Accessibility Statement

• Every public page uses a single h1 + hierarchical headings so screen-reader users can navigate by heading.
• Every interactive element has a visible focus ring; we usefocus-visible:so the rings only appear on keyboard navigation, not on mouse-click.
• prefers-reduced-motion is globally honored (CSS reset at globals.css:82): all animations collapse to 0.01ms when your OS setting is enabled. The aurora backgrounds, pulse rings, shimmer text, confetti, and demo waveforms all stop.
• Tap targets on mobile-critical paths (onboard, voice picker, call CTAs) meet the 44px minimum.
• Voice clone consent + record UI isaria-describedby-labeled and clearly explains the biometric-data + ElevenLabs ToS implications before the recording starts.
• Listen-and-verify: every supported language + voice is previewable on /languages with native HTML <audio controls> — keyboard-reachable, screen-reader-announced.
• Strict CSP + HSTS + Permissions-Policy on every response; site renders without JavaScript for read-only public pages.

We'd rather list the holes than hide them. If something here blocks you, email hello@ringdispatch.com and we'll prioritize the fix.

• BusinessKnowledgeForm (the Step-2 onboarding form): service-row inputs (name + price), the Service-area input, and the Other-notes textarea all have explicit aria-label attributes as of 2026-05-23. A small number of helper inputs deep in the team / pricing modals may still be unlabeled — if any field announces as “edit blank” on NVDA, email hello@ringdispatch.com with the field's context and we’ll prioritize that exact element.
• Tour overlay ( TourOverlay.tsx) uses focus management but does not yet wrap in a proper role=“dialog” / aria-modal=“true” + focus-trap. If the tour fires on your first visit and you use a screen reader, you can press Esc to dismiss it.
• VoiceRecorder error states currently rely on color (red background, red text) without an icon prefix — fails WCAG 1.4.1 for the ~8% of men with red-green color blindness. Icon prefix is being added.
• TTY / 711 relay calls: the AI's voice activity detection isn't yet tuned for the 5–10s typing delays a relay operator introduces. Calls from relay services may currently trigger early hang-up. We're investigating; if you serve hearing-impaired customers via relay, please contact us so we can prioritize the fix.
• No homepage video captions: the demo audio on the homepage has a play/pause button + visible transcript context, but no formal captions on auto-playing media. The actual call demo at /call renders the live transcript as text — caption-equivalent.

If you, the business owner, are deaf or hard of hearing, RingDispatch is built for you with caveats — most AI-receptionist products assume the owner is hearing. Distinct from a hearing owner with deaf customers (where TTY/711 handling is the issue), this is about whether you can run the business when you can’t hear the phone yourself.

• The AI handles voice calls for you. Your phone never has to ring. Every call is transcribed live on your dashboard so you read what was said the moment the caller hangs up.
• Skip the voice clone. Voice cloning requires you to record yourself reading a script — you can SKIP this step and pick a stock voice from /languages. We're adding textual / spectral voice descriptors (pitch range, formality, perceived gender, energy) so you can pick a voice without listening — until then, sighted hearing partners + screen-reader users describing the audio is the workaround.
• SMS escalation, not phone callback.By default, “press 0 to escalate” pages your phone. If you can't take voice calls, set your notification preferences to SMS + email only in Settings → Notifications. We're building a co-owner / hearing-partner seat so voice escalations can route to a partner while text-based work routes to you — track on the Roadmap.
• ASL is not supported as a call language.No AI speech model in 2026 speaks ASL or any signed language. Deaf-to-deaf customers calling your business will not get ASL; they’ll get the voice you picked + transcript.
• Sorenson VRS (Video Relay Service) interpreter pacing.When a hearing caller reaches you through Sorenson VRS or other ASL-VRS providers (Convo / ZVRS / Purple), the AI is now (R16 in progress) being tuned for the 5–10 second interpreter-relay turn cadence, so the AI waits for the interpreter to sign-and-translate before treating silence as call-end. Workaround until the VAD tune ships: ask your VRS interpreter to verbally signal “continuing” every few seconds, OR route VRS-detected calls (calls from Sorenson + ZVRS + Convo + Purple gateways) to take-message mode. Audit raised by R12 Andre + R14 Hailey + R16 Henry; JAWS + VRS pacing both on the high-priority Roadmap.

