Accessibility is the measure of whether a website can be used by the people who arrive at it, and this page sets out how accessibility is handled on the website of Bismay Dash & Associates. The firm is a full-service practice headquartered in Saheed Nagar, Bhubaneswar, with a branch office in the city and an office in New Delhi.
Its clients include individuals, families, businesses and institutions, and they read this website on phones, on laptops, with screen readers, with magnification, with keyboards alone, and with a range of needs that are not always visible. This page explains the accessibility options the site provides, the standards those options are built against, the keyboard shortcuts available, the limitations that remain, and how a difficulty can be reported.
Accessibility on this website: an overview
The site is built so that a visitor can change how it looks and behaves without installing anything and without creating an account. A control panel is available on every page, opened from the toolbar at the top. Every preference set in that panel is stored in the visitor’s own browser, so it applies again on the next visit, and it is never transmitted to the firm. No preference is used to identify a visitor, and no preference is shared with anyone.
Accessibility is treated here as a set of practical choices rather than a single switch. A visitor who needs larger text does not necessarily need higher contrast; a visitor who needs a reading ruler does not necessarily need reduced motion. The panel therefore offers each adjustment separately, so that a combination can be built to suit the individual reader rather than a preset chosen for them.
This page is written in plain language deliberately. An accessibility statement that cannot be read by the people it is meant to serve is not much use, and jargon about compliance is not the same thing as a site that works.
Accessibility reading and display options
The control panel groups its options by purpose. Each is described below, with a note on who tends to find it useful.
Accessibility of the ground: light, dark and sepia
The site can be read on a light ground, a dark ground, or a sepia ground. The choice follows the visitor’s own device setting on a first visit, and once a visitor chooses for themselves that choice is remembered and the device setting stops overriding it. The sepia ground uses a warm, low-glare palette that some readers find easier over long passages, particularly in the evening or under artificial light.
Accessibility of the text: size, spacing, weight and typeface
Text size can be increased in four steps. Text spacing can be widened, which increases line height, letter spacing and word spacing together. Text can be made heavier throughout. The typeface can be switched to a high-legibility option designed for readers who find fine letterforms difficult to distinguish. Text can also be forced to left alignment, which removes the uneven gaps that justified text creates between words.
Accessibility of the reading experience: ruler, mask and focus mode
A reading ruler places a band across the page to help the eye hold a line. A reading mask dims everything except a band that follows the pointer, which reduces the amount of text competing for attention. Focus mode dims the blocks around the passage being read, so that the surrounding page recedes. These three options address different difficulties: the ruler helps with tracking, the mask with visual overload, and focus mode with attention.
Accessibility of colour and motion
Contrast can be increased. The site can be rendered in greyscale. Colour-vision adjustments are available for deuteranopia, protanopia and tritanopia, so that colour is not the only means by which information is conveyed. Motion can be reduced, which suppresses entrance animations and transitions, and the reduced-motion setting of the visitor’s own operating system is honoured whether or not the panel is used.
Accessibility of interaction: cursor and targets
A larger cursor can be enabled for visitors who lose track of the standard pointer. Click targets can be enlarged to a minimum of forty-four pixels, which matters most on touch screens and for visitors with limited dexterity or a tremor.
Accessibility of the page furniture: hiding fixed bars
The header of this site is fixed, so it remains visible as the page scrolls, and a floating contact bar sits at the side. Both can be switched off. This is not only a preference: a fixed element that cannot be dismissed is a barrier for some readers, and removing it is one of the requirements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Accessibility and keyboard operation
The site can be operated by keyboard alone, without a mouse or a touch screen. Links, buttons, form fields and the control panel are all reachable in a logical order, and focus is always visible so that a keyboard user can see where they are. A list of keyboard shortcuts is available from the accessibility panel itself, and covers opening and closing the panel, moving straight to the main content, switching between light and dark, toggling comfortable spacing, and resetting every preference at once.
Skipping directly to the main content matters more than it may appear. On a long page with a large navigation menu, a keyboard user would otherwise have to tab through every menu item before reaching the first word of the article. The skip shortcut removes that obstacle in a single keystroke.
Accessibility standards followed
The site is built with reference to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.2, at Level AA. The guidelines are maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium, the international body that maintains the standards on which the web is built, and they are widely treated as the benchmark against which accessibility is measured. The four principles set out below are the firm’s own summary of how those guidelines are applied on this site.
Three of the criteria are worth naming, because each corresponds to a specific feature on this site.
Text spacing, at success criterion 1.4.12, requires that content remain readable when line height, letter spacing and word spacing are all increased by a set proportion. The comfortable-spacing option in the panel meets this directly.
Target size, at success criterion 2.5.8, requires that interactive controls be large enough to be operated reliably. The larger-targets option meets this by raising the minimum size of every button and link.
Pause, stop and hide, at success criterion 2.2.2, requires that moving or fixed content which distracts a reader can be stopped. The option to hide the fixed header and the floating contact bar meets this.
Beyond those three, the site uses headings in a logical sequence so that a screen reader can navigate by structure, provides alternative text for images, labels every form field, keeps focus visible, and avoids relying on colour alone to convey meaning.
Accessibility limitations that remain
An honest statement is worth more than a flattering one, so the limitations are set out here rather than left unstated.
Some of the longer guides in the Knowledge Centre were written as self-contained documents with their own internal styling. They are being brought into line with the rest of the site, but until that work is finished their behaviour may differ from the pages around them.
Interactive tools embedded within articles are being reviewed individually. Where a tool depends on a third-party service, the accessibility of that service is outside the firm’s control, and the firm can only ensure that the link to it is reachable and clearly described.
Where a document is published in a fixed format, such as a scanned record or a printed form, an alternative is available on request.
