Accessibility

Last updated July 2026.

Signals Surveys is used to ask questions of real people. A survey that some of your customers cannot complete is a survey that returns incomplete answers — so accessibility matters both ethically and for the quality of the intelligence you collect.

Our target

We work to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Level AA as our minimum standard. That target applies to two distinct surfaces:

• This marketing website — the pages describing the product, pricing, documentation, and support.
• The customer-facing survey experiences — the surveys, Sparks, product finders, and preference centers that merchants publish to their own customers, wherever they appear: on a Shopify storefront, on a hosted survey page, in email, or behind a QR code.

The second surface is the one that reaches the most people, and it is where we concentrate the most effort.

What we implement

Keyboard navigation

Every interactive element — links, buttons, answer options, rating scales, next and back controls, and disclosure panels — is reachable and operable with a keyboard alone, in a logical order. There are no keyboard traps, and skip links let keyboard users bypass repeated navigation.

Visible focus states

Focus indicators are always visible, never removed, and meet the contrast and size expectations of WCAG 2.2's focus appearance criteria. Focus is never suppressed for aesthetic reasons.

Semantic headings and structure

Pages use one h1 followed by correctly nested headings, with landmarks for header, navigation, main content, and footer. Survey questions are marked up as real headings and groups, so assistive technology can convey the structure of a multi-step survey rather than a flat run of text.

Form labels

Every input, radio group, checkbox group, select, and free-text field has a programmatically associated label. Related options are grouped with a fieldset and legend. Required fields are indicated in text, not by color or an asterisk alone. Placeholder text is never used as a substitute for a label.

Error messages connected to their fields

Validation messages are attached to the field they describe, announced to screen readers when they appear, and written in plain language that says how to fix the problem. Errors are never signalled by color alone, and focus moves to the first field that needs attention.

Accessible contrast

Text meets at least a 4.5:1 contrast ratio, and large text and meaningful non-text elements meet at least 3:1. Merchants can theme surveys to match their brand; the survey editor flags color combinations that fall below these thresholds so a brand choice does not quietly create a barrier.

Reduced motion

Animations, transitions between survey steps, and decorative motion respect the prefers-reduced-motion setting. Nothing auto-scrolls, flashes, or animates in a way that could trigger a vestibular or photosensitive response. There is no autoplaying video.

Captions and media

Product and demo videos are published with captions and an accessible transcript. Where a merchant embeds media inside a survey, we provide caption and transcript fields and prompt for them.

Screen-reader-friendly surveys

Survey progress, step changes, remaining questions, and confirmation of submission are announced rather than conveyed only by visual change. Rating scales and preference selectors expose their current value and range. Custom controls use native elements wherever possible and correct ARIA roles and states where a native element does not exist.

Text and zoom

Layouts reflow to 320 CSS pixels without loss of content or functionality, and remain usable with text spacing overrides and up to 200% zoom.

How we test

• Automated accessibility checks run in our build and deployment pipeline.
• Manual keyboard-only walkthroughs of the survey experience, including multi-step and branching surveys.
• Screen reader testing with current versions of VoiceOver and NVDA.
• Contrast verification of default themes, and automated flagging of merchant theme choices that fall below threshold.
• Review of new interactive components before release.

What merchants control

Signals gives you accessible defaults, but the surveys you publish are yours. To keep them accessible:

• Keep custom theme colors above the contrast thresholds the editor reports.
• Write question text and answer options in clear language.
• Add alternative text to any image you include in a question or answer.
• Provide captions and transcripts for media you embed.
• Avoid relying on color alone to distinguish answer options.
• Avoid time limits on responses.

Known limitations

We do not claim the entire experience is free of barriers. Areas we are actively working on include some advanced analytics visualizations in the merchant admin, which currently rely more heavily on visual presentation than we would like, and third-party embedded content that we do not control. Where a merchant applies extensive custom styling or custom CSS, the accessibility of the result depends on those choices.

An ongoing commitment, not a certification

This page describes work in progress. It is not a certification, an audit result, or a conformance claim for every page and every survey configuration. Accessibility is reviewed as the product changes, and this page is updated as that work progresses.

Tell us about a barrier

If you encounter something on this website, in the Signals admin, or in a survey powered by Signals that you cannot use, please tell us at accessibility@signals.compass.st. It helps if you can include the page or survey URL, what you were trying to do, and the browser and assistive technology you were using.

We aim to acknowledge accessibility reports within five business days and will tell you what we intend to do and when. If you are a customer of a merchant using Signals and need your response data changed or removed, contact that merchant directly — see our Privacy Policy for how that works.

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