.0, an automated accessibility checker. Each page was tested at mobile and desktop sizes, both with the cookie banner showing and with it dismissed. The same checks now run automatically every time the site is updated, so a fix can’t quietly come undone.

Automated checks are useful but limited: they typically catch somewhere between a third and a half of real accessibility problems. They can’t judge whether image descriptions are accurate, whether link text makes sense out of context, or whether the whole site works end to end with a keyboard or a screen reader. We haven’t yet done that manual testing, so we don’t claim the site is fully accessible. The honest claim is this: it passes automated WCAG 2.1 AA checks, with the known issues listed below.

What we’ve fixed

• Contact form fields on 18 pages had no labels a screen reader could use. Fixed.
• Some links and buttons were too small to tap reliably on a phone. Fixed.
• Several text colours sat just below the recommended contrast ratio. Darkened — you shouldn’t notice the difference, but people reading in bright light will.

What we know still needs work

• Some orange text and buttons don’t meet the recommended contrast ratio against white and pale backgrounds. Orange is our main brand colour, so we’re reviewing this properly as a design decision rather than patching it piecemeal.
• The large pale-blue heading on our home page and the yellow “Get Involved” button are low-contrast and can be hard to read, especially in bright light. Both are under review.
• On some pages the heading levels skip a step, which is awkward if you browse by headings in a screen reader. Under review.
• Our calendar page shows Open Source Arts’ events listing, which they build and host. Some links inside it are unlabelled and some of its colours are low-contrast. We’ve raised it with them; we can’t fix it from our side.

Tell us if something doesn’t work

If any part of this site is hard for you to use, we’d genuinely like to know. Email hello@yorkshirecircus.co.uk or use the contact form, and tell us what you were trying to do and what got in the way. We’ll do our best to fix it, or find you another way to get what you needed.

About this statement

This statement was prepared on 13 August 2026, based on automated testing of the whole site on the same date. We’ll update it when things change.