Accessibility guidance

Accessibility

Usability for every ability.

Dr.Max accessibility initiative on a green gradient background

Our commitment to accessibility

Accessibility is essential to an inclusive digital experience. Dr.Max products and services should work for people with different abilities, circumstances, devices and ways of interacting. Our components include accessibility considerations from the beginning, but a component library is only the foundation: accessibility must continue through research, design, content, implementation and testing.

Since 2022, Dr.Max has collaborated with Masaryk University in Brno through the Theseus project. Accessibility specialists with disabilities participate in audits of Dr.Max experiences, helping teams validate their work with people who use assistive technologies in everyday life.

Using accessible design-system components does not make an entire product accessible automatically. Every implementation still needs its own review, testing and refinement against EN 301 549 and our target of WCAG 2.2 Level AA.

Why accessibility matters

Accessible experiences remove barriers and usually improve usability for everyone. Prioritising accessibility:

gives people with disabilities equal access to products and services
makes interfaces clearer and easier to operate for all users
supports compliance with applicable accessibility legislation
demonstrates inclusive and considerate product design
strengthens trust in the Dr.Max brand

The European Accessibility Act has applied to selected products and services since June 2025. Accessibility is therefore both a product responsibility and, where applicable, a legal requirement.

Principles for accessible design

The WCAG framework is organised around four principles, often shortened to POUR:

Perceivable — present information and interface elements in ways users can recognise with the senses available to them.
Operable — make navigation and interactive controls usable with different input methods.
Understandable — keep information, instructions and behaviour clear and predictable.
Robust — use standards-based implementation that works across browsers, devices and assistive technologies.

See Understanding WCAG 2.2 for practical guidance for each principle.

How we support accessibility

Built-in accessibility

Design-system components provide an accessible starting point through semantic markup, keyboard support, screen-reader information, visible focus indicators and colour combinations designed to meet contrast requirements.

Use the Design System Color Contrast Checker to validate whether a colour combination is both accessible and on-brand.

Progressive enhancement

Build resilient experiences from a dependable core:

Start with semantic HTML so the content structure and controls remain meaningful.
Make the essential workflow usable without advanced styling or client-side JavaScript.
Add richer behaviour and presentation while preserving accessible fallbacks.

Ongoing testing and validation

Accessibility is continuous work, not a one-time approval. The design-system team tests its components, while every product team remains responsible for testing the complete experience in its real context.

Research with disabled users, automated checks, keyboard testing and assistive-technology testing complement one another. No single tool can validate the whole experience.

We test the design system. Product teams must also test their implementations.

Accessibility checklist for designers

Include accessibility from the start of the design process:

meet WCAG 2.2 AA colour-contrast requirements
define a logical keyboard and focus order
use a meaningful heading hierarchy
label links, buttons and form controls clearly
provide useful alternative text for informative images
describe status changes and validation messages for screen-reader users
identify page regions and landmarks
include a way to skip repeated navigation
document expected responsive, zoom and reflow behaviour
avoid relying on colour, position or motion alone to communicate meaning

Accessibility is more than a checklist. Empathy, clarity and inclusion should guide decisions beyond the minimum technical criteria.

European requirements

EN 301 549 v3.2.1 is the current harmonised European standard used for the Web Accessibility Directive. It draws heavily on WCAG 2.1 and also contains requirements that WCAG does not cover.

WCAG 2.2 is our practical design and engineering target, but later WCAG versions do not automatically become part of European law. A version of EN 301 549 must first be harmonised through a reference in the Official Journal of the European Union. Meeting WCAG alone may therefore not satisfy every applicable EN 301 549 requirement.

Always involve the relevant legal or compliance team when determining which legislation and standards apply to a specific product, service or market.