Our Commitment to Accessibility

Last updated: 1st September 2026
Website: www.littlebeaks.org

Found a barrier? Tell us about it—we aim to respond within 10 working days.

Easy Read (Plain Language)

It's important to us that everyone is able to use our website. We are developing our website using the guidelines provided by WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA. We're still learning, and things aren't perfect. We are seeking feedback from a few wonderful supporters who depend on accessible functionality in their everyday lives. Their input has been and continues to be invaluable. If something is inaccessible or difficult to use, please let us know via our contact form. We'll try to fix problems quickly.

Our commitment

Little Beaks is committed to making our website usable by as many people as possible. We aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level A and AA and improve accessibility whenever we update content or features.

Current status

Partially conformant with WCAG 2.2 AA.
Most essential user journeys—reading pages and blog posts, and using forms to contact or subscribe—are usable with a keyboard and screen reader. Some third-party embeds and older content still need improvement.

Tools we're using

We're in early days of accessibility work and learning as we go. We've been grateful for support and guidance from real users who depend on accessible functionality in their everyday life, and who advise us on what's working and what isn't. As a priority point: we will never knowingly use an accessibility overlay.

What we currently use:

  • WAVE (WebAIM's browser extension) for page-level checks

  • Lighthouse (built into Chrome) for automated audits

  • Manual screen reader testing, and keyboard-only navigation

Automated tools catch only part of the picture—roughly a third of issues by most estimates. The things they can't test, like whether focus moves sensibly or whether a change on the page is announced, need a person. We do that manually, page by page, and it's slower.

What we've implemented

If any of the following remain problematic or aren't working as expected, please contact us.

  • Images & media: Alt text provided for site images; longform posts include contextual descriptions where relevant. No autoplaying audio/video.

  • Keyboard & forms: Primary navigation, buttons and forms are operable by keyboard.

  • Colour & readability: We check text and interactive contrast against WCAG AA during updates; content uses clear language and descriptive headings.

  • Forms: Contact and email sign-up forms use labelled fields and standard controls, and declare their purpose so browsers can autofill them.

  • Platform notes: Hosted on Squarespace; we configure templates and content for accessibility, noting that some theme components and third-party widgets have constraints outside our control.

Known limitations (what we're working on)

We'd rather tell you what doesn't work than imply everything does.

  • Heading structure. Some pages use heading levels for visual size rather than document structure, which means the outline a screen reader reads out doesn't always reflect how the page is organised. We're correcting this across the site.

  • Summary and card lists. The blocks that display our section links (for example, on Buddy's Branch) are generated by Squarespace in a way that breaks list semantics—a screen reader won't announce how many items are in the list. We can't change this without overriding Squarespace's own components, which would be fragile. We've raised it with them.

  • Landscape orientation on mobile. Some pages don't reflow correctly when a phone is held sideways. This is a known fault and it's on our list.

  • Older posts and embeds. Some historic images and videos lack full descriptions. We're bringing these up to standard as we revisit posts.

  • Third-party services. Our merchandise store, embedded social posts and other external tools are outside our control and may not meet WCAG. Where we can, we choose accessible providers and offer alternatives.

  • Reduced motion. We don't yet fully respect the "reduced motion" system setting. Planned.

Ongoing improvement (roadmap)

We review this statement and our site at least twice per year, and after major changes. Near-term actions: Correct heading structure across all pages. Backfill captions and descriptions on older posts and stories. Complete keyboard and screen reader testing on all forms and navigation. Fix landscape reflow on mobile. Prefer accessible third-party providers, and provide text alternatives, for embeds and external flows.

Technical compatibility

We support the latest two versions of major browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge) and common mobile operating system versions used in Australia. If a specific setup causes issues, please contact us so we can test it.

Feedback & contact

If you experience any accessibility barriers on this website, please contact us. Include the page URL, what you were trying to do, and if it's relevant, your browser, operating system or assistive technology. We aim to respond within 10 working days. Little Beaks is run by a very small team who also work full time, so we can't always be quick — but accessibility reports go to the top of the pile, and we'd rather hear about a problem late than not at all.

Formal complaints (Australia)

If you're not satisfied with our response, you may be able to lodge a complaint under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) with the Australian Human Rights Commission.