1.1.1 Non Text Content
Hidden Headings
The pages in Genio Notes contain hidden headings at the start of each section to help screen readers navigate quickly to different parts of the page. These headings should be deleted as there cannot be content which is available to screen readers which is not available to others.
Slides Text Content
Text content contained within a slide deck is exposed as an image, we do not perform OCR and so the text within is not exposed to screen readers. Each slide is given alt text with the slide index, for example "Slide 3 of 7".
People impacted;
- People using a screen reader
1.3.1 Info and Relationships
Field Labels
The preferred name field in the account popup is not programmatically associated with its field label. Instead the label is provided using the aria-label attribute.
This results in screen reader users hearing the field label twice. Below is an example announcement from VoiceOver on macOS;Preferred Name
Steven Milne, insertion at end of text, Preferred Name, required, edit text
People impacted;
- People using a screen reader
Using Placeholders as Field Labels
Many fields in Genio Notes do not have a dedicated label and instead use the placeholder text as a label.
Using placeholder text as a label means that the label is no longer visible once text has been entered into the field. This means that a person must remember which field is which, if they forget they are forced to delete the value of a field to see the placeholder again.
People impacted;
- People with cognitive impairments
Implicit List Markup
Some dropdown menus and some toolbars are not marked up as lists in Genio Notes.
Marking these up as lists gives extra announcements to screen readers so that they are aware of how many items are in the list. Screen readers also have extra navigation features for jumping around lists and skipping items. Currently a person using a screen reader would not know how many items are in a dropdown until they have navigated to each item.
People impacted;
- People using a screen reader
Implicit Headings
There is some content in Genio Notes which functions as a heading but is not marked up as a heading. This will make it harder for screen readers to navigate the page.
People affected;
- People using a screen reader
2.1.1 Keyboard
Audio Visualisation Bubbles
The bubbles in the audio visualisation are clickable, but are not focusable. Pressing the cursor keys while focused on anything except a text area will allow the cursor to be used however. This is not how keyboard users may expect it to work and screen reader users will struggle to navigate in such a way.
People affected;
- People using a keyboard
- People using a screen reader
Playback Speed
The playback speed slider cannot be controlled using the keyboard or screen reader. This is because it isn't a proper <input /> element which also means it also cannot be used by voice control.
People affected;
- People using a keyboard
- People using a screen reader
- People using voice assistance
Scribble
The scribble feature in Genio Notes does not allow drawing with the keyboard or screen reader.
People affected;
- People using a keyboard
- People using a screen reader
2.4.3 Focus Order
Dialog Opening Auto Focus
Most dialogs autofocus the first focusable element when opened, instead they should focus the dialog element itself. Focusing the first focusable element is useful for keyboard users, but forces screen reader users to navigate backwards to read the content. Furthermore a screen reader user may be unaware that a dialog is open since it is not announced.
People impacted;
- People using a screen reader
Dialog Closing Focus Restoration
Most dialogs do not restore focus correctly when closed causing focus to be lost and return to the beginning of the page. This is especially true of dialogs opened from a dropdown menu.
People impacted;
- People using a keyboard
- People using a screen reader
Menu Toggles Focusable Twice
Both the link text and the toggle are focusable in Scribble menu toggles. This means that a keyboard user needs to tab twice to navigate over the one item.
People impacted;
- People using a keyboard
2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context)
If a user creates multiple tasks with the same name then the task list contains links with duplicate text. This makes it confusing to know which task is which. We recommend that you give tasks and events meaningful names, using the same name is confusing regardless if we add content to the end to force it to be unique.
People impacted;
- People using a screen reader
- People using voice assistance
2.5.1 Pointer Gestures
The scribble feature requires mouse gestures to draw and does not support drawing with the keyboard.
People impacted;
- People using a keyboard
- People using a screen reader
3.3.2 Labels or Instructions
Placeholder Text used as Label
Some fields in Notes use placeholder text as the label instead of having a dedicated always visible one. This forces users to remember what these fields contain after they have typed in some text. These fields however are temporary and after enter is pressed they will be cleared allowing the placeholder to be seen again.
People impacted;
- People with cognitive impairments
4.1.2 Name, Role, Value
Google Sign-In Button
The "Sign in with Google" button is hosted by Google inside an <iframe>, this iframe has the name "Sign in with Goggle button". The word button should not be in the name because the iframe is not a button, it just contains a button and this could confuse screen reader users.
People affected;
- People using a screen reader
Improper Nesting of Button in Link
The collection cards act as a link which allows you to view the collection, however they contain a button which adds a new event to the collection. It is not valid to put a button in a link as assistive technologies may struggle to parse this. Screen readers like VoiceOver are able to correctly parse this and allow you to step into the link and press the button however other screen readers may not.
People affected;
- People using a screen reader
Buttons which Function as Links
There are some buttons in Notes which navigate the user to another page, these should be links instead so that they communicate that the page will change when pressed.
