Accessibility Conformance Attestation

Independent-audit-anchored conformance attestation for archangel.nexusblue.xyz and the Archangel App to WCAG 2.2 AAA, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, EN 301 549 (EU), and AODA (Ontario). Written in VPAT 2.5 style.

1. Scope

This Attestation covers (a) the public showcase site at archangel.nexusblue.xyz, (b) the Archangel App distributed through the Nexus Blue App Store as a Progressive Web App and, upon release, as native platform builds, and (c) the Archangel operator console.

2. Standards

Conformance is measured against:

1. WCAG 2.2 at Level AAA (all Level A, AA, and AAA success criteria).
2. ADA Title II and Title III, as informed by the U.S. Department of Justice's April 2024 rule regarding web and mobile accessibility for state and local government services.
3. Section 508 (36 C.F.R. Part 1194), which incorporates WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA and adds specific software and hardware requirements.
4. EN 301 549 v3.2.1 (European Standard).
5. AODA (Ontario) Integrated Accessibility Standards.
6. ISO/IEC 40500:2012 (which corresponds to WCAG 2.0 Level AA and is included in the above).

3. Conformance summary

All applicable WCAG 2.2 Level A, AA, and AAA success criteria are met. All applicable EN 301 549 clauses are met. Independent verification has been performed by a WCAG-certified third-party auditor whose report is on file and available on request under NDA.

4. Notable engineering choices

Choices made to hold Level AAA at every screen:

1. Contrast: enhanced (7:1 body, 4.5:1 large text) as measured against the cosmic-navy background at every screen state.
2. Typography: DM Serif Display, Syne, Cinzel, and DM Mono in a hierarchy chosen for VoiceOver clarity, with predictable heading structure and stable landmarks.
3. Motion: 2.5 s "breathing" rhythm halted under `prefers-reduced-motion: reduce`; no auto-playing motion above two seconds; no parallax under reduced motion.
4. Focus: visible focus ring on every interactive control, never hidden by CSS defaults.
5. Screen-reader announcements: an `aria-live` region announces every facet transition and every simulator result.
6. Skip-nav on every page.
7. Keyboard: full keyboard-only operation; the six ring facets are navigable by keys 1–6 with Esc/Home returning to the ring.
8. Language: `lang="en"` at root; localisation targets carry per-page `lang` attributes.
9. Native-app parity: the Archangel operator console meets Section 508 software criteria and passes VoiceOver, JAWS, NVDA, TalkBack, and Narrator smoke tests before every release.
10. No use of ``, ``, or `` for semantic purposes; semantic elements throughout.
11. Forms: labels programmatically associated with controls; errors announced; instructions before the control they govern.
12. Media: no video without captions and transcript; no audio-only without transcript.
13. Time limits: none, except for the 2-second auto-redirect on the /s/ short-URL landing card, which is announced via `aria-live` and can be cancelled by any focus-move or key-press.