Accessibility

The commitment

Books should be open to everyone, and so should a page about them. This site is built to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 at level AA — the standard referred to by the Equality Act 2010 in the United Kingdom, by the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508 in the United States, and by the European Accessibility Act.

That commitment is not a one-off. Accessibility is checked whenever these pages change, not audited once and forgotten.

How the site measures up

The pages of this website are believed to conform fully to WCAG 2.2 level AA. The downloadable sample excerpts do not, and that is set out honestly in the next section.

In practical terms, on every page of this site:

• Everything works by keyboard. There is nothing to click that cannot be reached by tabbing, nothing traps the focus, and the focus outline is always clearly visible. Each page opens with a "Skip to content" link.
• Text contrast is far above the requirement. Body text sits at about 16.5:1 against the background and links at about 7.6:1, where level AA asks for 4.5:1 and level AAA for 7:1.
• The structure is real, not visual. One heading per page describes it, headings below that nest in order without skipping a level, lists are marked up as lists, the main content sits in a landmark your screen reader can jump to, and the page declares its language as British English.
• Every book cover has a text alternative naming the book it shows, and the decorative sheet of paper on the Author page is hidden from screen readers rather than announced as a meaningless image.
• Nothing moves unless you want it to. The one animation on the site — covers that fade in as you scroll — stops entirely if your system asks for reduced motion. Nothing flashes, blinks, autoplays or scrolls by itself, and there are no time limits anywhere.
• Text resizes. You can zoom to 200% or further, or set a larger default text size, and the text reflows into one column without anything being cut off or overlapping.
• No JavaScript is needed. The site is plain prerendered HTML and CSS. With scripting off, or on an older assistive technology, every word is still there.
• Links say where they go. Each one reads sensibly on its own, so a screen reader listing the links on a page gives you something you can use, and nothing opens in a new window unannounced.

Where the site falls short

One thing on this site is not as accessible as the rest, and pretending otherwise would be no help to anyone.

The sample excerpts are PDF files, and most of them are untagged. They contain real, selectable text rather than scanned pictures of text, so a screen reader can read the words. But nine of the eleven carry no internal structure: no marked headings or paragraphs, no stated reading order, no declared language, and no document title. A screen reader will read them, less well than it reads this page. They came from word-processor documents exported without tagging, and correcting that properly means re-exporting them rather than patching the files.

Until that is done, any excerpt is available in an accessible format on request. Write to franannaford@gmail.com naming the book, and Fran will send the excerpt as plain text, as a tagged PDF, in large print, or in whatever format suits you, within five working days. There is no charge, and you need not explain why you are asking.

Telling Fran about a problem

If any part of this site is difficult or impossible for you to use, Fran would like to know. Write to franannaford@gmail.com and say what you were trying to do, which page you were on, and what got in the way. If it helps, mention the browser or assistive technology you use — but a sentence in your own words is plenty.

You will get a reply within five working days. If what you need is content you cannot reach, she will send it to you in a form you can use while the page itself is being fixed.

If that does not resolve it

Readers in the United Kingdom who are not satisfied with the response can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service at equalityadvisoryservice.com, which advises on rights under the Equality Act 2010.

Readers elsewhere have their own routes — among them the Americans with Disabilities Act in the United States and the European Accessibility Act in the EU. Wherever you are, the quickest road to a fix is usually the email address above.

How this was assessed

This statement was prepared on 26 October 2026 and covers every page of www.franannaford.com and the sample excerpts offered on it.

The assessment was a review of the site’s own markup and styling against the WCAG 2.2 level AA success criteria, together with a measurement of every text and background colour pair used, and an inspection of each PDF excerpt for text content, tagging, declared language and document title. It was a self-assessment, not an audit by an independent third party.