Accessibility

Guarded Goods is committed to making our website accessible to everyone. We want every visitor to be able to browse, learn, and shop with ease, including those using assistive technology. I am one person making everything here by hand, and I take this seriously — if something on this site gets in your way, I want to know about it and I will fix it.

Conformance target

We aim to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA. These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities.

Current status: partially conformant. Partially conformant means some parts of this site do not yet fully meet Level AA. We are actively working through the known gaps listed below.

Accessibility features

Work completed in 2026, verified on the live site:

  • A "skip to content" link on every page, and a clearly visible two-tone keyboard focus indicator that works on both light and dark backgrounds.
  • Colors that meet WCAG AA contrast on buttons, links, badges, form outlines, and error messages.
  • A batch of site-wide refinements that went live on 26 August 2026: easier-to-spot links in written content, autofill support on forms, a keyboard-accessible belt sizing tool, the last few low-contrast colors in newer page sections, bigger touch targets for icons and menus, missing page headings (including collection pages and our About page), and a small-screen layout fix so nothing scrolls sideways on narrow phones.
  • A further batch that went live on 31 August 2026: cart changes announced as a status message, names on every icon-only button (including the search and close controls), correct list structure in the mobile menu, an add-to-cart confirmation that names the product you added, a belt sizing tool that now keeps keyboard focus inside the pop-up and returns it when you close, the last remaining low-contrast text in newer sections, product filters shown by default on collection pages instead of hidden behind a menu, and corrected colour swatches so they match the actual leather.
  • A shopping cart built as a proper dialog: screen readers announce when items are added and when the cart changes.
  • Labels on every form field, including our return form, and collection filters that work reliably with assistive technology.
  • Rewritten photo descriptions across the catalog: over 840 product images were re-described so they say what each photo actually shows, and the twenty products with the most repeated descriptions were re-described photo by photo, by hand. About one hundred products added at the end of August 2026 still carry a single placeholder description repeated across their photos — rewriting those is on the list below.
  • Descriptive alternative text on leather guides and workshop photography, with real headings and tables instead of visual look-alikes.
  • Support for your operating system's "reduce motion" preference.
  • Links that open in a new tab say so to screen readers.
  • A simplified site: about a dozen redundant pages were removed in August 2026, navigation was consolidated, and old links redirect to their replacements.

We have deliberately not installed an accessibility overlay or accessibility widget. These tools often interfere with the assistive technology people already use and rely on — and courts increasingly cite them in complaints rather than accept them as fixes. We prefer to fix the underlying site.

What we are working on right now

Updated 31 August 2026. Our current to-do list, in plain language:

  • A full keyboard-only and screen-reader walkthrough of the shopping journey, from browsing to checkout.
  • Photo descriptions for our newest products. Roughly one hundred wallets and small goods added at the end of August 2026 share one description across all of their photos. Each one is being rewritten to describe what its photo actually shows.
  • Colour swatches. Two swatches that displayed the wrong colour have been corrected, and we are working through the rest of the catalog for the same problem — as well as making the small swatch buttons easier to tap on a phone.
  • Our leather information page is temporarily unavailable while it is rebuilt. The same information is available by email in the meantime — just ask.

How we test

  • A full accessibility audit of the storefront, catalog, and content pages was completed in August 2026, followed by a live-site verification across fifteen representative page types on 26 August 2026.
  • Automated checks (axe-core) are re-run after significant site changes, and monthly on a schedule.
  • Automated checks cover the site's own underlying markup. Features supplied by outside services — product reviews and product option pickers — are drawn by their own scripts, so we check those by hand rather than claiming a scanner has covered them.
  • Manual keyboard navigation and screen reader spot-checks are part of the current work plan above.
  • Findings are tracked on an internal remediation board, and this page is updated as items are completed — not just once a year.

Known limitations

We would rather tell you about these than have you discover them:

  • Checkout. Our checkout is provided and controlled by Shopify. We cannot modify its accessibility directly. If you have trouble completing an order, contact us and we will take your order personally.
  • Product reviews and product option pickers are supplied by third-party services. We have removed the ones we do not use and re-test the rest after their updates.

Need help, or found a problem?

If any part of this site is difficult or impossible for you to use — or if you want information in a different format, or would simply like to place an order with a person — please get in touch. There is no wrong way to ask.

I aim to respond within 2 business days. Please tell me the page address and what happened, and include the browser or assistive technology you were using if you know it — it helps me reproduce and fix the issue faster.

Assessment

This statement was last reviewed on 31 August 2026, following our most recent accessibility assessment: a review of the live site after the 31 August theme update, building on the full audit of August 2026. We update the "what we are working on" list above as work progresses, and review this statement at least annually and after significant changes to the site.