For everyone

Accessibility

Wine writing is a sighted habit by tradition, and it needn't be. Palate is meant to be usable end to end — scan a label, hear what was read off it, correct it by speaking, rate it and find it again — without seeing the screen.

Your own assistive technology comes first

There is no separate app and nothing extra to buy. Palate is built to behave properly with the tools you already use.

· Screen readers — VoiceOver on iPhone, iPad and Mac, TalkBack on Android, NVDA, JAWS and Narrator on Windows, Orca on Linux.
· Refreshable Braille displays — anything your screen reader drives over Bluetooth or USB shows Palate in Braille, because we write the page as plain, properly labelled text.
· Voice Control on iOS and macOS and Voice Access on Android — every button and link has a spoken name you can call out.
· Zoom, larger system text and high-contrast modes, including the daylight theme in the top bar.

What we have done

The page is marked with your chosen language from the moment it loads, so a French, Spanish or Italian member is read in their own language rather than with an English voice.

· Names on every icon-only button, so nothing is announced as just 'button'.
· Star ratings are a keyboard-operable group announced as '3 of 5 stars'.
· Sections that can be rearranged by dragging can also be moved with 'move up' and 'move down' buttons, and hidden or shown from the keyboard.
· Changes that happen without a page change — a label read, a note saved, credits used — are announced politely rather than passing silently.
· A skip-to-content link, one main landmark and a heading order you can navigate by.
· Tasting notes are marked with the language they were written in, so the voice pronounces them sensibly. Wine names, vineyards and regions keep their original spelling — a Barolo should sound like a Barolo.

Voice in, voice out

You can speak a wine into the journal instead of typing it, dictate a tasting note, ask the help button a question out loud, and have a page read back to you. Read-aloud never starts on its own and can be stopped at any time. Grape names and the 'order a glass' phrases are spoken for you at no cost.

Braille on the bottle

Braille on a wine label is a matter for the producer, not the app. What Palate can do is remember it: tick 'Braille on the label' on a wine and you can find and reorder the bottles you are able to identify by touch.

Standard we aim at

We work to WCAG 2.2 level AA. We are not claiming perfection — some areas, particularly rich charts and the drag-to-rearrange gestures, are still being improved, and every rearrangement has a keyboard equivalent in the meantime.

Tell us when something blocks you

If any part of Palate is unusable with your screen reader, Braille display or magnifier, please say so through the feedback card on your Account page, or the help button on any page. Access problems go to the front of the queue.