6.2 - Corpus accessibility statement

This page is the statement for the template. It does not replace the one for your site - the two are different, and the second one is yours. How to write it is explained at the end.

The state of things, plainly

Corpus has not been audited against RGAA 4.1 - the French accessibility standard, itself derived from WCAG 2.1 AA. No conformance level is claimed, neither by us nor by a third party. The 106-criterion grid is not kept.

What we can say fits in one sentence: some points are verified by machine, on every release; the others are verified only by our own reading, and a reading gets things wrong.

We would rather write that than let something else be understood. "Accessible" without an audit is a claim nobody can support, and that is precisely what a buyer needs to know before choosing.

What is verified by machine

These checks run on every release, and a release is refused if they fail. They are not intentions: they are conditions.

Contrast - 168 colour pairs measured to WCAG 2.1, in both themes, and swept across all 360 hues the setting allows. Body text, headings, focus ring, message rules, control strokes. Purely decorative strokes are measured and displayed but do not cause a failure: they do not serve to identify a component.

The shipped stylesheet against the mockup - every value in the compiled stylesheet is compared with the approved mockup. A value that drifts is an error, not a warning.

The language files - key parity across the four languages, and no key called by the code that is missing from the files. A missing string displays in full as its raw key: that is a visible defect.

What is verified by hand, and has been

These points were measured in a browser, on the test bench, not deduced from the stylesheet. They are not replayed on every release.

• Zoom to 400%, and display down to 320 px wide with no loss of content and no horizontal scrolling - measured at 301 px.
• Text spacing forced by the reader: line height 1.5, letter spacing 0.12 em, word spacing 0.16 em.
• Keyboard travel through the menu and the panels: arrow keys to open, Esc closing one level at a time, focus returned to the element that held it.
• No text below 1 rem, modules, cards, mentions and captions included.
• prefers-reduced-motion respected.

What is not verified

Screen readers. Corpus has been tried with neither NVDA, nor JAWS, nor VoiceOver. The markup is written for them; it has not been listened to.

Windows forced-colours mode. Rules have existed since 4 August 2026, written by reading the compiled stylesheet - that mode cannot be emulated from a development machine.

Browsers other than current Chrome and Firefox. Safari in particular has not been tried.

Third-party extensions. A component from another developer produces its own markup. Corpus styles it; it does not fix it.

Your settings. The four message colours are verified at their default values. If you change them, the guarantee falls away - it is written in Appearance, and it is the only template setting that can break a contrast.

What you must publish, for your site

If your site falls under a legal obligation - in France, every public body and part of the private sector; elsewhere in the EU, under the Web Accessibility Directive and the European Accessibility Act - you must publish a statement reachable from every page. It covers your site, content included.

It contains at least:

1. The conformance status: fully, partially, or non-conformant. Those three words have a precise meaning; they are not chosen by feel, but on the result of an audit.
2. The test results: who carried out the audit, when, and the score.
3. The non-accessible content, listed, with the reason.
4. A way to get in touch to report a defect, and the available remedy.

You cannot write there that your site is conformant because it uses Corpus. A template does not make a site accessible: it makes the site capable of being accessible. It is your alternative text, your link labels, your heading hierarchy and your attached documents that decide - and they are what most audits fail on.

The list of what falls to you is in Accessibility.

Reporting a defect in Corpus

An accessibility defect in the template itself - not in your content - interests us more than a feature request. Describe what you do, what you expect, and what happens. If you use a screen reader, say which one and which version: that is where we lack feedback most.

Up to date for Corpus 2.1.43.