Accessibility Statement

ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT

Novela is committed to making the platform usable by as many people as possible, whatever their abilities or assistive technology. This statement describes the actual accessibility of the Novela platform: what we have built, what we measured, and what comes next.

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1. Scope

This statement covers the novela.ro website and the Novela app for Android. Both share the same catalogue and the same accounts, but they are different technologies, so we assess them separately; the status of each is set out below.

2. Conformance Status

The platform is partially conformant with EN 301 549 and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA. "Partially conformant" means most requirements are met, but some areas have not yet been assessed exhaustively or still need improvement. We list them below rather than hide them.

3. Accessibility Measures in Place

The following requirements are met and verified in the platform's code:

• The page language is declared on every page, matching the selected language (Romanian or English), so screen readers use the correct pronunciation.

• A "skip to content" link, available on the first press of Tab, which bypasses the repeated header and navigation and goes straight to the page's main content.

• Semantic structure — the page exposes a main-content landmark, and the header, navigation and footer use semantic elements; the checkout steps carry an accessible name. In the web application the header and footer are rendered inside the main landmark, so they do not expose separate banner and contentinfo roles — delimiting them precisely is a next step.

• A visible focus indicator for keyboard navigation, applied consistently to links, buttons and form fields. The indicator appears only for keyboard navigation, not for mouse use.

• Resizing and zoom — no page blocks zooming, including the checkout pages. The interface is responsive and adapts to small screens.

• Alternative text for images, including book covers; purely decorative images are marked as such so screen readers skip them.

• The search field and icon-only controls (cart, wishlist, account, panel close buttons) have accessible names and can be operated from the keyboard.

• The purpose of sign-in fields is declared (the autocomplete attribute), so autofill from the browser or a password manager works.

• A single top-level heading on catalogue, product and legal pages, with a coherent heading hierarchy.

• Keyboard navigation works for the main menu, which is built from real links, and for switching between Romanian and English.

4. Non-Accessible Content

The following are not yet resolved or not yet fully verified:

• The Android app has not yet been fully assessed. That assessment is under way; we will update this statement with the results.

• The website assessment is not exhaustive. We checked the main journeys (home, catalogue, product page, cart, checkout, sign-in, legal pages). Less-used areas may still contain insufficient contrast or missing names that we have not yet identified.

• The PDF book reader disables browser zoom while it is open, so that page-navigation gestures work correctly. In exchange, the reader provides its own zoom controls, from 100% to 500%, with plus/minus buttons, a slider and a percentage readout. We consider this functionally equivalent, but we are keeping it under review.

• No independent external audit has been carried out yet, and no systematic testing with users of assistive technologies has been performed.

5. Assessment Method

This assessment was a self-assessment, updated on 13 August 2026. It consisted of inspecting the code and page structure, checking the accessibility tree and keyboard focus behaviour in a real browser, and calculating contrast ratios using the WCAG formula.

For the sake of accuracy: an earlier version of this statement reported insufficient contrast on the "Become a partner" button. Re-measurement showed that the figure reported at the time was wrong — it had been calculated without accounting for the dark background actually applied to the button. The button's real contrast is above the required threshold, so the element is conformant.

6. Feedback

If you hit an accessibility barrier on novela.ro or in the Novela app — including if some content is inaccessible to you and you need it in another form — write to us at contact@novela.ro. Describe the page or screen and the problem; we reply within 30 days at the latest.

7. Enforcement Procedure

If you are not satisfied with our reply, you may contact the Romanian National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC) or an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) body.

Statement updated on 13 August 2026.