Our Commitment
Project Research LLC wants www.lettermatching.com to be usable by as many people as possible. We are working to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at Level AA across the site, and we are open about where we currently fall short.
Conformance Status
WCAG 2.1 defines three levels of conformance: A, AA, and AAA. www.lettermatching.com targets Level AA.
This site partially conforms with WCAG 2.1 Level AA. “Partially conforms” means some parts of the content do not fully meet the standard, or have not yet been verified by manual testing with real assistive technology. We have not completed a full audit, and we do not claim full or certified compliance.
Compatibility
The content and legal pages (this page included) use standard semantic HTML — headings, landmarks, labeled links — and should work reasonably with most current browsers and assistive technology as a result.
To date, testing has been automated: rendering and interaction checks in Chromium and WebKit-based browsers, plus programmatic contrast and keyboard-operability checks. We have not yet completed manual testing with real screen readers (VoiceOver, NVDA, JAWS, Narrator, or Orca) or with other assistive technology such as switch access or voice control. We are not claiming compatibility with any specific assistive technology until that manual testing has been done.
Technical Specifications
Accessibility of www.lettermatching.com relies on the following technologies: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, plus a small amount of WAI-ARIA where native HTML semantics are not enough (for example, marking the settings panel as expanded or collapsed, giving each bubble a label that names its letter, and announcing each new target letter through a polite live region). These technologies are relied upon for conformance with the accessibility standards used.
How the Activity Works
A green bubble in the top-left corner of the home page shows a capital letter (A–Z; this beta uses capital letters only). Bubbles carrying random capital letters fall down the screen. Selecting a bubble whose letter matches the top-left letter pops it; selecting a bubble with any other letter makes it jiggle without popping. A non-matching bubble can also be held and dragged aside to uncover a matching bubble behind it; when released, it carries on falling from where it was dropped. Every 30 seconds the top-left letter changes, and a large green bubble showing the new letter briefly appears in the middle of the screen to signal the change.
Known Limitations
The letter-matching activity on the home page is a real-time visual and pointing activity — you read the letter on a moving bubble, compare it to the target letter, and click, tap, or press a key to pop it. This makes it a fundamentally visual and motor task. It is not possible to play by sound alone, and we do not claim otherwise. Each bubble does have an accessible name that includes its letter (for example, “Letter B bubble”), and each new target letter is announced to screen readers, but this has not been tested with real screen readers and does not make the activity practical to play without sight. If this affects you and you would like something we do not yet offer, please contact us using the details below.
The dominant accessibility concern with a pointing activity like this one is motor, not visual, so our first round of work focused there. The home page currently offers:
- Larger bubbles — scales up the bubble, the letter inside it, and its tap area.
- Slower movement — bubbles fall more slowly, giving more time to aim.
- Bigger tap area — adds extra invisible margin around each bubble so a near-miss still registers.
- Full keyboard operation — every bubble, and the music and settings controls, can be reached with Tab and activated with Enter or Space (a matching bubble pops; any other bubble jiggles). No mouse is required.
These settings are available from the settings button in the top-right corner of the home page, before you interact with any bubble, and your choices are remembered on your device for next time. See our Accessibility Help page for the full list of keys.
Other known limitations, and what we're doing about them:
- Letter-matching features not yet checked. The letter-matching features added in beta v1.1 (letters on bubbles, the top-left target letter, the 30-second letter change, the green new-letter bubble, and the jiggle for non-matching letters) have not yet been through the automated contrast and keyboard checks described above. In particular, the contrast of the colored letters (each falling bubble gets a random bright color, outlined in dark) against the translucent bubbles and photo backgrounds, especially when bubbles overlap, has not been measured.
- The target letter changes on a fixed 30-second timer. This interval cannot currently be lengthened, paused, or turned off. There is no penalty or fail state when the letter changes, but a player who needs more time to find a matching bubble may find the change frustrating. See the Timing section below.
- Letters rely on reading a capital letter. Only capital letters A–Z are used in this beta. Similar-looking letters (for example, O and Q, or M and N) may be hard to tell apart at small bubble sizes; the Larger bubbles setting also enlarges the letters.
- No manual assistive-technology testing yet. Everything above has been checked programmatically (automated contrast ratios, keyboard-focus order, ARIA state), but not yet by a person using a screen reader or other assistive technology day to day. We plan to do this as part of moving this site out of beta; no fixed date is set yet.
- Native form control styling. The checkboxes in the settings panel use the browser's own built-in appearance (beyond a white checkmark color), so their exact contrast varies by browser and operating system and has not been independently measured.
- Translucent buttons over a moving background. The music and settings buttons are intentionally styled to match the bubbles — a soft, semi-transparent glass sphere — rather than a fully opaque button. In the rare case a bright bubble passes directly behind one of these buttons, the visible contrast of its icon or focus ring against that instant of background can be lower than in front of the normal black canvas. This is a deliberate visual-design tradeoff we have not resolved.
- Green target-letter bubble. The top-left target-letter bubble and the large new-letter bubble are a semi-transparent green with a white letter outlined in dark green. Their contrast against the photo backgrounds has not been measured.
- Dragging bubbles aside. Moving a non-matching bubble out of the way requires a press-and-drag movement. Dragging is optional, not required: a matching bubble that is partly hidden can still be reached by waiting for the bubbles to drift apart, by pressing Tab to move focus directly to it (bubbles can be reached with the keyboard even when they overlap), or by turning on Larger bubbles or Slower movement. There is not yet a single-tap way to move a bubble aside. Touching a bubble to drag it also does not scroll the page.
- Photo backgrounds. The home page shows three photographs behind the bubbles, cross-fading to the next one every 3 minutes. The photos are dimmed with a dark overlay, and the footer links sit on an extra dark band, to keep white bubbles, letters, and links readable. However, contrast against the photos varies from spot to spot and has not been measured, so the background is no longer the plain black that the contrast figures elsewhere on this page assume. There is not yet a setting to switch back to a plain black background.
Motion and Flashing
When the target letter changes, a large green bubble with the new letter grows in, dims once, and fades out over about two seconds. It does not flash more than three times in any one second. After 5 matching pops in a row, a golden starburst with an encouraging phrase (for example, “Great job!”) grows in, turns slightly, and fades out over about two seconds; it appears once, does not flash, and its phrase is also announced to screen readers. Non-matching bubbles jiggle briefly when selected. If your device is set to reduce motion, the green bubble and the starburst simply fade in and out without growing or turning, and non-matching bubbles brighten briefly instead of jiggling.
Timing
The activity has no score, no countdown, and no fail state by design. The only timed element is the target letter, which changes every 30 seconds. Nothing is lost when it changes — you simply start matching the new letter — but the interval is not yet adjustable. We are considering a setting to slow or pause letter changes, and we welcome feedback on whether this would help you.
Assessment Approach
Project Research LLC assessed the accessibility of www.lettermatching.com by self-evaluation: a manual review of the code against WCAG 2.1 Level AA success criteria, combined with automated contrast-ratio and keyboard-behavior checks. This has not been reviewed by an independent third-party accessibility auditor.
Feedback
We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of www.lettermatching.com. Please let us know if you encounter accessibility barriers, or if there's an accommodation you need that isn't listed above:
Email: Admin@projectresearchllc.com
We try to respond to accessibility feedback within 5 business days.