Schappit Ltd (Piota Apps) Accessibility Statement

2 June 2023

Introduction

This accessibility statement applies to:

Mobile applications (“apps”) supplied by Schappit Ltd (trading as Piota Apps) on an iOS or Android device
Our website https://www.piota.co.uk

We want as many people as possible to be able to use apps supplied by us and our website. For example, that means you should be able to:

change colours, contrast levels and fonts
zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
listen to most of the content on the apps and website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

Schappit Ltd is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Please note that Schappit is a technology developer which licences its ‘Piota’ app platform to third party organisations. Those organisations (our clients) control all content which is published on their apps. When seeking to make apps as accessible as possible to as many people as possible, Schappit (the technology provider) is responsible for ensuring suitable technical features and functions are embedded in the apps and our clients (the content controllers) are responsible for ensuring suitable accessibility of the content carried on their apps.

Using accessibility settings on your device

On a phone or tablet you can use the built-in device accessibility settings to make some parts of Piota’s apps more accessible:

iPhone features: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iph3e2e4367/ios
iPad features: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/ipad/ipad9a2465f9/ipados
Android features: https://www.android.com/accessibility

AbilityNet has further advice to help you make your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible are Piota’s apps?

We test the Piota platform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 on iOS and Android devices.

WCAG 2.1 consists of 78 ‘success criteria’, of which 51 are the responsibility of Schappit as the technology provider. Criteria graded conformance level A are considered the most important, AA the next most important and AAA the least.

On the basis of an “80%+ True” test, our apps currently comply with 50 out of the 51 applicable criteria. By 80%+ True, we mean that the accessibility requirement identified in a success criterion is fulfilled on 80%+ pages in the app. See the optimisation work section below for a list of ongoing improvement work.

A full list of the app’s compliance vs success criteria is itemised in the appendix and a summary is shown here:

WCAG 2.2, containing new success criteria, is scheduled to be completed and published in 2023 Q3 (July, August, September). We will update this Accessibility Statement after publication.

Non-accessible technical features

Piota’s app platform is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliance listed below:

“Success Criterion 1.3.4 Orientation (AA): Content does not restrict its view and operation to a single display orientation, such as portrait or landscape, unless a specific display orientation is essential.”

At present the app is fixed in portrait mode on phones and tablets. Due to the page design structure that we have developed to date, the overall app is not user friendly to view in landscape orientation. Some elements such as PDF documents can be viewed in landscape orientation.

We intend to develop a landscape orientation version of the overall app design, however that is unlikely to be ready for release during 2023.

Ongoing optimisation work

We know some parts of apps supplied by us are not fully accessible. These include:

Additional support for image and video descriptions
Improvements to image gallery navigation
Improvements to accessible paging on long articles
Improvements to Android Voice Access labels
Keyboard support on iOS is available when Full Keyboard Access is not enabled
Additional support for landscape orientation
Improvements for VoiceOver and TalkBack descriptions, including bullet points

Non-accessible content

As explained above, content on the app is not within our control. We provide advice to clients about recommended good practice, however responsibility for implementation of accessible content belongs to them.

How accessible is Piota’s website?

Our website is not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard due to multiple non-compliances.

As a mobile app technology company we have focused most of our time and resources on improving the product for mobile app users. Keeping the website up to date has lagged and we are aware it has multiple accessibility failings - see for instance this report using WebAim’s website accessibility checker.

We intend to redesign/ rewrite the website before the end of 2023 on a more accessible platform and will incorporate accessibility upgrades to it then. We feel it would be a disproportionate burden to address accessibility issues before then as any changes would be swiftly superseded by the redesign/ rewrite.

How to report accessibility problems or give feedback

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of our apps. If you find any problems not listed on this page or you think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please email support@piota.co.uk with details.

If you need information about our apps or website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

Email support@piota.co.uk
Or call 01702 780051

We aim to respond to all enquiries within 72 hours. If your message relates to a responsibility of the content creator, we will forward it to the app lead there and notify you that we have done so.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Preparation of this accesibility statement

This statement was prepared on 2 June 2023. It was last reviewed on 16 June 2023.

Our app platform and website were last tested in May 2023. The test was carried out internally.

We used the “80%+ True” method outlined above to decide on a sample of sections in our apps to test, concentrating testing on the most frequently used sections. Itemised results of this testing are included in the Appendix below.

Appendix: WCAG 2.1 success criteria