Accessibility Statement

CS with ZAK wants every student to be able to use it, whatever their abilities or devices. We aim to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at Level AA, and we treat accessibility as part of quality, not an add-on.

• Semantic HTML with a single main landmark, a “Skip to content” link, breadcrumbs and consistent navigation.
• Full keyboard operability: every link, button, tab, menu and tool control can be reached and used with the keyboard; visible focus rings that the sticky top bar never covers; tab strips (levels, lab modes) also move with the arrow keys and Home / End; the command palette (Ctrl/⌘ K) for fast navigation is a proper dialog — Tab stays in it, Escape closes it and focus goes back where it was, and the number of results is announced. Opening AskZ puts the cursor in the message box and closing it returns focus to the AskZ button.
• In the code editors (pseudocode, Python, SQL, assembly, Prolog and the code answer boxes) the Tab key indents, as in any code editor; to leave an editor with the keyboard press Escape, then Tab (screen readers announce this). After a Playground run, how it ended — the number of output lines, warnings or the error — is announced without reading the whole output.
• Help in the same place on every page (WCAG 2.2 SC 3.2.6 Consistent Help): the ? button in the top bar — or the ? key — opens a Help panel with help for the page you are on, a search of every guide and a Still stuck? list (Ask Z, WhatsApp, email) in the same order everywhere; the Help Centre has the same guides as ordinary pages. The optional site tour is offered once, can be skipped, is a labelled dialog and honours reduced motion.
• Descriptive labels and names for controls; icons that carry meaning have text alternatives; decorative icons are hidden from assistive technology.
• Colour is never the only carrier of meaning (correct/incorrect answers also use icons and text, and links inside sentences are underlined); body text, red links and labels, and the coloured chips meet 4.5:1 in both light and dark themes (red text is a deeper red on light backgrounds and a lighter red on dark ones); the theme follows your system setting and can be switched.
• Respect for prefers-reduced-motion: CSS animations stop and the animated panels and drawers no longer slide or scale when you ask your OS to reduce motion.
• Text scales with browser zoom up to 200% without loss of content; layouts reflow down to 320 CSS px wide (the top bar keeps every button on screen); pointer targets are at least 24×24 CSS px or spaced as WCAG 2.2 SC 2.5.8 allows (links inside sentences excepted); wide tables, diagrams and code blocks that scroll sideways can be focused and scrolled with the keyboard.
• Fonts are legible, line lengths are bounded, and the pseudocode, Python, SQL, assembly and Prolog editors are plain text areas with a monospaced font and syntax highlighting that does not rely on colour alone.
• Smart Notes and assignments are ordinary headed text on the page (a chapter rail lists every section), can be printed, and can be downloaded as PDF or as an editable slide deck to read in your own software; assignment answers are typed into standard text areas.
• Video lectures open in a dialog that traps focus and closes with Escape; YouTube's own player controls and caption toggle apply inside it. The page-overview video windows play in place: the play control is a labelled button, nothing plays until you press it, and YouTube's auto-captions are available in the player.
• Signing in needs no password and no puzzle (WCAG 2.2 SC 3.3.8): we email a 6-digit code you can paste (spaces are ignored) or a link that signs you in, and your browser or phone can fill the code in for you.
• Infographics are inline SVG with an accessible name, and can be exported at 2× and 4× scale for magnification.
• Quizzes, flashcards and AskZ work with screen readers; streaming AskZ answers are announced when complete. AskZ has its own text size (S, M, L, XL — the A− / A+ buttons in the chat header on the website, the Aa picker in the apps) that scales every part of the chat, code in answers has a labelled Copy button, a full-screen focus mode closes with Escape, and answers can be read aloud with your device's own voices.
• The ebook reader can read a chapter aloud (the headphones button, or the l key): your device's own voice or the AskZ voice, speeds from 0.5× to 3×, the sentence and word being read highlighted on the page (which follows the voice), skip by sentence or section, a sleep timer, and lock-screen and headset controls. Code can be announced or read line by line; tables are read row by row with their column names.
• In the ZAPP apps, AskZ does not scroll the page while an answer streams in: your question moves to the top and you read at your own pace; tables in answers keep one width per column and wrap their text.
• We test with automated axe-core scans of one page of every kind (home, course and topic pages, the notes and assignment readers, every lab, the past-paper tools, Statometer, AskZ, Corners, games, help, legal, account, past-paper and command-word pages, blog, videos, dashboard) in light and dark themes at desktop and phone widths, a separate WCAG 2.5.8 target-size measurement, keyboard-only walkthroughs of the complex tools, the browser's accessibility tree, browser zoom and 320 px reflow. We keep a written record of the last full audit and what is still open; ask us for a copy.

