Accessibility

What we have done

Colour and contrast

• Body text is a high-luminance parchment on a deep sapphire ground at a contrast ratio of about 15.5:1, well above the 4.5:1 required for normal text.
• Secondary and tertiary text run at roughly 11:1 and 8.6:1. The bronze used for small labels runs at about 7.9:1 — bronze is never used at a lower contrast for text.
• Primary buttons are dark ink on a light bronze fill at about 9.1:1, above the 7:1 we hold our main calls to action to.
• The fixed top bar has a gradient scrim beneath it in its transparent state, so nav text keeps its contrast over the hero image as well as over the frosted state after scrolling.
• Colour is never the only carrier of meaning. Treatment state, origin and wear grade are always written out in words; the month accent squares are decorative and each is accompanied by the month name.

Structure and screen readers

• One h1 per page, headings in order, and landmarks for header, navigation, main and footer.
• A skip link to the main content is the first thing in the tab order.
• The vertical month rail uses the CSS writing-mode property rather than a rotation transform, so it is read in the correct order. An equivalent plain-text version of the same information is rendered for assistive technology alongside it, and the month announcement is in a polite live region.
• Every image has alternative text describing what is in it. Decorative images are marked as such and skipped.
• Specification blocks use description lists, and comparison data uses real tables with row and column headers and captions.
• Form fields have permanently visible labels, not placeholders standing in for labels. Errors are associated with their field and announced.

Keyboard and pointer

• Everything interactive is reachable and operable by keyboard, in a logical order.
• Focus is always visible — a bronze outline with an offset. It is never removed.
• Touch and click targets meet the minimum comfortable size, with spacing between adjacent controls.
• No functionality depends on hover or on a drag gesture.

Motion

• Every entrance animation is disabled when the browser reports a preference for reduced motion. Elements render in their final state with no transition.
• The hero film does not load or play under reduced motion; a still image is shown instead. It is muted, carries no essential information, and is not required to understand anything.
• Nothing flashes more than three times per second.

Text and zoom

• Text can be resized to 200 % without loss of content or function.
• The layout reflows to a single column at narrow widths; there is no horizontal scrolling of the page.
• Line length is capped for readability on long-form pages.

A note on the typefaces

This site is set entirely in serif faces — an old-style face for headings and a modern one for text. That is a deliberate design decision, and we are aware it is not the conventional choice for screen reading. The body face was selected for even stroke weight and a large x-height at text sizes rather than for display effect, set at 17 px with generous line height. If you find it hard to read, your browser’s reader mode will render these pages in your own preferred face, and every page is structured so that reader mode works properly. Tell us if it does not.

Where we know we fall short

• The month rail on the home page changes as you scroll. Although the change is announced politely and the same information exists as links in the footer and on the months page, scroll-linked content is not ideal for everyone.
• Some specification tables are wide and scroll horizontally inside their own container on small screens. The container scrolls, not the page, but it is still a scroll.
• We have tested with keyboard navigation and with VoiceOver on macOS and iOS. We have not yet completed testing with JAWS or NVDA, or a formal third-party audit.

These are on our list. If one of them is blocking you today, contact us and we will help you directly.

If the website does not work for you

You do not have to use this site to buy from us. Call +44 7196509962 during monday to friday, 09:00–17:30 uk time and we will take you through the catalogue, read out any declaration in full, and place the order for you. We can also send the gem declaration for any piece by email as plain text, or by post in large print, at no charge.

Telling us about a problem

Email support@ishtarjewellery.shop with ACCESSIBILITY in the subject line, or call the number above. Tell us the page, what you were trying to do, and what happened. We acknowledge within two working days and aim to fix confirmed problems within ten. If we cannot, we will tell you when we will and offer a way round it in the meantime.