Website Owners: Formalize ApS
Website Domain: whistleblowersoftware.com/secure/98f5ec13-1d6f-4688-a602-484fa4dfbd60
Certificate Status: Silver
Certification Date: 2023-09-27
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:
For this WACA certification, 5 templates of this web application were checked for web accessibility according to WCAG 2.1 - A and WCAG 2.1 - AA (https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/). A strong orientation towards accessibility can be seen in the tested templates. Many of the problem areas that arose in the first audit have been rectified.
As a representative sample for the entire application "Whistleblower Software", a complete use case of a test version in English language based on a test platform with the URL https://whistleblowersoftware.com/secure/98f5ec13-1d6f-4688-a602-484fa4dfbd60 was selected for the certification audit. The product website https://whistleblowersoftware.com/en was not in the scope of this audit.
March 2026: The web application is currently undergoing the recertification process for WCAG 2.2 AA.
The following contents or functions of a website and web apps are generally excluded from the WACA Certificate audit:
- Websites containing non-German and/or English language content
- Apps for mobile applications
- PDFs
- Live broadcast time-based media
- Content that is only available to a closed group of people and not to the general public (extranets, intranets)
- External third-party content that was neither financed nor developed by the website operator and is therefore not subject to their control (such as Google Maps, YouTube, Facebook, other Iframes and widgets, ...) as follows:
- Third-party content that you cannot interact with (such as Facebook tracking pixels) is excluded from the certification process.
- Third-party content that does not provide a basic core functionality is excluded from the certification process.
- Third-party content that provides additional information and is essential to users needs to provide an alternative.
- If a website consists largely of third-party content, certification will be rejected and the application will not be accepted. The website is not auditable.
- Online maps and map services, though these must provide an accessible alternative
- Google Captcha (ReCaptcha V2): valid only for the Silver and Bronze level
Evaluated test sample
WACA deviations and WACA gradations
WBS T1: Homepage english
Criterion 1.1.1 - Non-text Content: Silver
- The current logos do not have meaningful alternative texts, but tolerable because of the test character of the application.
Criterion 1.2.2 - Captions (Prerecorded): Invalid
- In the “Privacy Policy” tab there is a video with audio content that does not provide subtitles/captions.
=> Subtitles/Captions should be added.
Criterion 1.3.1 - Info and Relationships: Silver
- Hierarchy not quite optimal (gaps) but tolerable for silver
Criterion 1.4.3 - Contrast (Minimum): Invalid
- In the “Privacy Policy” tab there are elements where the minimum color contrast is not met e.g. here “more”.
=> A minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 (or 3:1 for large text) should be ensured.
Criterion 2.4.3 - Focus Order: Silver
- When activating the content tabs, the keyboard focus does not move to the displayed content.
This is tolerable for silver, as the content appears directly after the tabs.
Criterion 2.4.7 - Focus Visible: Invalid
- The keyboard focus on the links in the “Privacy Policy” tab is not sufficiently visible.
=> A clearly visible keyboard focus should be ensured for all interactive elements (minimum contrast ratio 3:1).
Criterion 4.1.2 - Name, Role, Value: Bronze
- The language switcher is implemented as an element with the role “combobox” but is not sufficiently labeled. An attribute such as aria-label="Switch language" or a similar label could be added.
This is tolerable for bronze, as the currently selected language and the semantic role of the element make it relatively clear that the control is used to change the language.
Dialog elements are in some cases not optimally labeled eg Overlay “Follow up on…”.
=> The headings in the dialogs should, for example, be associated with the dialogs using aria-describedby.
WBS T2: New report
Criterion 1.4.3 - Contrast (Minimum): Invalid
- The error messages (red on light grey) have slightly insufficient contrast (approximately 4.4:1).
=> A minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 (or 3:1 for large text) should be ensured.
Criterion 2.1.1 - Keyboard: Silver
- The pseudo-select fields, e.g. “Language” and “Select departments associated with the case”, can be operated with a screen reader, but are not optimal on mobile devices.
This is tolerable for silver, as basic functionality is ensured.
Criterion 2.4.3 - Focus Order: Bronze
- When expanding the “show more” content, the focus remains on the button. Users must navigate backwards to reach the newly revealed content.
