Accessibility Statement

1. Our commitment

CellTree is used by ward organisers on cheap phones in poor light, by campaign staff working late, and by members who joined because somebody knocked on their door. If the software excludes people, it excludes them from organising — which is the one thing it exists to let them do.

Article 54 of the Constitution and the Persons with Disabilities Act give people with disabilities a right of access to services. We treat that as a floor, and WCAG 2.2 Level AA as the working standard.

2. What this covers

The web console at celltree.app

Assessed. Sign-in, cells, wards, boards, campaign settings, money, platform administration.

The campaign application page at celltree.app/apply

Assessed.

These published documents

Assessed. They are plain HTML and work with JavaScript switched off.

The CellTree mobile app

Not yet assessed. It is built on React Native, which carries platform accessibility support, but we have not audited it and we will not claim it here until we have.

3. What has been done

Keyboard and focus

• Everything works from a keyboard alone. There is no mouse-only control.
• Every focusable thing shows a visible green focus ring, on both themes.
• A Skip to content link comes first on the console, so the six navigation tabs need not be walked on every screen.
• Nothing traps focus. There are no modal dialogs to escape from.

Screen readers

• Every status message announces itself. “Code sent”, “That code has expired”, “Saved” — all of them are live regions, so they are spoken when they appear rather than sitting silently on screen.
• The current section is announced. Which tab you are on is not carried by colour alone.
• Every input has a real label, tied to it. Placeholder text is never used as a substitute.
• Headings are in order and describe the section under them; navigation regions are named.
• Tables in these documents have proper header cells.

Seeing it

• Light and dark themes, remembered across sessions and shared between the console and these pages. Dark is the default because this is software people sit in front of at night.
• Colour contrast was worked, not assumed. The amber in our logo measures about 2.3:1 on white and cannot carry text, so it is darkened wherever it becomes a word and kept true only where it is a fill. Every colour in the dark theme is a lightened version of the same hue for the same reason.
• Colour never carries meaning on its own — an error says what is wrong in words.
• Text resizes to 200% without loss, and the layout reflows to a narrow screen without sideways scrolling.
• Interactive controls are at least 40 px tall, which is above the 24 px WCAG 2.2 minimum and closer to what a thumb needs.

Motion and time

• There is essentially no animation. Nothing moves, flashes, or auto-plays.
• prefers-reduced-motion is respected regardless.
• Nothing times out while you read. The one exception is in section 5.

4. What has not been done

Honestly listed, because a statement that lists nothing has usually tested nothing.

• No independent audit. No third party has assessed the platform against WCAG 2.2. Our own assessment is a self-assessment, which is weaker evidence.
• No testing with people who use assistive technology. The markup is correct as far as we can tell by reading it. That is not the same as somebody navigating a ward roll-up with NVDA or TalkBack and telling us where it falls apart. This is the gap we most want to close.
• The mobile app is unassessed. See section 2.
• Dense numeric views are hard. Ward roll-ups and win-target arithmetic put a lot of figures on one screen. They are readable, but they are not yet pleasant to work through non-visually, and we know it.
• No Kiswahili interface yet. Language is an accessibility question in Kenya and we are treating it as one. The interface is currently English only.

5. Two things we cannot make easier

The sign-in code expires.

A one-time code that never expired would not be a security measure. WCAG allows an exception where a time limit is essential, and this is one — but you can always request a new code, as many times as you need, with no penalty and no loss of anything you had typed.

Identity verification needs your National ID.

The check is a legal requirement of how this platform works, and it cannot be skipped. If the verification step is difficult for you for any reason, contact us and we will find another way through it with you rather than leaving you at it.

6. If something is in your way

Tell us and we will do the thing you were trying to do, for you, while we fix the reason you could not. That is not a workaround we are embarrassed by — it is the right immediate answer, and the fix follows.

Your campaign administrator can also act on your behalf for anything inside the console.

7. Telling us

Accessibility problems are bugs, and we treat them as bugs. Tell us what you were trying to do, what happened, and what you were using — a screen reader and its version, a phone, a keyboard alone. Any of that helps; none of it is required.

Email

support@veddaonline.com

We will reply within

5 working days, with what we are doing about it and when.

If we do not resolve it, you may complain to the National Council for Persons with Disabilities, or to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.