Accessibility

Our Commitment

PaySick believes that healthcare financial services must be accessible to all South Africans, regardless of disability or assistive technology used. We are actively working to ensure our platform meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standard and strives toward Level AAA where practical.

We review our pages against these guidelines during every development cycle and prioritise accessibility fixes alongside security and functionality issues.

Current Conformance Status

What We Have Done

• All form inputs have associated <label> elements
• All SVG icons that convey meaning have aria-hidden="true" or descriptive aria-label attributes
• Interactive buttons and links have clearly visible focus states
• Colour is never the sole means of conveying information (error states also use icons and text)
• The page language is declared (lang="en") on every HTML page
• Font sizes are set in relative units and the layout reflows at 400% zoom
• All pages are responsive and usable on mobile devices
• Form errors are announced programmatically and associated with the relevant input
• The registration form has real-time validation with clear, plain-language error messages
• Session timeouts display a warning before expiry (24-hour access token lifetime)

Known Limitations

We are aware of the following gaps and are actively working to address them:

• Investor Deck (investor-deck.html): The presentation slides are not fully accessible to screen readers. A plain-text summary is available on request.
• Data tables on dashboards: Some complex data tables lack full scope and headers attributes. This is scheduled for the next sprint.
• Keyboard trap in modal dialogs: Some modal-style panels on the lender dashboard do not fully trap keyboard focus. We are refactoring these components.
• Colour contrast (secondary text): Some grey text (#8A8A8A on white) falls marginally below the 4.5:1 ratio required for WCAG 2.1 AA. We are updating these in our next design pass.

Technical Specifications

• Guideline: WCAG 2.1 Level AA (target)
• Approaches: Semantic HTML5, ARIA landmarks, skip navigation links (planned)
• Testing tools: Axe, WAVE, manual keyboard navigation, VoiceOver (macOS/iOS)
• Browsers tested: Chrome, Safari, Firefox (latest versions); iOS Safari; Android Chrome

Alternative Formats

If you need information from PaySick in an alternative format (such as large print, audio, or a plain-text version of any document), please contact us and we will respond within 2 business days.

For telephone assistance with any part of the application process, call us at 0800 000 000 (toll-free, weekdays 08:00–17:00).

Feedback and Reporting Issues

We welcome feedback on the accessibility of PaySick. If you experience any barriers or encounter a page that does not meet the standards described above:

• Email accessibility@paysick.co.za
• We aim to respond within 2 business days and to fix critical accessibility issues within 5 business days of confirmation