Accessibility Statement

ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT
Paws Pet Shop
www.pawspetshop.co.uk

Last updated: September 2026

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OUR COMMITMENT

Paws Pet Shop is committed to making pawspetshop.co.uk accessible to as
many people as possible, including those who use assistive technology such
as screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, or voice recognition software.

We aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at
Level AA — the standard recognised as appropriate under the Equality Act
2010 and its duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people.

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CONFORMANCE STATUS

pawspetshop.co.uk is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 Level AA.
"Partially conformant" means that some content or features may not fully
meet the guidelines. We are actively working to identify and resolve
outstanding issues.

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WHAT WE HAVE DONE

We have made the following specific accessibility improvements to this
website:

Navigation
• A "Skip to main content" link is provided at the top of every page,
allowing keyboard users to bypass repeated header navigation.
• The site header is correctly identified as a banner landmark
(role="banner") for screen reader users.
• The main navigation menu includes full ARIA landmark labelling
(aria-label="Main navigation"), expanded/collapsed state management
(aria-expanded), dropdown roles (role="menu", role="menuitem"), and
a keyboard-accessible mobile burger button.
• The mobile menu toggle correctly announces its state and controls
to assistive technology.

Links and buttons
• All navigation links use proper href attributes, making them
operable by keyboard and correctly announced by screen readers.
• All Font Awesome decorative icons are hidden from assistive
technology (aria-hidden="true") to avoid redundant announcements.
• The search button carries an accessible label (aria-label="Search")
for screen reader users.

Keyboard focus
• Keyboard focus outlines are visible on all interactive elements
including links, buttons, and form controls throughout the site.
• Form inputs and select menus use a custom focus style (border
colour change and box shadow) that meets visibility requirements.
• The cookie consent buttons display a clear focus ring when
navigated by keyboard.

Colour and contrast
• Body text uses dark colours on light backgrounds meeting or
exceeding the 4.5:1 contrast ratio required for normal-sized text.
• Supplementary ("muted") text has been adjusted to #767676 on white
(#FFFFFF), achieving a 4.54:1 contrast ratio (WCAG AA pass).
• The primary link colour (#0078AE) achieves approximately 4.89:1
contrast on white backgrounds.
• Footer text (light variant: #EFEFEF on forest green; dark variant:
#444 on light grey) meets WCAG AA contrast thresholds.

Other features
• Page language is declared in the HTML element (lang attribute),
helping screen readers select the correct voice profile.
• All product and logo images include descriptive alt text.
• Social media icon links include visually hidden text labels for
screen readers using the .sr-only technique.
• The Google Translate language flags carry aria-label and
aria-pressed attributes; the language select has an accessible label.
• The cookie consent banner is identified as a dialog with
aria-live="polite" so screen reader users are informed of its
appearance without being interrupted.
• A prefers-reduced-motion media query is applied site-wide,
disabling non-essential animations and transitions for users who
have requested reduced motion in their operating system.

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KNOWN LIMITATIONS

We are aware of the following areas where full conformance has not yet
been achieved:

1. Checkout and account pages: These pages are generated by the
NivoCart platform and include some elements (such as complex
multi-step form flows) that we have not yet fully audited or
tested with assistive technology.

2. Third-party content: The Google Translate widget is provided by
Google LLC. Once activated, it modifies page content in ways
outside our control. We provide an accessible interface to the
translation feature but cannot guarantee the accessibility of
Google's own widget overlay.

3. Product and category pages: While the Paws Theme templates have
been built with accessibility in mind, some dynamic content
(including product option selectors and quantity inputs) has not
been independently tested with a screen reader.

4. Images uploaded by the store administrator: We aim to provide
meaningful alt text for all product images. Because product images
are uploaded individually, some older or future images may not
yet have descriptive alt text applied.

5. PDF documents: Any downloadable PDFs linked from this site (for
example, care guides or invoices) have not been audited for
PDF accessibility.

We intend to address the above limitations on a rolling basis as the site
develops.

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HOW TO GET HELP OR REPORT A PROBLEM

If you experience difficulty accessing any part of this website, or if you
would like any content provided in an alternative format, please contact us:

Email: contact@pawspetshop.co.uk

We will respond within 5 business days. We cannot guarantee that we will
be able to make every page fully accessible in every circumstance, but we
will do our best to help and to consider reasonable adjustments.

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ENFORCEMENT

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Equality
and Human Rights Commission (EHRC):

Website: www.equalityhumanrights.com
Helpline: 0808 800 0082 (Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm)

The EHRC enforces the Equality Act 2010 and can provide guidance on your
rights. In Scotland, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service
(EASS) at www.equalityadvisoryservice.com.

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TECHNICAL INFORMATION

This statement was prepared on 30 August 2026 following a manual
accessibility review of the Paws Theme templates and stylesheets. The
review examined keyboard navigability, ARIA landmark and role usage, colour
contrast ratios, focus visibility, and screen reader semantics.

This site is built on the NivoCart e-commerce platform. The Paws Theme
targets WCAG 2.1 Level AA as its conformance goal. No automated testing
tool was used as the sole basis for this statement; identified issues were
verified manually and addressed in the theme code before this statement
was published.

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© 2026 Paws Pet Shop. All rights reserved.
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