Accessibility Statement

Barriers are bugs, and we fix them

Dealership shoppers and dealership staff include people with disabilities. A platform that's hard to use for some people fails its purpose. We take accessibility seriously and treat barriers as bugs — bugs we fix.

If you encounter a barrier on any DealersGear-operated surface, tell us. We aim to acknowledge reports within one business day and remediate priority issues within 30 days. See Section 08 for how to report.

WCAG 2.2 Level AA, with selective AAA

Our target standard is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Level AA, published by the W3C. We also follow:

• WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices for interactive components.
• Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act (for federal procurement contexts).
• EN 301 549 (European accessibility standard).

We do not claim WCAG 2.2 AAA conformance. Where AAA criteria are technically feasible without harming usability for other users, we adopt them — for example, our default body text contrast ratio is 12:1, well above AAA's 7:1 requirement.

What's already in place

3.1 Structure & navigation

• Skip-to-content links on every page.
• Semantic HTML throughout: <header>, <nav>, <main>, <section>, <article>, <footer>.
• Heading hierarchy enforced linearly (single H1, descending H2–H6).
• Landmark roles where semantic HTML alone isn't sufficient.
• aria-current="page" on active navigation items.

3.2 Keyboard support

• All interactive elements reachable and operable via keyboard.
• Visible focus indicators on every focusable element (2px outline, 4.5:1 contrast minimum).
• Logical tab order matching visual order.
• Focus trapping on modal dialogs and the mobile navigation drawer.
• Escape key closes all modal surfaces.

3.3 Color & contrast

• Body text minimum contrast 7:1 (exceeds AA 4.5:1).
• Large text (18pt+) minimum 4.5:1.
• Non-text UI elements minimum 3:1.
• Color is never the sole means of conveying information. Status indicators include text labels and icons.

3.4 Forms

• Every form field has a visible label or a programmatic association.
• Errors announced via aria-invalid and described in aria-describedby text.
• Required fields marked semantically (aria-required="true") and visibly.
• No CAPTCHA without an accessible alternative.

3.5 Motion & animation

• Decorative animations respect prefers-reduced-motion.
• No content flashes more than 3 times per second.
• Auto-rotating content can be paused.

What we test against

Each release is exercised across the matrix below. If your AT/browser combination isn't listed, we still want to hear about issues — it tells us where to expand coverage.

Screen readers

• NVDA (latest) on Windows with Firefox and Chrome.
• JAWS (latest) on Windows with Chrome.
• VoiceOver on macOS Safari and iOS Safari.
• TalkBack on Android Chrome.

Speech recognition

• Dragon NaturallySpeaking on Windows.
• Voice Control on macOS and iOS.

Magnification

• ZoomText on Windows.
• macOS Zoom.
• Browser zoom up to 400% without horizontal scroll.

Switch & alternative inputs

• Keyboard-only navigation fully supported.
• Switch Access on Android tested.

Gaps we're transparent about

We're transparent about gaps. Current known limitations:

• Audit terminal animation — the "live scan" animation on the audit page is decorative and may not be announced verbosely to screen readers. The final results are announced via role="status".
• Some third-party embeds — when dealers embed external widgets (e.g., chat providers, third-party financing tools) on their public sites, accessibility of those embeds is the provider's responsibility, not ours. We document this in our integration guidelines.
• Internal dashboards under active development — new features ship to internal preview environments before being audited. They reach production only after passing an accessibility review.

If you encounter an issue not listed above, please report it (Section 08).

How we keep accessibility from regressing

6.1 Automated testing

Every pull request to our production codebase runs axe-core, Pa11y, and Lighthouse accessibility audits as part of CI. PRs cannot merge with newly introduced WCAG 2.2 AA violations.

6.2 Manual testing

Every quarter, our engineering team conducts manual keyboard-only and screen-reader testing on production. Issues found are filed as P0/P1 bugs.

6.3 External audits

We engage an external accessibility consultancy annually for a full WCAG 2.2 AA audit. Most recent audit: March 2026 (conducted by an independent accessibility consultancy). Findings and remediation status available on request.

Where our coverage ends and dealer responsibility begins

The Website Engine renders public-facing dealer websites. Those sites inherit the accessibility properties of the underlying template (APEX, DRIVE, FLEET, or custom). All three default templates are WCAG 2.2 AA conformant at the template layer.

However, dealer-provided content (photos missing alt text, custom HTML pasted into rich-text fields, third-party widgets the dealer installs) can introduce accessibility issues. AutoLink flags missing alt text and basic content-level issues at publish time, but dealers retain final editorial control.

If you encounter a barrier on a dealer's public website that uses DealersGear, please report it both to the dealer and to us. We can often help the dealer remediate.

How to tell us something is broken

If something on dealersgear.com, our dashboards, or a dealer site we operate is hard or impossible for you to use, please tell us. Include if you can:

• The page URL.
• What you were trying to do.
• What happened (or didn't happen).
• The assistive technology you were using (if any).
• Your operating system and browser.

You can report a barrier by:

• Emailing accessibility@dealersgear.com — preferred, tracked and prioritized.
• Calling our accessibility line: (800) 555-0142 (Monday–Friday 9am–5pm ET).
• Using the contact form at /contact with subject "Accessibility".

Our commitments:

• Acknowledging receipt within 1 business day.
• A substantive response within 5 business days.
• Remediation of priority issues within 30 days where feasible, with progress updates if longer.

If a webpage is the wrong medium for you

If you need information from DealersGear in an alternate format — large print, structured text, audio, braille-ready — email accessibility@dealersgear.com. We will provide accessible alternatives at no cost.

Who to reach

For accessibility questions, requests, or feedback:

Accessibility Team
AutomotiveAI, Inc.
Attn: Accessibility Lead
accessibility@dealersgear.com
(800) 555-0142 · Monday–Friday 9am–5pm ET

We acknowledge reports within one business day and treat barriers as bugs.