Everyone should be able to use this site.

Our commitment

The Gathering Box is about bringing people together, and that has to include the people using this site. We build it to be operable by keyboard, legible at the contrast levels people actually need, and understandable to screen readers and other assistive technology.

Conformance target

We are working to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at Level AA.

Current status

This site is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 Level AA: most of the site meets the standard, and we are actively remediating the parts that do not. We would rather say that plainly than claim a clean bill of health we have not earned.

Things we have deliberately built in:

• A skip link that moves focus past the navigation to the main content.
• Visible keyboard focus on every interactive control, and no keyboard traps in the menu, the mobile sheet, or the dialogs.
• Form fields with real labels, and validation errors announced and programmatically tied to the field they describe.
• Respect for your system settings for reduced motion, reduced transparency, and increased contrast — animation, glass effects, and colour all adapt.
• A pause control in the header that stops every piece of motion that starts on its own — the candlelit hero, the theme marquee, the drifting glow, the scroll cues — and starts it again when you want it back.
• A pause control on the editions slideshow, which also does not start at all when reduced motion is requested.

Known areas we are still improving:

• Some decorative rules and translucent “glass” surfaces sit below a 3:1 boundary contrast; the controls inside them are legible, but the edges are subtle.
• Momentary press states use a lighter copper than the resting text colour.
• We have not yet completed testing with every combination of screen reader and browser.

Report a barrier

If any part of this site blocks you, please tell us — it is the fastest way we find out. Email hello@thegatheringbox.com or use the Contact link in the footer. Describe the page and what you were trying to do; if it helps, tell us the browser and assistive technology you were using.

We aim to acknowledge every accessibility report within five business days, and to tell you what we intend to do about it and roughly when.

Alternatives

If something on the site is not usable for you, we will help another way — answering the question directly, or taking your waitlist or Founding Host details over email.