Accessibility Statement

Our commitment

HoldingCost is committed to making its financial calculators, guides, and glossary accessible to everyone, regardless of ability or technology. We target conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at Level AA, and we align our practices with EN 301 549 (the European harmonised accessibility standard) and analogous accessibility legislation in other jurisdictions.

Standard

WCAG 2.1 Level AA. This covers all live calculators (78 across 13 pillars), guides (99), glossary terms (102), pillar hubs (13), the FAQ, the homepage, and all legal pages.

What we do

All form inputs have visible labels and are associated with their controls via htmlFor/id binding. ARIA attributes (aria-describedby, aria-invalid, aria-required, aria-live) are used throughout calculator forms and results. Colour contrast meets or exceeds 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text across all colour pairings. All interactive elements have visible focus indicators (a 2px solid focus ring), and keyboard navigation works on all pages — Tab, Shift+Tab, Escape, and Enter operate as expected.

A skip-to-content link is available on every page. The mobile navigation menu includes a focus trap and closes on Escape. Calculator results are announced to screen readers via aria-live regions, and charts provide text alternatives through result cards that display all calculated values. The site respects prefers-reduced-motion for users who have disabled animations, and a print stylesheet ensures clean output when printing or saving as PDF.

How we test

We test accessibility using automated tools integrated into our development workflow. Every page is audited against WCAG 2.1 AA using axe-core via Playwright before release — this covers all published calculator, guide, glossary, pillar hub, FAQ, and legal pages. We also run Lighthouse accessibility audits across the full site, requiring a minimum score of 95%. Visual regression testing with screenshot baselines helps us catch unintended layout or contrast changes.

Assistive-technology compatibility

We design for compatibility with modern screen readers (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, TalkBack) but cannot guarantee equivalent behaviour across every assistive-technology release. If you use an assistive technology and encounter a barrier, please report it using the contact details in "Reporting issues" below — your feedback is the most reliable signal we have for compatibility issues that automated testing does not catch.

Known limitations

While we strive for full conformance, complex interactive charts on this site may not be fully navigable via screen reader. All data displayed in charts is also available as text in the accompanying result cards.

Reporting issues

If you encounter an accessibility barrier on any page, we want to hear about it. This is the primary feedback mechanism we use to identify issues that automated testing does not catch. Please describe the issue, the page URL, and the assistive technology you are using.

See our contact page for how to reach us. We aim to respond within 5 business days.

Last audited

2 May 2026. All published calculator, guide, glossary, pillar hub, FAQ, and legal pages passed WCAG 2.1 AA automated testing via axe-core.