Accessibility statement
What works, and what still does not.
Any Plate Check aims to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 at level AA, published as a W3C Recommendation on 12 December 2024. It does not claim to conform fully, and the second half of this page is a list of the places it falls short.
Statement prepared 30 July 2026 and reviewed whenever a page template changes. It is based on a self-assessment of the site, not on an independent audit.
Honest summary
Where this site currently stands
Most of the structural work is done: semantic headings, real labels, a visible focus ring on everything, reduced motion respected, every chart backed by a table of its own numbers, and no place where colour alone tells you something.
What is missing is verification. Nobody outside this project has audited it, and it has not been tested in a session with people who use a screen reader or a magnifier every day. Until that happens, claiming conformance would be a claim about work that has not been done.
Built in
What has been done for accessibility
Each of these is in the code rather than on a roadmap, and each one is described specifically enough that you can check it yourself.
Headings that describe the page
One h1 on every page, then h2 and h3 in order with nothing skipped, so a screen reader's heading list is a usable table of contents rather than a pile of styled text.
A working skip link
The first thing the keyboard reaches on every page is a link straight to the main content, past the header and the navigation. This site is form-heavy, so that link earns its keep.
A focus ring you cannot miss
Every focusable element gets a two pixel outline in the brand accent with a two pixel offset. It is defined once, globally, and never removed for cosmetic reasons. Tab through any page and you always know where you are.
Reduced motion honoured
If your system asks for reduced motion, every animation and transition drops to effectively nothing and smooth scrolling is switched off. Nothing on this site relies on movement to convey meaning, so nothing is lost by turning it off.
Charts carry their numbers as a table
Each chart renders a visually hidden table of the same figures alongside the graphic, with a caption that says what the chart shows. The numbers are readable without interpreting a shape, which also helps anybody who would simply rather read them.
Colour is never the only signal
A status marker always carries a word as well as a colour: passed, failed, advisory, charged, exempt. A red dot on its own would be useless to a reader who cannot distinguish it from the green one, and unreadable in a printed page.
A light theme that was designed, not inverted
Light is the default look, because these pages get read outdoors on a phone and printed for the glovebox. Dark is a separate set of tokens rather than an inversion, with the accent moved to a lighter stop so it holds contrast on dark surfaces. The control is in the site header.
Real labels and one calm live region
Every calculator field has a genuine label and an accessible description, and each result panel is a single polite live region rather than several. One region means a screen reader announces one update when a figure changes, not a stream of them.
Figures that line up, and no surprises
Numeric columns use tabular figures so they do not shimmer as they update. There is no auto-playing media, no carousel, no time limit on any task, and nothing that flashes.
Keyboard and zoom
Everything can be done without a mouse
Every control on the site is a real button, link or form field, so it is reachable by tab, operable by enter or space, and dismissible by escape where that applies. Nothing is a clickable div. Type is set in relative units, so browser zoom and a larger default font size both enlarge the page rather than clipping it, and tables scroll inside their own container instead of pushing the whole page sideways.
Known problems
Where this site falls short
Listed because a statement that only describes the good parts is not an accessibility statement, it is marketing. Each of these is known, none is disputed, and all are on the list to fix.
No independent audit
This statement is a self-assessment of the code and the pages. There has been no third-party audit and no formal testing session with people who use assistive technology daily. That is the largest gap on this list, and it is the reason no conformance claim is made.
Wide tables scroll sideways without a sticky header
Several reference tables have more columns than a phone can show, so they scroll horizontally inside their own container. The header row does not stay in view while you scroll, which means on a narrow screen you can lose track of which column you are reading.
The chart tables are thorough rather than efficient
The hidden table behind a chart lists every data point with no summary row first. It is complete, but listening to a long one takes a while, and there is no way to hear the shape of the data before the detail.
The low-emphasis text ramp has not been measured everywhere
Hints, footnotes and axis labels use the faintest step in the text scale. It has not been contrast-measured against every surface it appears on, in both themes. It is only ever used for supporting text, never for the only copy of a figure, but that is a mitigation rather than a fix.
The plate decoder speaks while you are still typing
Once two characters are in, the decoder starts reporting what the mark says through its live region. For a sighted user that is helpful feedback. For a screen reader user it can interrupt typing, and there is currently no way to ask it to wait until you have finished.
Calculators update on every keystroke
Results change as you type rather than after a submit button, which is the right behaviour for most people and a noisy one for anybody listening. There is no option to switch to a submit-and-read model, and that is a real shortfall rather than a preference.
Number plates keep their real colours
The plate badge is black type on white or yellow in both themes, because that is what a physical plate looks like and it is what makes it recognisable. The consequence is that this one element does not follow the theme or your own colour preferences.
There is no third-party content on this site, no embedded video, no iframe and no widget from another company, so nothing on this list is somebody else’s problem to fix. Every item above is ours.
Report a barrier
If something here stops you, tell us
A barrier report is treated as a fault, not as feedback.
How to report it
Email hello@kerbwise.co.uk with Accessibility in the subject
It helps to know the page, what you were trying to do, and what got in the way. If you can say which browser and which assistive technology you were using, that usually halves the time it takes to reproduce. If you cannot, send it anyway. A vague report about a real barrier is worth far more than no report.
You will get a reply within five working days. If the barrier stops you completing a task on the site, it goes to the front of the queue ahead of new features, and you will be told when it is fixed rather than left to check back.
If you need a figure from a page you cannot use, ask and it will be sent to you in plain text in the reply, with the source it came from. That is a workaround, not a substitute for fixing the page.
Regulations and scope
This is a private site, not a public sector body, so the accessibility regulations that apply to government services do not apply here. This statement is voluntary.
It covers every page on this domain. Pages on GOV.UK that we link to are covered by the government’s own accessibility statements, not by this one.