=> The focus should move to the beginning of the new content, or the button should be placed before the newly revealed content in the DOM.
Criterion 2.4.7 - Focus Visible: Invalid
- The keyboard focus on the Radio Elements is not sufficiently visible.
=> A clearly visible keyboard focus should be ensured for all interactive elements (minimum contrast ratio 3:1).
Criterion 3.3.2 - Labels or Instructions: Bronze
- Required fields are not visually identifiable as required.
=> Required fields should also be visually indicated, for example with an asterisk (*) or a similar marker.
Criterion 4.1.2 - Name, Role, Value: Silver
- The aria-controls attributes on the “show more” buttons are not correctly associated.
This is tolerable for silver, as no practical impact was observed.
Criterion 4.1.3 - Status Messages: Silver
- The error messages displayed directly next to the fields are not sufficiently announced despite the `aria-live` attribute.
This is tolerable for silver, as the error messages are adequately associated with the corresponding fields.
WBS T3: Submit report
Criterion 1.1.1 - Non-text Content: Silver
- The info icon does not have its own alternative description but is defined through `aria-describedby`. An alternative description such as `alt="Info"` should be added.
This is tolerable for silver, as the information referenced by `aria-describedby` is read by screen readers.
Criterion 1.4.3 - Contrast (Minimum): Invalid
- Red Text (red on light grey eg. “Important” or Error Messages) have slightly insufficient contrast (approximately 4.4:1).
=> A minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 (or 3:1 for large text) should be ensured.
Criterion 1.4.11 - Non-text Contrast: Bronze
- The close button of the “Copy Notification” has insufficient contrast (approximately 2.5:1).
=> A minimum contrast ratio of 3:1 should be ensured.
Criterion 2.1.1 - Keyboard: Invalid
- The “i” information button is not operable via keyboard. Users who rely solely on a keyboard cannot access this information.
=> All interactive elements should also be made operable via keyboard.
Criterion 3.3.1 - rror Identification: Bronze
- The error message “Error: Confirmation on saving the password is required” or “Error: Email is invalid” are not optimally associated with the fields (eg via aria-describedby).
If the password has not been downloaded or copied to the clipboard, the “Continue” button cannot be activated, even if the checkbox “I have stored my password securely…” is selected. There is no indication of which step is missing.
=> Clear error messages and explanations should be introduced.
Criterion 4.1.3 - Status Messages: Invalid
- Displayed notifications such as “Copied to clipboard” are not sufficiently conveyed to non-visual users.
=> The information should be communicated more reliably, for example by using `role="alert"` (as `aria-live` does not appear to work reliably in this case).
WBS T4: Follow up on existing report
Criterion 2.1.1 - Keyboard: Invalid
- The WYSIWYG editor is not sufficiently operable (buttons such as Bold, Italic, etc.).
=> An alternative editor could be offered, for example Markdown (with an explanation), that users can switch to, or a similar alternative.
Criterion 2.1.2 - No Keyboard Trap: Invalid
- When the keyboard focus enters the WYSIWYG editor, it cannot be moved out again. Since the field is positioned before additional buttons (such as “Record audio”), it becomes difficult to send a message.
=> A way should be provided to leave the field using the keyboard, or an alternative editor should be used (see also 2.1.1).
Criterion 2.4.3 - Focus Order: Invalid
- In addition to the issues with the WYSIWYG element (see 2.1.1 and 2.4.3), it is possible to tab out of dialog overlays such as those opened via “View”. The focus can then move to elements behind the dialog overlays.
=> aria-modal should be set to true (currently set to false on the dialog modals).
Additionally, tabindex attributes greater than 0 are used in some dialog modals, for example:
<button tabindex="1" class="ws-button-only-icon absolute right-4" aria-label="Close window">, <div tabindex="1" class="grid…"> …
These tabindex values may interfere with the natural tab and reading order.
=> tabindex values greater than 0 should be avoided.
Criterion 4.1.2 - Name, Role, Value: Bronze
- The dialog elements are in some cases not optimally labeled.
=> The headings in the dialogs should, for example, be associated with the dialogs using aria-describedby.
WBS T5: Content-page