Accessibility of Spiralum™

Last reviewed: . Applies to the Spiralum web interface and the public read-only demo.

Where we stand

Spiralum is not yet fully accessible, and we do not claim it is.

We are working toward WCAG 2.1 Level AA. This page says what we have tested, what we found, what we fixed, and what we have not tested yet, so you can judge for yourself.

How we test

  • Automated checks. We run axe-core 4.14.0 (WCAG 2.0 and 2.1, Levels A and AA) in a real browser over 58 states of the interface: signed out and signed in, each way of searching, every dialog and settings tab, the charts in Visual Studio, and the dashboards screens. The script can be repeated and fails if a fixed problem comes back.
  • Keyboard checks. We tab through the main page from a fresh load (43 stops) and check that each one has a name and a visible focus ring. For ten dialogs we check that Enter opens them, they are announced as dialogs, focus moves in, Tab stays inside, Escape closes them, and focus returns to where it was.
  • A partial screen reader test. On 7 October 2026 our engineering assistant (an AI tool) ran NVDA 2025.3.3 with Chrome on Windows 11 and read its speech log. It covered sign-in, the search box and its suggestions, the Tab order of the main page and the header. It found that the sign-in and some other fields had only a placeholder for a name, which we fixed. A person who relies on a screen reader every day did not take part in this test.
  • The public demo. On 7 October 2026 we re-ran axe over the demo’s main page, eight dialogs and its 16 example buttons, and found no violations. Focus stayed inside each dialog through 70 presses of Tab and Shift+Tab.

Automated tools find only part of the problems. They cannot tell you whether something makes sense when it is spoken. Please treat these results as evidence of effort, not as proof of conformance.

What works

  • Every control you reach with Tab has a name and a visible focus ring.
  • Everything clickable is a real button or link, and works with Enter and Space.
  • Dialogs are announced with a name, take focus, keep Tab inside, close with Escape and give focus back.
  • The main page has headings, landmarks and two skip links.
  • Search results are announced (“5 results found”), as are errors and messages.
  • Text contrast meets 4.5 to 1 for everything our checks found.
  • The page does not block zoom and does not scroll sideways at a width of 320 pixels.
  • There is no audio or video. The chart we checked in detail has a text alternative and a data table.

What we fixed recently

On 7 October 2026 we fixed: a header control that only worked with a mouse; twelve dialogs that had no role or name; 28 controls that had no name; messages that were never announced; a page with no headings or landmarks; three controls with no focus ring; repeated element IDs; and low-contrast text. Since then we have also fixed an unnamed index selector, a data table that could not be scrolled by keyboard, charts with no text label, and several low-contrast greys.

Known gaps

  • A full screen reader walk-through has not been done. Not yet covered: the settings and other dialogs, Visual Studio, the dashboards, the results table, and spoken messages. JAWS and VoiceOver have not been tried.
  • Only Chromium has been tested. Other browsers and touch devices have not.
  • We have not yet tested text-only zoom to 200 percent, text spacing, or content shown on hover.
  • The map and 3D chart views have no text alternative yet, and the map animations have no pause control.
  • There is no warning before a session ends.
  • Some button names begin with an emoji, which a screen reader may read out before the name.
  • Upload and ingest are hidden in the public demo, so they were not checked there.

Tell us about a problem

If something does not work for you, please tell us at [email protected]. Say what you were trying to do, which browser and assistive technology you use, and what happened. We will reply within two business days.

More detail

We keep a draft accessibility conformance report in the format buyers know (VPAT 2.5, Revised Section 508). It states that the interface is not yet conformant, and lists every criterion and what we know about it. It is available on request by emailing [email protected].

This page describes one version of the interface on one date and will be updated when that changes.