Gentle Steps — Accessibility Statement

Last updated: 22 September 2026

Gentle Steps is built for people with ADHD, autism and dyslexia, so accessibility is the point of the app rather than a compliance exercise. This page says what has actually been done, what has not, and how it was checked — including where the answer is "not yet".

Status: partially conformant, self-assessed. Colour contrast is verified automatically against WCAG 2.2 AA on every change. The rest has been built carefully but has not been independently audited, and has not been tested by screen reader users. Anything below that says "verified" was measured; anything that says "not tested" means exactly that.

What has been verified

Colour contrast. Every foreground and background pair, in all three background themes, is checked against WCAG 2.2 AA — 4.5:1 for body text, 3:1 for large text and interface elements. The check runs as npm run check:contrast and exits with an error if any pair falls below, so a failing palette cannot be released. Eight pairs inherited from an earlier design were below the line and were corrected. The brand green was darkened from #2F8F72 to #2A8469 because white button text on the original measured 3.97:1.

Every interactive control has an accessibility role. Verified by an automated pass over the source on 22 September 2026. Before that date eleven controls did not, including the sign-in button.

Text follows the system font size. The app does not override the operating system's text scaling, so enlarging text in Android's settings enlarges it here.

Reading options

Three typefaces, three backgrounds, changeable at any time and free forever:

Option	What the evidence actually says
Inter (default)	A plain, highly legible face.
Atkinson Hyperlegible	Drawn to separate letters that get confused — b, d, p, q. The best-founded of the three.
OpenDyslexic	Widely liked and widely requested. Careful studies have not found that it improves reading, and some find a small cost. It is offered because people find it comfortable, not because it works.
Cream / blue / night backgrounds	The blue tint has little good independent evidence behind it. Offered for comfort, on the same honest footing.

Those caveats are stated inside the app as well. Relabelling a comfort option as a proven accessibility intervention is the claim this app deliberately does not make.

Design decisions made for this audience

No streaks, scores or completion percentages. For people whose difficulty is starting, a streak counter punishes precisely the failure the app exists to soften.
No time limits on any interaction.
No flashing, and no animation that could provoke a seizure or discomfort.
Works without a signal. Tasks are cached and completions are queued, so losing connection does not lose your day.
A goal produces at most three steps, and a one-action goal produces one. Padding a simple task into six ceremonial steps is its own accessibility problem.

Known limitations — what has not been done

No independent audit. Everything here is self-assessed. There is no VPAT or third-party conformance report.
Not tested with TalkBack by a screen reader user. Roles are present and labels are on the controls that need them, but that is not the same as somebody who relies on it having used the app.
Not tested with switch access or voice control.
No in-app text size control. The app follows the system setting, which covers most needs but is not the same thing.
Android only. There is no iOS version.
The interactive buttons on reminders — "Started it" and "In 20 minutes" — need a full install from Google Play. They do not appear when the app is run through Expo Go.

How this was assessed

Contrast by an automated check against the WCAG 2.2 AA thresholds, run on every change to the palette. Roles by an automated pass over the source. Everything else by the developer, against the WCAG 2.2 AA criteria, without assistive-technology testing.

That is a weaker basis than a formal audit and is presented as such. If you are assessing this app for an institution and need conformance evidence beyond a self-assessment, say so — it is better to arrange a proper audit than to have you take this page on trust.

Telling us something is wrong

If any part of Gentle Steps is unusable for you, email gentlestepsapp@gmail.com. Describe what you were trying to do and what happened — you do not need to know the technical term for it.

Accessibility faults are treated as ordinary bugs and go to the front of the queue, because an app nobody can use is worse than a missing feature.

For institutions

If you are a university disability service, college or employer considering Gentle Steps for a group, email the address above. Data is stored in the EU (Ireland), the app collects deliberately little, and the privacy policy lists every item. Licensing for groups, a data processing agreement, and a fuller accessibility assessment can all be arranged — none of them exists as a standard document yet, and it is better to say so than to send you something dressed up as one.

Contact

gentlestepsapp@gmail.com