Our commitment
We sell to people with skin conditions. A fair number of them are managing something else as well — low vision, tremor, chronic pain, a screen reader, a phone held one-handed while holding a child. A site that only works for people with steady hands and good eyesight is not doing its job.
We are working toward conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at Level AA, and we treat that as a standard to meet rather than a badge to claim.
What we have done
- Contrast. Body text and interface elements are checked against the WCAG contrast ratios in both the light and dark themes, not only in the one we designed first.
- Keyboard. Every interactive element can be reached and operated with a keyboard, and the focus outline is visible rather than styled away.
- Structure. Pages use real headings, lists and landmarks so a screen reader can navigate them. Our legal documents rebuild their heading structure so that a policy is navigable rather than one undifferentiated block of text.
- Text. Copy resizes with your browser settings and reflows to a single column without horizontal scrolling.
- Motion. Animation is decorative, and it is disabled when your device asks for reduced motion.
- Images. Meaningful images carry alternative text; decorative ones are hidden from assistive technology instead of being announced as noise.
- Forms. Fields have visible labels, errors are described in words rather than by colour alone, and the assessment flags the specific question that still needs an answer.
- Colour. Nothing meaningful is conveyed by colour alone.
Where we fall short
We would rather tell you than have you discover it.
- The Dermal Diagnosis assessment uses photographic image pickers for acne type, dryness and pigmentation. Those images are the clinically accurate way to ask the question, and they are matched to skin tone for exactly that reason — but they are hard to use with low vision. Each option now carries a written description and can be enlarged, and every picker offers "I am not sure". It is better than it was; it is not yet good enough.
- Product and ingredient illustrations that convey pharmacological detail are described in the surrounding text, but the diagrams themselves are not yet fully described for screen reader users.
- Third-party content we embed — reviews, payment, some forms — is outside our direct control. We raise problems with those suppliers, but we cannot fix their code.
- Some older pages predate this work and are being brought up to standard as the site is rebuilt.
If something does not work for you
Tell us, and we will fix it — and in the meantime we will get you what you needed by another route. Email info@dermalhealth.co.za or call +27 (0) 12 004 1791. Say what page you were on, what you were trying to do, and what you are using to browse, if you know. We aim to respond within one business day.
If you cannot use the site to place an order or complete an assessment, phone us and we will do it with you.
How we test
We test with keyboard navigation, browser zoom to 200%, both colour themes, and automated contrast and structure checks as part of building each page. Automated testing catches perhaps half of what matters, which is why the paragraph above exists.
Formal complaints
If you have raised an accessibility problem with us and are not satisfied with our response, you may take it to the South African Human Rights Commission, which handles complaints of unfair discrimination including on the ground of disability.