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Accessibility

Herald is made to be used by everyone with epilepsy

Including people with low vision, limited movement, memory changes after seizures or photosensitivity. Herald aims for WCAG 2.2 level AA and EN 301 549 on every device it runs on, and this website does too.

VoiceOverVoice ControlLarger TextDark ModeIncrease ContrastReduce MotionCaptionsAssistive Access

Seeing and reading

VoiceOver on every screen. Text up to the largest accessibility sizes, with rows and cards rearranging so nothing runs off. Every text at 4.5:1 contrast or more, and colour never used alone.

Photosensitivity

Nothing in Herald flashes. Settings › Motion and light makes all of Herald's own motion calm, and Herald follows Reduce Motion and Dim Flashing Lights.

When your hands or memory are tired

A heads-up starts from Siri, the Action button, the Lock Screen or your Apple Watch, with a countdown to cancel. Logging takes one tap. Assistive Access shows three large buttons.

Updated October 20, 2026

The short version

Herald is made to be used by everyone with epilepsy, including people with low vision, limited movement, memory changes after seizures or photosensitivity. We aim for WCAG 2.2 level AA and EN 301 549 on every device Herald runs on. If something doesn't work for you, write to support@heraldjournal.app and we'll fix it.

What Herald supports

VoiceOver on every screen, with labels, hints and the order things are read in; Voice Control and Switch Control; Larger Text up to the largest accessibility sizes on every screen, where rows, cards and choices rearrange so nothing runs off the screen, with icon buttons offering the Large Content Viewer; Dark Mode; Increase Contrast, which makes Herald's softer greys and its borders stronger; every text in Herald at 4.5:1 contrast or more; Differentiate Without Color (Herald never uses colour alone, and never red); Bold Text and Button Shapes.

For photosensitivity: nothing in Herald flashes, and Settings › Motion and light makes all of Herald's own motion calm. Herald follows Reduce Motion and Dim Flashing Lights and says how they're set. Slow breathing never goes faster than in for 4 seconds and out for 6, and never asks you to hold your breath.

For when your hands or memory are tired: a heads-up starts from Siri, the Action button, a control, the Lock Screen or your Apple Watch, with a 3-second countdown and Cancel. Logging takes one tap. Assistive Access shows Herald with three large buttons. The heads-up's first aid can be read aloud, in your own Personal Voice if you've made one, and slow breathing can guide you by voice, a soft tone or haptics.

Captions: slow breathing shows "Breathe in" and "Breathe out" on screen while the voice says them, and with Show what the voice says turned on, the voice's other lines too (such as "Let your shoulders drop"). Herald has no videos of its own.

Known limits

Pictures that show the app (the welcome's animations, Herald's own watch face) are drawn at a fixed size and described in words beside them. Some headings stop growing at the third-largest accessibility size, so long words don't break in the middle. Apple Watch faces and the Smart Stack show only a few words, by design. Some of Apple's own screens that Herald opens (the share sheet, Apple Health's permission sheet, the App Store's subscription pages) follow Apple's accessibility, not ours.

How we check

Apple's accessibility audit runs over every screen on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro, at the default and largest text sizes and in Dark Mode. VoiceOver, Voice Control and Switch Control are checked by hand on the iPhone.

Contact

support@heraldjournal.app. Tell us the device, the screen and what happened; we answer within a week.