Accessibility Statement

Our Commitment

GrowSmart is committed to making garden planning accessible to everyone. We believe that all gardeners — regardless of ability — deserve tools that help them grow food and flowers with confidence.

We strive to meet or exceed the requirements of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standard.

        🌱 Gardening is for everyone. We're committed to continuously improving GrowSmart's accessibility so every gardener can plan, plant, and harvest with ease.
      

Accessibility Features

GrowSmart currently includes the following accessibility features:

⌨️

Keyboard Navigation

All interactive elements — buttons, tabs, plant cards, and form fields — are fully navigable using keyboard only. Tab, Enter, Escape, and arrow keys work throughout the app.

🔊

Screen Reader Support

Semantic HTML structure with ARIA labels on interactive elements, meaningful alt text on plant images, and proper heading hierarchy for easy navigation.

🎨

Colour Contrast

Text and interactive elements are designed to meet WCAG AA contrast ratios (4.5:1 for body text, 3:1 for large text). We test all colour pairings during development.

🔍

Resizable Text

The app uses relative font sizing. Text can be enlarged up to 200% using browser zoom without loss of content or functionality.

🖼️

Image Alternatives

All plant photographs include descriptive alt text. When images fail to load, emoji fallbacks ensure plant identification remains possible.

🎯

Focus Indicators

Visible focus outlines appear on all interactive elements when navigating by keyboard, making it clear where you are on the page.

🔲

Touch Targets

All buttons and interactive elements meet minimum 44×44 pixel touch target sizes, making the app comfortable to use on touchscreen devices.

⏸️

Reduced Motion

GrowSmart respects the prefers-reduced-motion system setting. When enabled, transitions and animations are minimized or removed entirely.

Standards We Follow

GrowSmart is designed and tested against:

WCAG 2.1 Level AA — the internationally recognized standard for web accessibility
AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) — Ontario's accessibility legislation, which requires organizations to meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA
IASR (Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation) — Ontario regulation under AODA covering information and communication standards

Known Limitations

We are transparent about areas where we're still working to improve:

Companion planting matrix: The visual companion display may be challenging with some screen readers. We are working on a text-based alternative view.
12-month timeline: The horizontal scrollable timeline requires touch or mouse interaction. Keyboard navigation within the timeline is being improved.
Some decorative colour indicators (activity-type bars in the timeline) rely on colour differentiation. We are adding pattern or icon alternatives.

We actively track these issues and prioritize accessibility improvements in every release.

Testing & Review Process

We conduct accessibility reviews at every stage of development:

Automated testing: Colour contrast verification against WCAG AA ratios for every component
Manual testing: Keyboard-only navigation, screen reader testing (VoiceOver on macOS/iOS)
Design review: Touch target sizing (44×44px minimum), focus indicator visibility, and responsive layout checks at all breakpoints
Ongoing monitoring: User feedback and accessibility complaints are reviewed promptly

Last full accessibility review: February 2026

Feedback & Support

We welcome your feedback on GrowSmart's accessibility. If you encounter a barrier, have difficulty using any feature, or have suggestions for improvement, please let us know.

Email: hello@getgrowsmart.com
Subject line: Accessibility Feedback
Website: getgrowsmart.com

We aim to respond to accessibility feedback within 5 business days and to implement fixes for identified barriers as quickly as possible.

Commitment to Improvement

Accessibility is not a one-time effort — it's an ongoing commitment. We will continue to:

Test every new feature against WCAG 2.1 AA before release
Address reported accessibility issues as high-priority items
Conduct at minimum annual full accessibility reviews
Stay informed about evolving accessibility standards and best practices
Update this statement when significant changes are made

        📬 Your voice matters. If something in GrowSmart doesn't work for you, we want to hear about it. Every piece 