Accessibility

Last updated: 13 September 2026

Much of our audience reads Arabic rather than English, uses a phone rather than a computer, and is on a slow or intermittent connection in a place where power is not reliable. Accessibility here is not a checkbox; it is whether a family in Gaza can actually use this site.

1. What we aim for

We work towards the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at Level AA. We are not claiming full conformance — making that claim without a formal audit would be dishonest. Section 4 lists what we know is not right yet.

2. What we have done

• Text and background colours are chosen to meet AA contrast ratios.
• Every page works by keyboard alone, with a visible focus outline, and a “skip to content” link so you do not have to tab through the menu on every page.
• Headings are properly nested, so a screen reader can navigate by structure.
• Images that carry meaning have text alternatives; decorative ones are hidden from screen readers rather than announced as noise.
• The site is built to work at any width, and text can be enlarged to 200% without anything being lost.
• Pages are plain HTML and deliberately light, so they load on a poor connection.
• A translation tool is available on every page. It is machine translation, so it will not always be right. The English and Arabic pages are the two we wrote ourselves, and Arabic is the one most of our applicants read.
• Nothing flashes, moves or auto-plays.

3. Getting this information another way

If any part of this site does not work for you, ask us and we will give you the same information another way — by email, in Arabic, or read to you over the telephone. We are a small team, so a reply may take a little while, but it will come. You will never be disadvantaged for not being able to use this website.

One thing we cannot do this way is take an application for assistance. When applications open, expected from November 2026, that will happen in a WhatsApp conversation in Arabic or English — which is itself the accessible route for most people who find a website difficult.

4. Where we fall short

Known limitations, stated plainly rather than left for you to discover:

• The translation widget is Google's, and we do not control its accessibility.
• Applications for assistance will only be possible on WhatsApp, which needs a phone and a working connection. If that is a barrier for you, ask us and we will find another way.
• Documents such as our IRS determination letter are scans, so they are not machine-readable by a screen reader. Ask us and we will send you the contents as plain text.
• The site has not had a formal third-party accessibility audit.

5. Tell us

If something here blocks you, email [email protected] and tell us what happened and what you were trying to do. We treat accessibility problems as faults, not requests, and we will tell you what we are doing about it. If we cannot fix it quickly we will find another way to get you what you needed.