Accessibility

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, level AA, from the W3C. It covers this website, signing in, the Blip app, the pages your viewers and customers see (shared Blips, embeds, clips, walls, Reply pages, request pages and the support card on a customer's site), and the emails Blip sends.

That means in light and dark mode, on phones and on computers, with a keyboard, with a screen reader, zoomed to 200%, and with reduced motion turned on.

We don't claim that Blip fully meets the standard yet. Below is what we've checked and what's left.

• Every page type, in light and dark, at computer and phone widths, with automated checks (axe-core, WCAG 2.2 A and AA rules), run again whenever pages change.
• Keyboard only: signing in, recording, a Blip's page, watching a shared Blip, answering a Reply, reporting a problem and settings work without a mouse, with a visible focus ring, a link to skip to the content, and dialogs that keep focus inside and give it back when they close.
• Colour contrast of every text and control colour, in both themes, checked by an automatic test so a change can't quietly break it.
• Forms have labels, and errors are announced and tied to the field they're about. Saved, sent, copied and recording are announced too.
• Charts have the same numbers as text or a table, and the ones you can point at work with the arrow keys.
• Motion: when your device asks for less motion, Blip's arrivals, pulses, tilt, confetti and the 3D mark on the home page stay still, and the moving list on the home page has a pause button.
• Emails use real text (the sign-in code included), a language, and colours that read in light and dark mail apps.

Every Blip with speech gets a transcript. It's shown beside the video on the shared page, can be searched, and can be downloaded as text or as captions (.vtt).

The same transcript is added to the video player as captions. Turn them on with the player's CC button, on shared pages and embeds.

Clips made from Reply answers have their captions in the picture, so they show wherever the clip plays.

Answers recorded in a Reply are transcribed the same way. Anyone answering a Reply can type instead of recording.

The person who shared a Blip can turn its transcript off; that takes the captions off too. If you need a transcript that isn't there, ask the person who sent the Blip, or write to us.

• Captions are available on every Blip with speech, but they're off until you turn them on with the player's CC button.
• Marking up a screenshot in the support card (arrows, boxes and blurring private details) needs a mouse or touch. You can still describe the problem in words and send the screenshot as it is.
• On the sign-in page and the waitlist form, the names of the fields are shown inside the boxes, so they disappear once you start typing. Screen readers still hear each field's name.
• In Blip HQ (Blip's own staff console), the click heatmap is a picture with a written summary; the exact spot of every click isn't available as text.
• We've tested with automated checks, the keyboard, and what the browser hands to screen readers (its accessibility tree). Testing with the screen readers themselves (VoiceOver on Mac and iPhone, NVDA and JAWS on Windows, TalkBack on Android) is still to do.

The video player comes from our video provider, inside a frame. It has keyboard controls and the CC button, but its inner workings are our video provider's, not ours. The transcript beside it is always Blip's.

The card fields on the billing page come from our payment processor, inside a frame. Blip labels them, says when they're loading, announces a refused card, and moves you to the card number when they're ready; the fields themselves, and any check your bank asks for, are our payment processor's.

When Blip asks to use your camera, microphone or screen, the question comes from your browser or your device, not from Blip.

A business that uses Blip on its own website (a Reply page, a support button, a wall of clips) chooses its colours and its own page around them. Blip picks text that reads on the colour they choose.

A person reads every message. We'll reply, and if we can't fix something quickly we'll help you get what you need another way, for example the transcript of a video, or a written way to answer a Reply.

If a business sent you a Blip or a Reply and you can't use it, you can also tell them; they can share the transcript or take your answer another way.