Certification Report for Mindbreeze

Website Owners: Mindbreeze GmbH
Website Domain: search.mindbreeze.com/apps/wai
Certificate Status: Silver
Certification Date: 2025-12-31

WACA certification

With this certificate, the WACA initiative strives for a very high level and outstanding quality of accessibility, which is why the most basic WCAG criteria must be met for successful certification. The auditors test according to a predefined scheme and their own testing methodology strictly according to these criteria. The WACA certificate is awarded at 3 different levels. For each WCAG success criterion, a separate grading for gold, silver and bronze has been defined. This means that websites that do not meet the highest WCAG requirements or are best practice, but have basic accessibility and do not exclude anyone from using the website, can also be awarded. For the Silver or Bronze grades, accessibility efforts must be clearly and unambiguously recognizable, see definition of WACA grades.

WACA certifies websites that can be narrowed down precisely, usually defined by a URL, and draws a representative sample (test sample) from this. However, the following content or functions of a website are generally excluded from the audit:

  • PDF
  • EPUB
  • Live transmitted time-based media
  • Content that is only available to a closed group of people and not to the general public (extranets and intranets).
  • external content from third-party providers that was neither financed nor developed by the website operator and is therefore not subject to its control (such as Google Maps, YouTube, Facebook, external iframes and widgets, etc.), defined as follows:
    • Third-party content that cannot be interacted with (e.g. Facebook tracking pixels) is excluded from the check.
    • Third-party content that does not provide basic, central functionality of the page is excluded from the check.
    • Third-party content that provides additional information and is essential for users requires an alternative.
    • If a website consists largely of third-party content, certification is rejected and the order is not accepted. Website is not auditable in this case.
  • Online maps and map services, but these must have an accessible alternative.
  • Google Captcha (ReCaptcha V2): Only valid for WACA quality levels Silver and Bronze.

General Comment of the Certification Authority:

This web tool should be accessible to most users, even though accessibility is not perfect. One complaint is that the usability (and accessibility to some extent) is somewhat limited on smaller mobile devices, because some hit targets can get very small without zooming (which means scrolling in two directions). Besides that, the visual keyboard focus and non-text contrast ratios can be an issue in some edge cases.

As a representative sample for the Mindbreeze InSpire cloud search web application, a use case in German and English was selected for the certification audit, which is representative of the entire application. The product website www.mindbreeze.com/insite was not in the scope of the audit.

Re-certification 2025 according to WCAG 2.2-AA: No further deficiencies were found in the re-certification audit and WACA Silver certification can be awarded again for the next 3 years.

Evaluated test sample

WACA deviations and WACA gradations

    Mindbreeze T1: Homepage english

    Criterion 1.3.1 - Info and Relationships: Silver

    In the left-hand toolbar (filter criteria), the accordions are not announced as headings, presumably because they use role="tab". Visually and logically, they function as headings. Also, they are not tabs and are therefore marked up incorrectly.
    Rating: silber
    This is not optimal, but site should be still usable.

    Criterion 1.4.3 - Contrast (Minimum): Silver

    The green button in the date picker does not meet the required contrast values.
    Rating: silver
    This is not ideal, but the impact is limited and therefore not considered severe.

    Criterion 1.4.11 - Non-text Contrast: Silver

    In the date picker, the keyboard focus contrast for inactive elements is too low.
    Rating: silver
    This should not affect overall usability or accessibility too much, but it makes focused elements harder to perceive.

    Criterion 2.4.3 - Focus Order: Silver

    The “main/content” container is focusable even though it is not interactive.
    Rating: silver
    This should not significantly affect usability, but it introduces unnecessary focus stops in the tab order.

    Criterion 2.4.7 - Focus Visible: Silver

    The visual keyboard focus can disappear behind the navigation bar when navigating backwards while the page scrolls upward.
    Rating: silver
    This should not affect overall usability or accessibility too much, but it can momentarily make focus location unclear.

    Criterion 4.1.2 - Name, Role, Value: Silver

    Filter date picker: issues with attributes. Apparently due to manual implementation, the screen reader announces that the date picker is open, while the field itself is announced as collapsed because of its attributes.
    Rating: silver
    This is somewhat confusing for screen reader users, but not a severe issue.

    Mindbreeze T2: Homepage german

    Criterion 3.1.2 - Language of Parts: Silver

    On the German version of the site, the right-hand toolbar (filter criteria) contains a mix of German and English due to apparently missing translations, which are not marked with a lang attribute.
    Rating: silber
    This issue occurs frequently in a central part of the interface but should not significantly affect the comprehension for screen reader users.

    Mindbreeze T3: Search results

    Criterion 1.3.1 - Info and Relationships: Silver

    Search results are visually and logically a list but are not marked up as such.
    Rating: silver
    This should not affect overall usability or accessibility too much, but it makes orientation and navigation less efficient for assistive technology users.

    Criterion 2.4.3 - Focus Order: Silver

    When activating “load more results”, the focus remains on the button and the new items are inserted above it in the DOM. Because the focus is not moved, this may be less confusing in some cases. However, it can still be unclear for screen reader users what has changed and where the new content was added, as messages like “loading more results” and the total number of results do not clearly indicate that items were inserted above.
    Rating: silver
    This is not optimal, but users are likely to adapt to this behavior relatively quickly.

    Mindbreeze T4: Add search tab

    Criterion 1.4.10 - Reflow: Silver

    1.4.10
    In mobile view, the search tabs do not meet the reflow criterion, as users need to scroll in two directions to access the content.
    Rating: silver
    This should not affect overall usability or accessibility too much, but it reduces comfort and efficiency when navigating on smaller screens.

    Mindbreeze T5: Save search

    Mindbreeze T6: Help

    Mindbreeze T7: Settings

    Criterion 2.1.2 - No Keyboard Trap: Silver

    In the settings modal, the focus trap does not work correctly when tabbing backwards. The date field can be reached and opened even though focus should remain within the modal.
    Rating: silver
    This is a minor issue that should not significantly affect overall usability.

    Criterion 4.1.2 - Name, Role, Value: Silver

    The Mindbreeze container is focusable even though it is not interactive.
    Rating: silver
    This should not significantly affect usability, but it introduces unnecessary focus stops in the tab order.

    Mindbreeze T8: Error handling

    Criterion 1.4.11 - Non-text Contrast: Silver

    Close button of error message does not fulfill the contrast requirements.

    Rating silver: This is a minor issue that should not significantly affect overall accessibility.