Accessibility

Managing your money is not optional, so the tool for it should not be usable only by some people. We treat accessibility as part of whether a feature works at all, not as a later pass.

We are candid below about what we have done and what we know is imperfect. We would rather tell you where the gaps are than claim a clean bill of health we have not earned.

We work toward conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Level AA. This is the standard referenced by the Americans with Disabilities Act enforcement landscape and adopted in United States federal rulemaking.

• Keyboard access. Interactive controls are reachable and operable by keyboard, with a visible focus indicator. Dialogs trap and restore focus, and close on Escape.
• Screen-reader semantics. Native elements and ARIA labelling for form fields, error messages, tables, and live regions, so that validation errors and updated figures are announced rather than only shown.
• Contrast. Text and interface colours are checked against WCAG contrast ratios in both light and dark themes, and enforced by automated tests so a palette change cannot quietly regress them.
• Reduced motion. Animation respects the operating system’s “reduce motion” setting.
• Touch targets. Controls meet a minimum target size on touch devices.
• Never colour alone. Status — over budget, overdue, paid — is always carried by text or shape as well as colour.
• Zoom and reflow. Layouts reflow to 400% zoom and to small viewports without horizontal scrolling or loss of content.
• Alternatives to visual output. Charts and gauges are accompanied by the underlying figures in text, so no information exists only as a picture.

These are the areas we know are imperfect. We are working on them, and listing them is not a disclaimer — if any of them blocks you, section 5 is a commitment that we will get you the information another way.

• The ledger spreadsheet. The grid is a dense, cell-addressable surface with keyboard navigation modelled on a spreadsheet. Screen-reader announcement of cell context during rapid navigation is not yet as good as we want. Every figure in it is also available through the standard Transactions, Income, and Bills pages, and through export.
• The money canvas and the 3D coach character. These are decorative and interactive visualizations. They are supplementary — the same information is always available in text elsewhere — and neither is required to use any feature.
• Drag-and-drop ordering. Reordering accounts and dashboard blocks by dragging does not yet have a complete keyboard-only equivalent in every place it appears.
• Third-party surfaces. Payment checkout and the bank-connection flow are hosted by Stripe, and their accessibility is Stripe’s. We can complete either one with you directly if you cannot.
• Translated content. Spanish and French coverage is good but not complete; some interface text and all legal documents are English only.

Tell us and we will help you directly — not eventually, and not by pointing you back at the thing that did not work.

• We will give you the information or complete the task with you by email.
• We will treat it as a priority bug, not a feature request.
• We will tell you what we found and when it is fixed, if you would like us to follow up.

Email support@hemisphere.money with “Accessibility” in the subject line. Telling us the page, what you were trying to do, and what assistive technology you use helps, but is not required — write however is easiest for you.

We welcome feedback on this statement and on any barrier you encounter. If you would like to raise something formally, write to us at the address below and we will respond in writing.