Our commitment to access

The standard we hold ourselves to

We are building Sayella to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA, across both this website and the app. Accessibility is the whole point of an AAC tool, so we treat conformance as a baseline rather than a finish line. Some areas already meet this standard and some are still in progress. We say below where we are honest about the gaps.

This statement covers the Sayella marketing website and the Sayella communication app on every platform we ship: iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows and the web.

Access methods we support

A communicator should be able to reach every word in the way that works for their body. Sayella supports a range of access methods, designed in from the start rather than bolted on.

Touch

Direct selection with large, fixed targets and adjustable hit areas, so an imprecise or tremoring touch still lands on the word that was meant.

Switch scanning

One and two switch scanning with linear, row-column and group-item patterns. Scan timing is configurable: scan rate, acceptance time and re-scan delay can all be tuned to the individual. The scanning highlight is high-contrast and configurable, and never relies on colour alone.

Screen readers

VoiceOver on Apple devices and TalkBack on Android are supported, with meaningful labels, roles and reading order so the interface can be operated without sight of the screen.

Visual access

• Colour is never the only signal. We use the Modified Fitzgerald colour key to code words by part of speech, but every button always pairs that colour with a symbol and the printed word. Removing colour never removes meaning.
• High-contrast and CVI themes. Alternative themes for low vision and for cortical or cerebral visual impairment (CVI), reducing clutter and lifting contrast.
• Adjustable grid and text. Grid size, symbol size, label position and text size can be adjusted to suit the communicator, without reshuffling where words live.

Motor access and stability

• Large, fixed targets. Core words sit in generous, consistently placed targets with adjustable hit areas.
• Never move a learned button. When we reveal more vocabulary, already-learned buttons stay exactly where they are. Motor planning stays stable, so reaching a known word can become automatic.
• Protected editing. Everyday talking mode is locked, so a button cannot be moved or deleted by accident during a conversation.

Two promises we will not break

• Speech is never disabled. The ability to speak is part of the free tier and stays available offline, forever, even if a subscription lapses. We will never switch off a person's voice.
• Reduced motion is respected. Where the system requests reduced motion, animation is removed and content is presented in its calm, final state. Movement is never required to understand or operate Sayella.

Tell us about a barrier

If something in Sayella or on this site gets in the way of communicating, we want to hear about it, and we treat it as a priority. Describe what you were trying to do, the device and access method you were using, and what happened. We aim to reply within five working days.

Ongoing work and a formal audit

Sayella is in active development, and accessibility work is continuous. We test with the access methods above as part of building each feature, and we are recruiting speech and language therapists and AAC users to test with us directly.

We are committed to commissioning a formal, independent accessibility audit against WCAG 2.2 AA, and to publishing the results, including anything it finds that we have not yet fixed. We would rather be specific and honest than claim a clean bill of health we have not earned. This statement will be dated and updated as that work lands.