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Accessibility Statement — SENTINEL OS

Effective date: May 11, 2026 Version: 1.0 Scope: sentinel-os.ca (marketing website) Owner: SENTINEL OS, Montréal, Québec, Canada

1. Our commitment

At SENTINEL OS we are building an operating system for the North American pre-owned vehicle industry — dealers, drivers, and coordinators — and we believe that an operating system that is not accessible to everyone is not an operating system. It is a wall.

Accessibility is a permanent engineering practice for us, not a compliance checkbox at the end of a release cycle. We treat the way a screen reader announces a button, the way a keyboard user reaches a form field, the way someone using 200% zoom reads a heading, and the way a driver in a low-light cab wearing gloves taps a CTA on a 6-inch screen — as product quality signals of equal weight to load time, conversion rate, or visual polish.

This statement explains what we have built, what we have not yet finished, how to reach us if something does not work for you, and what your legal recourses are. We have tried to be honest, including about our limitations.

If something on sentinel-os.ca prevents you from getting information, contacting us, or evaluating our product, we want to hear from you and we will fix it.

2. Conformance target and current status

Target standard: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA, plus the new success criteria introduced in WCAG 2.2 where they apply to a marketing website (2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured, 2.5.7 Dragging Movements, 2.5.8 Target Size Minimum, 3.2.6 Consistent Help, 3.3.7 Redundant Entry, 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication).

Current conformance level: Partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 AA. "Partially conformant" means most of the site meets the standard but some content does not, and we explain those gaps below in Section 5.

Last internal audit: May 8, 2026. Next planned audit: Quarterly internal audit; first independent third-party audit committed for Q1 2027.

3. Standards we follow

  • WCAG 2.1 Level AA and WCAG 2.2 new success criteria — the W3C international baseline.
  • WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices 1.2 — guidance for custom widgets.
  • EN 301 549 v3.2.1 — European harmonised standard used in public-sector procurement.
  • Accessible Canada Act (ACA, S.C. 2019, c. 10) — voluntary alignment.
  • Loi assurant l'exercice des droits des personnes handicapées (LAPDA), Québec — alignment with Standard SGQRI 008.
  • ADA Title III (United States) — DOJ guidance confirms applicability to commercial websites.
  • Section 508 (United States federal procurement).
  • European Accessibility Act (EAA, Directive 2019/882) — in force June 2025.

4. What we built in

  • Skip-to-main-content link — first focusable element on every page.
  • Reduced motion respected — `prefers-reduced-motion: reduce` replaces the WebGL hero with a static gradient + plain text, disables Lenis smooth scroll, and shortens Framer Motion transitions.
  • Color scheme — dark default theme with high-contrast tokens; `prefers-color-scheme` honored.
  • Keyboard navigation — every interactive element reachable in logical Tab order; Enter / Space / Arrow keys per ARIA Authoring Practices.
  • Visible focus — cyan 2 px focus ring with 4 px offset on `:focus-visible`. Never removed.
  • Screen reader support — semantic HTML5 landmarks (`<header>`, `<nav>`, `<main>`, `<footer>`), `aria-label` on icon-only buttons, `role="status"` for non-critical form feedback, `aria-live="polite"` for asynchronous success messages.
  • Color contrast — body text ≥ 4.5:1 against background; large text and non-text ≥ 3:1. Verified against actual ocean-deepest and silver-bright tokens.
  • Touch targets — primary CTAs ≥ 44 × 44 CSS px on mobile (WCAG 2.5.8 AA in 2.2). Matters for drivers using one-handed in a cab, sometimes with gloves.
  • Forms — explicit `<label>`, error messages via `aria-describedby` with `role="alert"`, HTML `autocomplete` attributes.
  • Bilingual — every page declares correct `lang` (en-CA / fr-CA); language switcher persists across navigation.
  • Honeypot anti-bot — hidden from screen readers via `aria-hidden="true"` and visually off-screen, so AT users never see an invisible field.

5. Known limitations

  • WebGL hero animation (Three.js). The animated waves, 3D SENTINEL letters, and star particles are a `<canvas>`. Canvas is not directly readable by screen readers. We provide adjacent DOM text equivalents (heading + subheading), and the entire animation is replaced by a static gradient with the same text when `prefers-reduced-motion: reduce` is detected. An `aria-label` description of the visual concept is in evaluation.
  • Custom magnetic cursor. Desktop-only; disabled on touch; `aria-hidden`; purely cosmetic. Visitors who rely on the system cursor for visual tracking should know it exists.
  • Product screenshots. Some marketing images show SaaS dashboards with small text. We provide descriptive captions, but the screenshots themselves are not perfect text equivalents. Accessible HTML versions are planned for the next release.
  • Lenis smooth scroll. Disabled under reduced-motion. A user-facing toggle is in evaluation for vestibular sensitivity.

6. If something does not work for you

  • Email: accessibility@sentinel-os.ca
  • Response time: first reply within two business days.
  • Alternative format: plain text, PDF, large print, or audio summary delivered within five business days at no cost.

Including the page URL, your assistive technology and browser, and a brief description helps us reproduce quickly. None of this is required.

7. Compatibility

  • Browsers: current and previous major version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge.
  • Screen readers: NVDA + Chrome (Windows 11); VoiceOver + Safari (macOS Sonoma, iOS 17); TalkBack + Chrome (Android 14).
  • Zoom: up to 200% browser zoom; 400% on a 1280 px viewport per WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow.
  • Input: keyboard-only; mouse; touch; Windows Voice Access / macOS Voice Control for basic flows.

8. Assistive technology disclaimer

We test against widely used assistive technologies in their current versions. Older or niche tools may behave unpredictably. Tell us — we add real-world setups to our test matrix.

9. Continuous improvement

  • Internal audit each quarter (axe-core, Lighthouse; manual keyboard, screen-reader, and zoom testing).
  • Third-party independent audit annually, starting Q1 2027.
  • Accessibility acceptance criteria on every new feature pull request before merge.

10. Legal recourse

  • Canada (federal): Accessibility Commissioner (ACA) + Canadian Human Rights Commission — chrc-ccdp.gc.ca.
  • Québec: Office des personnes handicapées du Québec (OPHQ) — ophq.gouv.qc.ca; Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse (CDPDJ) — cdpdj.qc.ca.
  • United States: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division (ADA Title III) — ada.gov.
  • European Union: the enforcement authority of your Member State (EAA + Web Accessibility Directive).

Statement approved May 11, 2026. Next scheduled revision: August 11, 2026 or sooner upon material site change.