Visitors looking for the substance of the firm’s work rather than its accessibility arrangements will find the Knowledge Centre collects the firm’s written guides, its notes on Acts and Rules, and its interactive tools in one place. The advocates of the firm and their qualifications are listed separately, and the contact page sets out the offices, the direct email and telephone, and how enquiries are handled.
Accessibility work is ongoing rather than finished. Standards change, browsers change, and a site that was accessible last year is not automatically accessible this year. This page is updated as that work proceeds.
Accessibility feedback and contact
If any part of this site is difficult to use, the firm would rather know than not know. The matter can be raised by email at consult@bismaydash.com or by telephone on +91 70089 75735. A description of what was being attempted, what happened instead, and the device or assistive technology in use is helpful, though any report is welcome. Reported difficulties are looked into, and this page is updated where a change is made.
Accessibility and the four principles behind the guidelines
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are organised around four principles, often remembered by their initials. Understanding them explains why the options on this site exist in the form they do.
The first is perceivable. Information must be presented in a way the visitor can take in. That means text that can be enlarged without loss, images that carry a written description, and colour never used as the only signal. A form field marked in red as required is not perceivable to a reader who cannot distinguish red, which is why the required fields on this site also carry a symbol and a word.
The second is operable. Every control must be usable by whatever means the visitor has. That covers keyboard operation, adequate target size, enough time to complete a task, and the ability to stop anything that moves. A control that can only be clicked is not operable by a keyboard user; a control smaller than a fingertip is not reliably operable on a touch screen.
The third is understandable. The page must behave predictably and read clearly. Headings should follow one another in sequence rather than jumping from a top-level heading to a third-level one. Links should describe their destination rather than saying click here. Language should be plain where plain language will do.
The fourth is robust. The page should work across browsers, devices and assistive technologies, including ones that do not yet exist. In practice this means using standard markup in standard ways, so that a screen reader can interpret the page rather than guess at it.
Accessibility and assistive technology
Visitors reach this site using a wide range of tools, and the site is built to work with them rather than around them.
A screen reader converts the page to speech or to a refreshable braille display. It navigates by structure, which is why headings, lists, tables and form labels on this site are marked up as what they are. A screen reader user can move from heading to heading, jump between landmarks such as the navigation and the main content, and read a list of all the links on a page.
Magnification software enlarges a portion of the screen rather than the whole page. This places a premium on layouts that do not break when zoomed, and on content that reflows rather than requiring horizontal scrolling. Text on this site can be enlarged either through the browser or through the panel, and the layout adapts.
Speech recognition software lets a visitor operate the site by voice, and depends on every control having a clear, visible label. Unlabelled icon buttons are a common failure here, which is why the controls on this site carry written labels in addition to their symbols.
Reading aids such as rulers, masks and focus tools address difficulties that are not always classified as disabilities, including attention difficulties and visual stress. They are offered on the same footing as the other options, because a reader should not have to explain why they need a particular setting.
Accessibility and how the options are stored
Every preference set in the panel is written to the visitor’s own browser, in local storage, and nowhere else. Nothing is sent to the firm, nothing is placed in a cookie that travels with requests, and nothing is used to build a profile. A visitor who clears their browser data clears their preferences with it, and a visitor who uses a different browser or a different device starts fresh.
The preferences are applied before the page is first painted, rather than after it has loaded. This matters more than it might sound. If a visitor who needs a dark ground or larger text saw the page in its default state for even a moment before their setting applied, they would be subjected to exactly the experience they had asked to avoid, on every single page. Applying the preferences first removes that flash.
The panel itself is operable by keyboard, announces its state to a screen reader through standard pressed-state attributes, and can be closed with the escape key.
Accessibility of forms and documents
Forms on this site are built with a label for every field, a hint where the expected input needs explaining, and an error message that says what went wrong rather than merely that something did. A field that is required is marked in text as well as by colour. The contact form carries a note asking visitors not to include sensitive documents or passwords, which is a security measure rather than an accessibility one, but it is stated plainly for the same reason.
Documents published in fixed formats, such as a scanned record or a printed form, cannot reflow and cannot be enlarged as text. Where such a document is necessary, an alternative is available on request, and a visitor who needs one should say so.
Accessibility and third-party content
Some parts of this site depend on services provided by others, including embedded maps, embedded government portals and social media links. The firm can ensure that such content is reachable, clearly described and not the only route to the information, but it cannot change how a third-party service behaves for a visitor with a particular need. Where an embedded service cannot be used, a direct link to the same service is provided alongside it.
Accessibility across devices
The site is built to work on phones, tablets, laptops and larger displays, and the layout adapts to the width available rather than assuming a desktop. Touch targets are sized for fingers as well as pointers. Text reflows rather than forcing a horizontal scroll. The panel itself remains reachable on a small screen, because a preference that can only be set on a desktop is not much use to the visitors most likely to need it.
Accessibility and what visitors can expect from the firm
The firm treats accessibility as part of how the site is maintained rather than as a project with an end date. New pages are built to the same standard as existing ones. When a difficulty is reported, it is looked into, and where a change is made this page records it. Where a reported difficulty cannot be resolved, the reason is given rather than the report left unanswered.
Visitors are not expected to know the vocabulary of accessibility in order to raise a problem. A description of what was being attempted and what happened instead is enough, and is often more useful than a technical diagnosis.
Accessibility of this statement
This statement is reviewed as the site changes. It was written to describe the site as it stands rather than as it is intended to become, and where a claim in it ceases to be accurate it is corrected rather than left standing. A visitor who finds a statement here that does not match what they experience should say so, because an inaccurate statement is itself a barrier: it tells a visitor that a difficulty is theirs alone when it is not.