Accessibility Statement

HEAL is a free, peer-led recovery community, and it only works if people can actually use it. Many people in recovery also live with disabilities, chronic illness, low vision, hearing loss, cognitive or learning differences, or the after-effects of substance use. We want every one of them to be able to join a meeting, use the workbook, ask for help and find support.

Our target is conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA. We also design with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Section 508 standards in mind, and we treat accessibility as an ongoing practice rather than a box to tick.

This statement covers the HEAL website, the member web app, the HEAL mobile apps for iOS and Android, the HEAL desktop app, live meetings, emails we send, and the staff and volunteer console. Links to outside websites — such as crisis services or listed treatment providers — are outside our control.

HEAL is new and still being built and tested. We have not yet had an independent accessibility audit, so we don’t claim full conformance with WCAG 2.2 AA. We describe below what we have built, what we know still falls short, and what we are doing about it. We intend to commission an independent audit before or soon after launch and to update this statement with the results.

Website, web app and desktop app

• Keyboard access. Pages and controls are built from standard links, buttons and form fields so they can be reached and used with a keyboard.
• Skip links. The website and member app have a “Skip to content” link so keyboard and screen reader users can jump past navigation.
• Visible focus. Interactive elements show a clear focus outline when you navigate by keyboard, including on dark backgrounds.
• Reduced motion. If your device is set to reduce motion, the website turns its animations and transitions down to near zero, and the member app’s motion respects the same setting.
• Screen reader labels. Icon-only buttons have text labels (for example “Leave the meeting”), decorative images and shapes are hidden from assistive technology, and toggle buttons such as mute report whether they are on or off.
• Live updates. In meetings, status changes such as your connection and microphone state are announced to screen readers through polite live regions.
• Forms. Form fields have labels, use the right input types and autocomplete hints, and mark errors so assistive technology can find them. You can show or hide your password while typing it.
• Resizable text and zoom. We don’t block browser zoom, and layouts are designed to adapt from large screens down to narrow phone widths, so you can enlarge text.
• Colour and contrast. Our palette is built around a dark navy text colour on light backgrounds, and we aim for at least 4.5:1 contrast for body text and 3:1 for large text and interface elements. We don’t rely on colour alone to show meaning.
• Plain language. We write in short, plain sentences and explain terms where we can.

The HEAL desktop app shows the same member app inside a desktop window, so it shares these features.

Mobile apps

• Screen reader support. Buttons and controls carry accessibility labels and roles for VoiceOver (iOS) and TalkBack (Android).
• Text size. We don’t switch off the system font-scaling setting, so text follows your device’s text-size and Dynamic Type preferences. Some screens may not yet lay out well at the very largest sizes.

Meetings

• Audio-only, with no camera. Meetings never require video, which helps people who find being on camera difficult or who have limited bandwidth.
• Raise your hand. You can raise your hand to ask to share, instead of having to interrupt, and the host sees a queue of raised hands.
• Joining muted. You join a meeting muted and choose when to unmute.

We would rather tell you now than have you find out mid-meeting:

• No live captions or transcripts in meetings. Meetings are live audio only, and audio-only rooms do not yet have live captions. Because HEAL does not record meetings, there are no transcripts afterwards either. This is the biggest gap for Deaf and hard-of-hearing members, and we are exploring privacy-respecting live captioning that doesn’t store what is said.
• No text chat in meeting rooms. Meeting rooms don’t currently have a text chat for taking part without speaking.
• Reduced motion in the mobile apps. The mobile apps don’t yet check your device’s reduce-motion setting everywhere.
• Large text on mobile. At the very largest text sizes, some mobile screens may clip or wrap awkwardly.
• Untested combinations. We have not yet tested every screen with every screen reader and browser combination, so you may find issues we haven’t.
• Third-party content. Bot checks during sign-up, and outside websites we link to, are provided by others. If a bot check stops you, contact us and we’ll help you sign up another way.
• Documents and media. Older images, downloadable files or articles may be missing text alternatives. Tell us about any you find.

If a barrier keeps you from using part of HEAL, we will work with you to find another way in the meantime. For example, we can:

• let a meeting’s host know in advance (with your permission) so they can describe what’s happening, read out key information, and make sure you aren’t left out;
• help you find peer-support options outside HEAL that offer captioning or text-based meetings;
• help you create your account or set up meeting reminders if a screen or bot check is blocking you;
• provide information from this website or our legal documents in another format, such as plain text or large print.

We will never ask you to share more about your health than you want to in order to get help.

HEAL is built to work with current versions of major browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge) and with the built-in assistive technology on phones and computers. As part of our testing before launch and with each significant release, we intend to check key journeys — signing up, joining a meeting, using the workbook and the help board — with:

• VoiceOver on iOS and macOS;
• TalkBack on Android;
• NVDA with Firefox or Chrome on Windows;
• keyboard-only navigation, browser zoom to 200% and 400%, and system text-size settings.

We will update this section to say what we have actually tested, and with which versions, as that testing is done.

• We aim to check accessibility as part of design and before each release, using automated checks and manual keyboard and screen reader testing.
• We intend to include people with disabilities, including members in recovery, in testing new features.
• We aim to train volunteer hosts to run welcoming meetings for people with different needs, such as checking whether anyone needs information repeated.
• We review this statement at least once a year and whenever we make a significant change.

If you find something hard or impossible to use, please email accessibility@teleheal.com. It helps if you can include:

• the page, screen or feature (and whether it was the website, web app, mobile app or desktop app);
• what you were trying to do and what happened;
• the device, browser and any assistive technology you use, if you’re comfortable sharing.

You don’t need to know any of the technical details — just tell us what went wrong. A real person reads every message. You can also ask someone you trust to contact us for you.

We aim to acknowledge accessibility messages within 2 business days. Where you need access to something now, we will try to help you another way right away, while we fix the underlying problem. For issues that block access to a core feature — signing up, signing in, joining a meeting, the workbook or the help board — we aim to deliver a fix or a workable alternative within 10 business days, and we will keep you updated if it will take longer.

If our response doesn’t resolve the problem, reply to us and ask for your concern to be treated as a formal accessibility complaint. A different person at HEAL will review it, and we aim to give you a written response within 15 business days explaining what we will do.

You also have the right to contact the relevant authorities. In the United States, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division at civilrights.justice.gov, or with your state’s civil rights or human rights agency. Raising an accessibility concern with us or anyone else will never affect your membership.

HEAL is designed for people in the United States. If you use HEAL from elsewhere, we still want to hear about any barrier, and we aim to meet the WCAG 2.2 AA standard that most national accessibility laws, including the European Accessibility Act and UK accessibility rules, are built on.

Accessibility questions and feedback: accessibility@teleheal.com. For other questions about HEAL, see our contact page.