About the service
- Pollar is a multilingual news aggregator. We summarise reporting already published by other newsrooms and publish the result in English, Polish, German and French.
- The service is delivered as a website at pollar.news and as native iOS and Android apps. Both surfaces share the same content, accessibility commitments and feedback channels.
- Reading articles, the Brief, Live, threads and search work without an account. Personalisation, bookmarks and history are tied to an account; account creation and deletion both happen inside the app or on the web.
Conformance status
- Pollar is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 Level AA via EN 301 549 v3.2.1. “Partially conformant” means parts of the content do not yet fully conform to that standard.
- Conformance is self-assessed: automated checks (axe-core, Lighthouse, Apple's performAccessibilityAudit) plus manual review by our team. Independent third-party audit is on the roadmap.
- We treat accessibility as ongoing work rather than a one-off checkbox: every iOS release runs the automated audit suite and every backlog item that fails is tracked publicly with a planned fix date.
What we've built in
- Keyboard operable on the web: every interactive control (navigation, expandable cards, dialogues) is reachable and operable with Tab, Shift-Tab and Enter.
- Readable contrast: text targets the WCAG 4.5:1 contrast ratio in both light and dark themes and exposes explicit High Contrast variants for the system Increase Contrast setting.
- Colour is never the only signal: market moves use up/down arrows alongside colour; live-event status badges carry both icon and label.
- Text alternatives: images carry descriptions, and data charts expose a screen-reader-readable table fallback.
- Semantic structure: landmarks, headings and lists are used so assistive technology can navigate the page without sighted reference.
- Honours system settings: Dynamic Type / Text Size, Increase Contrast, Reduce Motion and Reduce Transparency are all respected.
- Interface available in English, Polish, German and French; locale is independent of the operating system locale so users can read in a language different from their phone's default.
How to use the accessibility features
- On iOS and iPadOS: VoiceOver, Voice Control, Switch Control, Dynamic Type and Increase Contrast all work as system features over the Pollar app — no extra setup required inside Pollar.
- On the web: every interactive control announces a name and role to screen readers. Tab + Shift-Tab move between controls; Enter or Space activates them; Escape closes dialogs.
- Browser zoom up to 200 % keeps content readable without horizontal scrolling on the desktop layout.
- The web reader view (Reader Mode) is supported on individual articles for users who prefer maximum visual simplicity.
Known limitations
- The interactive Explore map on the web is not yet fully operable with a keyboard or a screen reader. We provide the same content as a sortable list as an alternative.
- Some embedded or third-party content may not fully conform to WCAG 2.1 AA. We surface the source link so users can fall back to the publisher's own page.
- Manual screen-reader and keyboard reviews per locale are in progress; we fix issues as we find them and publish a changelog inside this statement.
Ongoing monitoring and service delivery
- An automated accessibility audit suite (Apple's performAccessibilityAudit and axe-core for the web) runs against every release candidate.
- We track every audit issue in the public Pollar backlog with a planned fix date. We publish a changelog of accessibility improvements per release inside the apps' What's New screen.
- User feedback is the second monitoring channel — every contact@pollar.news request that names an accessibility barrier is logged and prioritised.
- This statement is reviewed at minimum once per quarter and after any significant interface change.
Tell us about a barrier, and how to escalate
- If something is hard or impossible to use, write to contact@pollar.news with the page or screen, what you were trying to do, the device + assistive technology you use, and what happened. We respond without undue delay and at the latest within one calendar month.
- If our response doesn't resolve your concern, you can escalate to the national authority responsible for the European Accessibility Act in your country. In Poland the primary authority for digital services is the Ministry of Digital Affairs (Ministerstwo Cyfryzacji) at gov.pl/cyfryzacja, with PFRON (State Fund for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons) at pfron.org.pl supporting expertise and monitoring and UKE (Office of Electronic Communications) at uke.gov.pl covering telecom-related market surveillance. In other EU member states, the equivalent national EAA market-surveillance authority handles such complaints.
- Information about the European Accessibility Act and member-state authorities is published by the European Commission at commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/disability/european-accessibility-act-eaa_en.