• Logic Gates Lab: the drag-and-drop circuit canvas is not fully operable by keyboard or screen reader. The generated truth table is an accessible HTML table, and every example circuit can be loaded from the example browser (keyboard-accessible).
• Trace tables and the code editors: editing uses a textarea and is accessible, but syntax highlighting is visual only; run output, trace tables, SQL results and the assembler's register/memory views are HTML tables. The animated fetch–decode–execute diagram in the Assembler lab is decorative and pauses under reduced motion; the same information is in the tables beside it. The ER diagram in the SQL Lab is an SVG with an accessible name; the schema is also listed as text.
• Red badges: buttons and the AskZ launcher now use a slightly deeper red (white text 5.0:1), but some small red badges and labels still use the brand red, where white text measures 4.3:1 — just under the 4.5:1 that WCAG AA asks for small text. Their text is also given elsewhere on the page, and the high-contrast settings of your system or browser apply.
• Coloured statistics: a few small coloured figures (the Statometer's tier colours on the light theme, the follower counts in each social network's own colour) are below 4.5:1; the same numbers are always written in text beside them.
• Paper workspace: writing, ticking and drawing on the printed past paper needs a pointer, pen or touch, and the printed page is a picture of Cambridge's PDF. Every question also has a Text view with the question and mark scheme as ordinary text and a standard text box for your answer, which AskZ can mark the same way; drawn answers (circuits, K-map loops, diagrams) have no keyboard equivalent yet.
• Exported files: PDFs generated in the browser are not yet tagged for screen readers — the on-page version of the same notes or assignment is the accessible one, and the slide export is plain text and editable.
• Infographics: SVG diagrams carry an accessible name and the key terms are repeated in the page text, but not every visual relationship in a diagram is described in prose yet. Ask AskZ to “explain the diagram on this page” or email us for a text description.
• Third-party content: past-paper PDFs (PapaCambridge, BestExamHelp), syllabus PDFs (Cambridge), YouTube videos and Blogger posts are outside our control; many Cambridge PDFs are not tagged for screen readers. Auto-captions on YouTube videos may be inaccurate.
• CS Games: quiz, word, puzzle, match-3 and card games are playable by keyboard (ImposterZ is buttons only, no typing) (number keys, arrows, Enter) and announce results to screen readers, and every game honours reduced-motion settings; the real-time canvas games (PacketZ, DashZ) and drag-to-wire boards need sight and quick reactions — the same practice is available without time pressure in the Quiz, Number Systems Lab and Logic Gates Lab.
• Language: the site's interface is in English (UK) and Arabic (at /ar, with the EN / ع switch in the top bar). Study material (notes, questions, mark schemes, code) stays in English, the language Cambridge examines in, and AskZ explains it in Arabic on request. Urdu is used in class but not yet on the site.

If you cannot access something, or find a barrier, tell us: support@cswithzak.com (subject “Accessibility”), WhatsApp +92-3-111-222-ZAK, or ask AskZ to pass on an accessibility issue. Tell us the page, what you were trying to do, and your browser/assistive technology. We aim to respond within 5 working days and to fix genuine barriers within 30 days, or to provide the content in another format (plain text, large print, a spoken explanation) in the meantime.

Target standard: WCAG 2.2 AA (W3C Recommendation, October 2023). This statement is reviewed each time a new tool ships and at least once per academic session. Last review: 2026-10-04 — a full WCAG 2.2 AA audit (automated scans of every page type in both themes at 1440 and 375 px, keyboard and accessibility-tree checks of the complex tools, target size, reflow, reduced motion and sign-in), with the fixes it found shipped the same day.