Accessibility

Accessibility statement

The lab is built around hearing and speaking. We say so plainly, and we have built the alternatives that make sense.

Last updated 5 September 2026

Audio first, by design

A Parlessa lab is a recorded voice, a pause, and your spoken answer. That makes it usable with the screen off and with no reading, which helps some learners, and it makes it unusable as designed for learners who cannot hear the recordings. We do not pretend otherwise. The worksheet shows every model; the transcript of every variation is available at the end of a lab; and two settings change how the drill runs:

  • Show text after the answer. Each variation's correct answer appears on screen as the voice says it, so the comparison can be read as well as heard.
  • No timer. The response pause waits for a tap instead of a countdown, for anyone who needs more time to form an answer, including learners with speech or motor conditions.

Both are in the app's settings and in the web player's options. The countdown ring never carries information that the phase label does not also give in text.

Keyboard and screen readers

Every control on the site and in the web player is a real button or link, reachable with Tab, with a visible focus ring. The player's phase changes are announced through a live region. Headings are in order, images that mean something have text alternatives, and decorative motion is marked hidden from assistive technology. We test with VoiceOver on macOS and iOS and with NVDA on Windows before each release.

Motion, colour and text

The site respects prefers-reduced-motion: the hero reveal, the marquee and the border animation are switched off and the countdown ring changes without transition. Colour contrast meets WCAG 2.2 AA in both light and dark themes; the three phase colours are always paired with a text label. Text scales with the browser's font size and the layout holds to 200%. French typography (non-breaking spaces before ? ! : ;) is preserved so screen readers do not split sentences.

What is not yet done

  • Captions for the dialogue sections are text-only, not timed; timed captions come with the app's show-text mode.
  • The daily feed's audio tracks have transcripts on the daily page, not inside the podcast metadata.
  • An audit against WCAG 2.2 AA by an external reviewer is planned before public launch; this page will link the report.

Tell us

If something blocks you, email hello@parlessa.com with the page or lab and what happened. Accessibility reports are answered within one working day and fixed ahead of other work.