Our commitment
theButler.network should be usable by everyone — including with a screen reader, by keyboard alone, at high zoom levels, or with limited colour vision.
We work to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, conformance level AA, and to the European standard EN 301 549.
Basis of this statement
This statement is based on a self-assessment. There has been no evaluation by an external body and no testing with people who use assistive technology.
That is a limitation, and we would rather name it than leave it out: a self-assessment finds what it goes looking for. What follows is therefore not split into "conformant / non-conformant" but into measured and not examined.
What is measured
These points are recalculated automatically on every release. Not because that replaces an audit — but because a commitment nobody recalculates quietly stops being true at the next rebuild.
| What | Result |
|---|---|
| Contrast of every text colour against its surface, in light and dark mode | 32 values, all above 4.5:1 (WCAG 1.4.3) |
| Focus indicator against the background | above 13:1 in both modes, where 3:1 is required (WCAG 1.4.11) |
| Keyboard operation: every control shows a visible indicator when focused | checked in light and dark mode, no control found without one |
| Skip link to the main content, first item in the tab order | present, and focus demonstrably lands in the content area |
| Names: every input and every button has a name for screen readers | complete; placeholder text expressly does not count as a name |
| Target size of at least 24 × 24 pixels (WCAG 2.5.8) | met; links sitting inside a sentence are exempt under the standard itself |
| Zoom is not blocked, input fields are at least 16 pixels | met (WCAG 1.4.4) |
| Motion: the "reduce motion" system setting disables animation | met — centrally for CSS animations, per component for the JavaScript-driven transitions |
| Page structure: exactly one main landmark per page | met |
In addition: language and text direction are marked up machine-readably, including right-to-left languages. Product cards are real links and reachable by keyboard. Assistant replies are announced to screen readers, as are loading states, results, cancellations and errors — told apart, not all reported as "done". Dialogs and the image gallery hold keyboard focus, return it to whatever opened them, and close on Escape.
What is not examined
- No testing with assistive technology in practice. We have not cross-checked with JAWS, NVDA or VoiceOver, and have not tested with people who use them daily. What can be measured automatically is whether an element has a name — not whether that name makes sense in context.
- No external audit.
- Not every area to the same depth. Home, chat, catalogue, product detail, sign-in, settings and the legal pages were reviewed. The 21 category pages share the same structure and the same building blocks but were not walked through individually.
- The
/edwinpage has not been reworked. It is left over from a predecessor project, is linked from nowhere, and reads poorly in light mode. It will either be rebuilt or removed. - Retailer content. Product images and product copy come from retailer feeds. If an image arrives without a meaningful description, we can point at it, but we cannot replace it.
Using the service
Without a mouse: all functions are keyboard-accessible. The first Tab press on any page reaches the skip link, and from there the content directly.
With a screen reader: the chat is operated through a labelled input field. That Edwin is working, that products have arrived, that the reply is complete, or that something went wrong — all of it is announced. The streaming text itself is deliberately not reported word by word: an announcement per syllable interrupts the reading voice constantly and makes the page unusable.
Alternative access: if any function is not accessible to you, contact us and we will provide the information another way.
Report a barrier
Have you found something that isn't accessible?
Email: accessibility@thebutler.network
Please tell us, where possible: which page, what you were trying to do, what didn't work, and what technology you were using (browser, screen reader, operating system).
We respond within 5 working days and tell you whether and by when we can fix it. If we cannot fix it, we say that too — and why.
Enforcement procedure
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the market surveillance authority:
Marktüberwachungsstelle der Länder für Barrierefreiheit von Produkten und Dienstleistungen (MLBF) Wilhelm-Höpfner-Ring 4, 39116 Magdeburg, Germany https://mlbf-barrierefrei.de
In the United Kingdom, if you believe we are not meeting the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
Legal note
In our assessment the German Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG) does not apply to theButler.network: no consumer contracts are concluded on this website (§ 2 no. 26 BFSG). The purchase takes place at the respective retailer, on their own site. Independently of that, we meet the micro-enterprise exemption under § 3(3) BFSG.
So we are neither required to publish this statement nor to commission an external audit. We publish it anyway — because an accessible service is not, for us, a question of legal obligation, and because a text describing what was actually measured and what was not is worth more than a conformance claim with nothing behind it.