Accessibility

This page lists Alabaster's accessibility guarantees. An automated test enforces each one, so it holds even when someone is in a hurry.

Enforced by tests

Guarantee	Test
Every control variant clears 4.5:1 contrast over every surface it can sit on, at rest, hovered, and pressed	controlContrast.spec.ts
Chromatic color never leaves the Okabe-Ito palette, and no component carries a color literal	palette.spec.ts
Every animation has a reduced-motion fallback	motion.spec.ts
Every clickable control comes from one button system, and none of them move on hover or press	interactionConsistency.spec.ts
Every routed page uses one of two documented page shells	pageLayout.spec.ts
Every locale matches the English schema, with no empty messages	locales.spec.ts
Every theme pack implements the full token contract in both light and dark	themes.spec.ts

Color

Chromatic color comes only from the Okabe-Ito palette. The palette stays distinguishable across the common forms of color blindness. Neutral variation uses only black and white with opacity.

Color never carries status alone. Text or a distinct shape always repeats what a color says: a state, a warning, an unsaved file, or a disconnected board. A status stays readable in greyscale, on a washed-out monitor, or to someone who cannot see the hue at all.

Alabaster computes control colors from contrast requirements, not by eye. A test composites each variant over each surface it can appear on and checks the result.

Motion

Every animation has a reduced-motion fallback. A test checks that each one does.

With reduced motion set in your operating system:

• Crossfades and reveals become instant.
• The G-code viewer shows discrete position updates instead of a continuous toolhead path.
• You lose no information. Motion never carries information on its own.

Animation never delays input. A control responds when you press it, no matter what is animating.

Alabaster never animates responsive geometry: grid tracks, pane widths, table columns, folder contents. Layout changes appear immediately instead of sliding into place.

Keyboard

You can do every dragging action with buttons too. This covers the dashboard's move, resize, and hide actions. Dragging is faster, but buttons reach every action too.

• Skip to main content is the first item in the tab order.
• Focus rings use a themed token and appear on every focusable control.
• Menus, dialogs, and pickers close on Escape and return focus to where it came from.
• Dialogs are real HTML dialogs. window.confirm, window.prompt, and window.alert appear nowhere in the application.

See Keyboard shortcuts for the shortcuts each page adds.

Typefaces

Alabaster offers five typefaces. Choose one in Settings → Appearance:

• OpenDyslexic is available. It isn't the default: it serves a specific need.
• Public Sans is the proportional option, for readers who find monospace interfaces harder to read.
• Text weight runs from Light to Bold. A screen read from two metres and a phone held at arm's length need different weights.
• The console has its own typeface and weight, independent of the interface setting.

Each option in the picker renders in its own typeface, so you can choose by looking at it rather than by name.

Text and language

Every string is translated, including accessible names, titles, placeholders, validation messages, and notifications. No component hardcodes user-facing text. Adding a new language requires only a translation file.

Alabaster ships English and Norwegian Bokmål. A test fails the build if any locale is missing a key or has an empty message, so a partially translated release cannot ship.

Alabaster keeps time and date formats separate from language. You can read the interface in one language and see the clock in the format you use.

Layout

A test verifies every page at desktop width and at 390 px. Neither the page nor a toolbar acquires horizontal scrolling. Wide content (tables, charts, code) scrolls inside its own container.

Text is not selectable by default, so dragging across the interface does not select it. Chrome also does not respond to a right-click. Surfaces where you need to copy text (console output, update logs, file contents) opt in explicitly.

Screen wake lock

Settings → Display can hold the screen awake, for a shop-floor display.

Two limits apply. The wake lock holds only while the tab is in the foreground, and it needs a secure context, so it is unavailable over a plain LAN address.