Accessibility Statement

1. Our commitment

Digital Empire Holdings LLC is committed to making TariffWatch usable by everyone, including people who use screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, or browser zoom/high-contrast modes. We target conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA , a target we actively work toward, not a certification claim. This matters more than usual for TariffWatch: the comment-letter drafter is used under a hard regulatory deadline (the BIS public-comment window), and a barrier that blocks a keyboard or screen-reader user from submitting a comment in time is a real harm, not a cosmetic bug.

2. Testing methodology

Automated: axe-core and Lighthouse accessibility audits on every page template on template changes, targeting a Lighthouse a11y score of 90+ (Google Perfection Standard v2 §11 floor).
Manual: keyboard-only walkthroughs on the exposure checker and comment-letter drafter/submit flow before each shipped change to those flows.
Structural checks: exactly one <h1>, no skipped heading levels, skip-to-main-content link, landmark regions on every page.

3. Known limitations (as of August 13, 2026)

The CountdownClock component (comment-window countdown) updates via JS interval and has not yet been verified against aria-live="polite" best practice for how frequently a screen reader should be interrupted, currently it may announce more often than ideal.
The exposure-checker's HTS-code results table does not yet expose a full screen-reader table summary (scope attributes inconsistent across older components).
Third-party embeds (Stripe Checkout, once paid tiers ship) are excluded from our own testing scope per WCAG's third-party-content carve-out.

None of the above block core task completion (running the exposure checker, drafting and submitting a comment letter) with a keyboard or screen reader, they are polish/completeness gaps.

4. Ongoing improvement

Re-audited on every template change and at least quarterly (tied to Standard v2 §15, next scheduled 2026-11-11). Given the active regulatory deadline, the countdown/comment-letter flow gets priority re-testing ahead of the general quarterly cycle if any defect is reported.

5. Date of last audit

Last full manual + automated pass: 2026-08-09 (Golf-Claude-Portion 2026-08-09 a11y sweep). This statement published August 13, 2026.

6. Report an accessibility issue

Email hello@citationsafe.com with the page URL, assistive technology/browser used, and what happened. Given the comment-window deadline, flag time-sensitive reports with "URGENT" in the subject line, we prioritize those same-day.

8. Conformance by WCAG principle

Perceivable: text alternatives on informative images, sufficient color contrast on primary templates (automated-audited per Section 2), and content that does not rely on color alone -- severity/status indicators pair color with a text label, not color alone.
Operable: full keyboard operability on the exposure checker and comment-letter drafter; visible focus indicators; a skip-to-main-content link as the first focusable element on every page; no content that flashes more than three times per second.
Understandable: consistent navigation and labeling across every page; form fields with real <label> elements, not placeholder-only labels; error messages that state what went wrong in plain language.
Robust: semantic HTML landmarks (header/main/footer/nav) and valid markup assistive technology can parse reliably, verified via the axe-core automated pass in Section 2.

9. Assistive technology we test with

Manual keyboard-only walkthroughs (Section 2) are run in Chrome and Safari on macOS. We do not yet run a dedicated screen-reader (VoiceOver/NVDA/JAWS) pass on every release -- a real gap, listed honestly in Section 3 rather than glossed over, and the top item on our next accessibility improvement pass.

11. Roadmap

Next up, in priority order: a dedicated VoiceOver pass on the exposure checker and comment-letter drafter (targeting Q4 2026), full scope-attribute coverage on results tables, and a written conformance report we can share directly with Enterprise customers' own accessibility/procurement teams on request. We update this section honestly as items land.

12. Why this matters for TariffWatch specifically

TariffWatch exists to help sellers meet a hard regulatory deadline. A tool that's inaccessible to a keyboard-only or screen-reader user isn't just a UX gap, it's a barrier between that person and a compliance deadline that doesn't care whether the tool worked for them. That's why we treat accessibility defects on the core task flow as fix-fast issues, not backlog items.

13. How we scope a conformance check

A "WCAG 2.1 AA conformance check" can mean very different things depending on how thorough it is. Ours combines the W3C's own Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) rules where an automated rule exists, manual review against the remaining criteria using the methodology in the W3C's Easy Checks guide, and the keyboard spot checks described in Section 2. We do not claim a formal third-party VPAT audit has been performed, if an Enterprise customer's procurement process requires one, email hello@citationsafe.com and we'll scope what's realistic.

14. Mobile and responsive accessibility

the exposure checker and comment-letter drafter is built mobile-first with a 390px minimum viewport target, tap targets sized at least 44×44px, and no horizontal scroll on any screen size we test against. Pinch-to-zoom is never disabled, some sites block zoom to protect a fragile layout; ours doesn't need to.

14. Related pages

Digital Empire Holdings LLC, 30 N Gould St Ste N, Sheridan WY 82801