Accessibility Statement

1. Our commitment

MazeCrafts Studio GmbH wants every colleague at a licensed event to be able to take part, whether they read a puzzle with a screen reader, navigate a maze in a wheelchair or simply need larger type in a dim room. We treat accessibility as a product requirement rather than a remediation project: designs are reviewed for contrast and focus order before build, and no release ships with a known blocker in a core flow.

This statement covers the website at mazecrafts.biz, the MazeCrafts player app used by participants, the facilitator console, and the printable puzzle kits and physical installations we license.

2. Standard applied

We target conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 at level AA, and we take account of EN 301 549 as the harmonised European standard referenced by the German Accessibility Improvement Act (Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz, BFSG). Level AAA success criteria are adopted selectively where they are cheap and useful, for example a minimum contrast of 7:1 for body text on our pastel section backgrounds.

3. Conformance status

Partially conformant. Partially conformant means that most of the content meets WCAG 2.2 level AA, but some parts do not yet fully conform. The known exceptions are listed below, each with the affected criterion, the current workaround and the date by which we expect a fix.

3.1 Interactive maze canvas

The maze route in the builder and in the player view is rendered as an inline SVG canvas. Nodes are keyboard reachable, but the canvas does not yet expose a complete accessible tree: junctions announce as generic groups, and the relationship between a cell and its adjacent corridors is conveyed visually. This fails WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value. Workaround: every maze offers a “Route as list” view that presents the same topology as a nested, fully labelled list, and facilitators can print it. We are rebuilding the canvas on an ARIA tree-grid pattern; target completion is 31 March 2027.

3.2 Countdown timer announcements

The event timer updates every second in a polite live region. Some screen readers queue those updates and read them late, which can bury a hint notification. This risks failing WCAG 4.1.3 Status Messages. Workaround: timer speech can be muted in player settings, and milestone announcements at 30, 10 and 5 minutes are sent as separate assertive messages. A throttled announcement model ships in the next quarterly release.

3.3 Legacy printable puzzle PDFs

Kits published before January 2026 include PDF puzzle sheets that are not tagged, so reading order and table headers are not exposed to assistive technology. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships and 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence for those files. Workaround: an accessible HTML version of every puzzle sheet is available in the workspace, and we will retag any legacy kit on request within five business days. Retagging of the full back catalogue is scheduled through 2027.

4. What already works

• Full keyboard operation with a visible focus ring of at least 3:1 contrast, plus a skip link on every page.
• Semantic landmarks, one h1 per page and a logical heading order.
• Text resizing to 200 per cent and reflow at 320 CSS pixels without loss of content or two-dimensional scrolling.
• Respect for prefers-reduced-motion: scroll reveals, parallax and confetti are disabled and replaced with instant state changes.
• Colour is never the only carrier of meaning; puzzle states also use shape and text labels, and colour-blind-safe palettes are selectable.
• Form fields have persistent visible labels, programmatic error messages and no timeout on submission.
• Captions and transcripts on all case-study videos; audio never autoplays.
• Touch targets of at least 44 by 44 CSS pixels in the player app.

5. Accommodations for physical and hybrid events

Digital conformance is only half the job, so every Kit ships with accommodation variants at no extra cost:

• Wheelchair-navigable route variants with 120 cm corridors, 150 cm turning circles, no step or threshold above 6 mm, and all locks, clues and props mounted between 60 cm and 110 cm from the floor.
• Large-print puzzle sets at 18 pt and 24 pt with a matte finish, high-contrast plates, and a version typeset for dyslexia-friendly reading.
• Audio hint track covering every clue and solution step, available as streamed audio in the player app or on a standalone player for venues without reliable connectivity, with a tactile-marked control layout.
• Braille and tactile plates for cipher puzzles, produced to order with 10 business days’ notice.
• Sensory-considerate mode that removes strobing, sudden sound cues and confined spaces, and lowers the ambient soundtrack.
• Role flexibility so any participant can take a seated coordination role with equal scoring weight, and a quiet room is recommended in every venue checklist.

Facilitators are asked to collect accommodation needs at booking, and the console prompts for them before a run can be confirmed. We never ask for medical evidence and we never disclose a request to other participants.

6. Feedback and contact

If you meet a barrier, or you need content in an alternative format, contact us:

• Email: [email protected]
• Telephone: +49 30 5678 1120, Monday to Friday 09:00–18:00 CET
• Post: MazeCrafts Studio GmbH, Accessibility, Ritterstraße 12, 10969 Berlin, Germany

We acknowledge every report within one business day and give a substantive answer, including a fix or a workaround and a target date, within five business days. Please tell us the page or screen, the assistive technology and browser you used, and what you expected to happen. If our answer does not resolve the problem, you may escalate to the managing directors at the same address, and you retain the right to contact the competent enforcement body under the BFSG.

7. How we assessed this

The assessment combined a self-evaluation with an external review. In-house testing used axe DevTools and Lighthouse in continuous integration, manual keyboard-only walkthroughs of every core flow, and screen-reader passes with NVDA 2025.2 on Windows 11 in Chrome and Firefox, VoiceOver on macOS 15 in Safari, and VoiceOver on iOS 18. Zoom, reflow, contrast and reduced-motion checks were performed manually. Physical route variants were validated at our Berlin studio with two accessibility consultants who use wheelchairs day to day.

An independent audit against WCAG 2.2 AA was carried out by an external accessibility consultancy and covered the marketing site, the checkout, the facilitator console and the player app. The findings in section 3 are the open items from that audit.

Statement prepared	14 August 2026
Last external audit	22 July 2026
Method	Combined self-assessment and third-party audit
Next review	Not later than 14 August 2027, or on any material redesign

8. Roadmap

Accessible-by-default route variants become the primary artwork rather than an alternate download in the first quarter of 2027; the tree-grid maze canvas follows in the same window; PDF retagging runs continuously through 2027; and from 2027 onwards every new Kit must pass an accessibility gate before publication, covering tagged print files, an audio hint track and a validated step-free route.