People affected;
- People using a screen reader
Dropdown Menu Button Contains a Checkbox
The audio clean-up options are buttons which contain checkboxes, which could confuse a screen reader user. Instead the whole button should be a checkbox.
People impacted;
- People using a screen reader
Dropdown Menu Button Announced as Link
The layout options menu toggle buttons are announced as links when they should be announced as checkboxes. This can confuse a screen reader user as they might expect navigation and will not be able to see if the toggle is on or off.
People impacted;
- People using a screen reader
Dialog Descriptions
Most dialogs in Notes have an aria-describedby attribute which contains the textual content of the dialog, this is not necessary and means that a screen reader user might hear all of the content announced twice.
People impacted;
- People using a screen reader
1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
The colour contrast of links in a link preview does not meet 4.5:1 when a card is clicked. This can make the link text difficult to read in bright light or for people with low vison.
People impacted;
- People with poor vision
- People in a brightly lit area
1.4.4 Resize Text
Content Out of Bounds
At 200% zoom some content is clipped out of bounds and cannot be seen by scrolling. This can make it difficult to use certain buttons.
People impacted;
- People using zoom
- People with small screens
Content Hidden at High Zoom Levels
At 200% zoom some features are hidden such as being able to switch between the audio, transcript and outline. This means some users may never be able to use these features.
People impacted;
- People using zoom
- People with small screens
Content Difficult to Read
At 200% zoom with slides enabled the content in the feed does not have a lot of space and can only show one line at a time. This can be worked around by hiding the slides, but showing both makes the feed very hard to read.
People impacted;
- People using zoom
- People with small screens
Dialogs Unreadable
At 200% zoom some dialogs become unreadable as they do not allow scroll and attempt to stay centred in the screen.
People impacted;
- People using zoom
- People with small screens
1.4.5 Images of Text
Slides decks uploaded to Notes are shown as images in a canvas element, we do not attempt to extract information from your slides and generate alt text for each slide.
People impacted;
- People using screen readers
1.4.10 Reflow
Events Page
Some screens in Genio Notes do not reflow enough to support a screen width of 320 pixels.
This means that users of such small screens will need to use both horizontal and vertical scrolling to see and use all content. In some cases fields will be too small to see the full value if that value is long.
People impacted;
- People with low vision
Dialogs
Status: Scheduled Q3 2025
Some screens in Genio Notes do not reflow enough to support a screen width of 320 pixels.
This means that users of such small screens will need to use both horizontal and vertical scrolling to see and use all content. In some cases fields will be too small to see the full value if that value is long.
People impacted;
- People with low vision
1.4.11 Non-text Contrast
Blue Checkboxes
When using the blue theme, checked checkboxes do not meet colour contrast criteria (3:1) which can make them difficult to see for people with low vision. To workaround this for now, change your theme to one of the other colours.
People impacted;
- People with low vision
- People in a bright area
Low Bubble Contrast
The bubbles in the audio visualisation do not meet colour contrast criteria (3:1) when un-highlighted or when highlighted blue (the default). This can make the bubbles difficult to see for people with low vision.
People impacted;
- People with low vision
- People in a bright area
Toolbar Selected State
The toolbar in scribble shows a highlight around the tool which is currently selected, this highlight does not meet the colour contras requirement of 3:1 making it difficult for some to see.
People impacted;
- People with low vision
- People in a bright area
2.4.6 Headings and Labels
Toggle Button does not Change Names
The show/hide password toggle button does not change it's accessible name when toggled. The toggle button is exposed as "Show password" and announces if it is on or off. We have been told however that it should be a normal button which changes it's name to "Hide password" instead of toggling aria-pressed; saying show password is on is more confusing than swapping the whole button out for a hide password button.
People impacted;
- People using a screen reader
- People using voice assistance
Buttons with the Same Name
The bullet points shown in the feed are buttons which allow you to change the label of an annotation. These buttons are all named "No label selected. Click to open label menu" which is not unique and doesn't tell you which annotation will have it's label changed.
People impacted;
- People using screen readers
- People using voice assistance
4.1.3 Status Messages
Slide Changes
When the next and previous buttons are pressed then the new slide content is not announced to screen reader users. We do not extract your slide content so cannot announce anything more helpful than "Slide 3 of 7".
People impacted;
- People using a screen reader
Quiz Me
When an answer is chosen in Quiz Me an announcement will be made to let you know if it is the correct or wrong answer. There will not be an announcement to tell you which one was the correct one if you chose the wrong one.
This means that a screen reader will need to manually navigate over each of the answers to see which one was correct.
People impacted;
- People using a screen reader
Definition Results
When searching for a definition, if more than one result was found a list of potential matches is shown. This is not announced automatically meaning a screen reader user needs to manually navigate over the content to see what was found.
People impacted;
- People using a screen reader