NSS BG

Accessibility Statement

Version 1.2 · Effective May 21, 2026 · Last updated August 20, 2026

Our commitment

Novus Stream Solutions is committed to making NSS Background Remover accessible to as many people as possible, including those with disabilities. We aim to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA.

Accessibility is an ongoing effort. If you encounter a barrier, please tell us — your feedback directly shapes improvements.

What we’ve done

  • Skip navigation:A “Skip to main content” link appears on keyboard focus, allowing keyboard users to bypass repeated navigation.
  • Keyboard navigation: All interactive controls on marketing and legal pages are reachable and operable by keyboard. The editor includes keyboard shortcuts for all tools (E, R, F, B, P, \ and others) with a shortcut overlay available via ?.
  • Focus indicators: Visible focus rings are present on all interactive elements. We do not suppress outline without replacement.
  • Colour contrast: Body text, headings and accent-coloured elements meet the WCAG AA minimum of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. This was not true until 8 August 2026: our accent indigo measured 4.46:1 on white, missing the minimum by a hair in around sixty places. It has been darkened one step, and an automated scan now checks every sampled page on each test run.
  • Colour is never the only signal: Links inside paragraphs and bulleted lists are underlined, not just tinted, so they remain identifiable without colour vision.
  • Automated checking: Our end-to-end test suite runs axe-core against the homepage, the tool hub, a tool page, the background remover, the upscaler, the feature comparison, the blog index and a blog post, scoped to the WCAG 2.2 A and AA rules. Any finding at serious or critical impact fails the build, with no exception list. This is a floor, not a guarantee — automated rules catch roughly a third of WCAG, and none of them can judge whether a label reads sensibly.
  • Reduced motion: All CSS transitions and animations respect the prefers-reduced-motion media query and are suppressed or simplified accordingly.
  • Semantic HTML: Pages use correct heading hierarchy, landmark regions (main, nav, footer, section), and appropriate ARIA labels on interactive elements.
  • Alternative text: Decorative images carry aria-hidden="true". Functional images have descriptive alt text or ARIA labels.
  • Colour picker: The background colour picker includes a hex input field accessible to screen reader users who cannot operate the native colour input.
  • Cookie banner: Accept and Reject options have equal visual weight. Rejecting requires no more clicks than accepting.
  • Navigation mega-menu: The desktop category menus open on hover and on keyboard focus. Each trigger is a real link carrying aria-haspopup and aria-expanded, so clicking it navigates to the category page while Tab reaches the items within. Pressing Esc closes any open menu. The mobile menu is a labelled dialog toggled by an aria-expanded button.
  • Model-powered tools:Model downloads occur only when a selected operation needs them. Downloads & storage is a labelled, keyboard-reachable control (top-right) where you can review and delete downloaded models. Tool pages expose model size and expected speed in text — not colour alone.

Known limitations

Fixed on 8 August 2026 — recorded here because we said it was broken

This section listed three unresolved problems, found by the first automated scan we ran. All three are now fixed, and we would rather show the repair than quietly delete the admission.

  • Accent contrast (60 elements). Our indigo measured 4.46:1 against white where the standard asks 4.5:1 — one colour missing by a hair, in sixty places. It has been darkened one step.
  • A control inside a control. The upload areas nested a file input inside the button wrapping them, which screen readers could reach even though it was meant to be hidden. The input now sits alongside the button. A sweep of the whole codebase found a third upload area with the same fault that our sampled scan had never loaded.
  • Links marked by colour alone. Links inside body text differed from the text around them only by hue, which does not help if you cannot tell the two apart. Links in paragraphs and bulleted lists are now underlined site-wide.

Fixing the first of those exposed a fourth fault that no scan would have reported: our dark-mode colour rules were keyed to your operating system’s setting rather than to the theme switch on this site, so they applied at the wrong times in both directions. They now follow the switch.

Canvas editor — partial screen reader support

The brush editor operates on an HTML5 Canvas element. Canvas is inherently a pixel-based drawing surface with limited screen reader semantics. While all controls surrounding the canvas (tool sidebar, properties panel, zoom controls, export panel) are keyboard-accessible and labelled, the canvas drawing surface itself cannot be navigated or described by screen readers in a meaningful way.

The core background removal (upload → AI process → export) works fully without the canvas editor. Users who cannot access the editor can still upload images, process them with AI, and export — the manual brush refinement step is optional.

Browser and assistive technology support

We test with the following combinations:

  • Chrome + NVDA (Windows)
  • Safari + VoiceOver (macOS)
  • Firefox + keyboard-only navigation

If you encounter issues with a combination not listed here, please report it — we want to know.

Report an accessibility issue

We want to hear about barriers you encounter. Please contact us at:

bgremover@novusstreamsolutions.com

Include a description of the barrier, your browser and assistive technology, and the page or feature affected. You may also request an accessible format or another reasonable accommodation. We aim to respond within 5 business days.

Ontario accessibility and human rights

This statement applies to content published on bgremover.novusstreamsolutions.com. Our WCAG 2.2 AA goal is an ongoing product commitment. Requirements under Ontario’s accessibility rules for businesses and non-profits vary with an organization’s circumstances, including its Ontario employee count; this statement does not claim a threshold that may not apply. The Ontario Human Rights Code duty to accommodate applies to services up to undue hardship. Please contact us first so we can investigate and address a barrier. If the issue is not resolved, information about making an application is available from the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.