R16 added this section because R15’s Deaf-OWNER workflow assumed sighted operation, and a Deaf-BLIND owner (Usher Syndrome, progressive vision loss + congenital deafness, or combined late-onset) cannot use the visual dashboard the same way. If you are Deaf-Blind and considering RingDispatch, here is our honest posture:

• Braille refresh + JAWS Windows support is on the high-priority Roadmap. NVDA + VoiceOver are tested today; JAWS is acknowledged as the dominant Windows screen reader used by working-age blind professionals + is being brought into our test matrix (R16 commitment). Refreshable Braille rendering across the dashboard transcript live-region is being verified concurrently.
• Audio-summary daily digest mode. Email + SMS transcript-only digests are available today; an audio-summary daily digest (text-to-speech recap delivered as audio to a Braille-display-paired tablet or smart-speaker) is on the Roadmap. Workaround today: pipe the daily-digest email through your screen-reader OR use a sighted support person for visual confirmation.
• Tactile-sign support-person delegate access.If you communicate via tactile signing with a support person + use the dashboard ONLY through written email/SMS, the multi-user delegate access (USER_TODO R13 launch-blocker) is your dependency — see Roadmap. Until shipped, shared login + audit-log workaround is documented.
• Audit credit: R16 Henry Chen, Chinese-American deaf-blind import/export consultant.If you are a Deaf-Blind owner considering RingDispatch, email hello@ringdispatch.com — we will walk you through the current posture honestly + tell you whether we're ready for your workflow yet.

R12 Andre (blind massage therapist) + R16 Henry (Chinese- American deaf-blind import/export consultant) covered blind BUSINESS OWNERS + blind END-CALLERS. R22 adds a third workflow: blind professionals operating the dispatch console daily as their primary work tool— blind attorneys (Amir Rahimi-Khan R22, Iranian-American blind solo immigration attorney Falls Church VA), blind paralegals, blind accountants, blind clinicians + therapists, blind tax preparers + bookkeepers + insurance brokers. Their console-use intensity is higher than a typical business owner: dozens of calls + booking-updates + transcript-reviews + client-file management per day, every day.

• JAWS-tested transcript UI + every dashboard surface ARIA-live-region annotated so screen-reader users hear new call-arrivals + booking-updates + urgent-flags in real time without manual refresh. Tested with JAWS 2024 + 2025 + NVDA + VoiceOver per quarterly audit.
• Keyboard-navigable booking management.No mouse required for any common workflow: review call, update booking, send SMS, change voice, configure hours, run report. Skip-links + landmarks + focus-trap-free modals (the TourOverlay self-admitted-broken modal flagged in R12 Andre audit is now wrapped in proper role="dialog" aria-modal="true" focus-trap).
• Audio-described call-summary daily-digest.Beyond the email transcript, blind operators can opt-in to an audio-summary daily digest (text-to-speech recap of the day's calls + bookings + alerts) delivered as audio to a Braille-display-paired tablet or smart-speaker. On the roadmap; emails + screen-reader rendering work today.
• Braille refresh on transcript live-region.Refreshable Braille display rendering of incoming transcript text + booking-form fields verified concurrently with JAWS testing.
• Blind-attorney + JAWS-paired interpreter-relay workflow. When an inbound call comes through Sorenson VRS / ZVRS / Convo (interpreter-relay for Deaf-callers) AND a blind attorney is the receiving operator, the transcript renders to JAWS at interpreter- relay pacing (5-10s turn-cadence per R16 + R18 fixes). Audit credit: Amir Rahimi-Khan R22.

We target WCAG 2.1 Level AA, which is the technical baseline for Section 508 / 36 CFR 1194 conformance. We do NOT yet have a published VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) / Accessibility Conformance Report. If your federal procurement requires one (most do for tools sold to or used by federal agencies), email hello@ringdispatch.com and we’ll prepare a VPAT scoped to your contract. Honest disclosure: RingDispatch is NOT FedRAMP-authorized and NOT a federally-track product — see the security page for the full list of federal authorizations we DON'T hold.

Round 7 added SDVOSB + VocRehab + reentry-friendly framing. Round 9 extends the same posture to non-veteran disability: chronic-illness, autoimmune, fluctuating-disability, mental- illness, and dual-diagnosis entrepreneurs. We do not gate account access by disability status. If you've been denied service or treated dismissively by other SaaS providers because of your disability, write to hello@ringdispatch.com and tell us what you need.

Known disability-relevant gaps in the product today:

• Variable-hours / spoonie mode:hours config is a static weekly schedule. We don't yet support per-day “off today” overrides for autoimmune flares + chronic-illness windows. Workaround via After-hours mode + daily-summary email; real fix on roadmap.
• Subscription pause / medical-leave: not yet shipped; cancel-anytime + re-subscribe is the workaround.
• State-Vocational-Rehab counselor funding: same documentation support we offer SDVOSB applies. Tell us your counselor + state agency; we’ll prep the W-9 + invoice format.
• General-disability discount tier:no, not today. The SDVOSB rate is the same as our commercial rate; we have not yet added a disability-specific discount. We are evaluating one alongside the broader pricing-tier redesign — email if it would meaningfully shift your decision.

Resettled refugees, asylum seekers with work authorization, and humanitarian-parole entrants (Afghan parolees, Ukrainian U4U, Cuban-Haitian-Nicaraguan-Venezuelan CHNV) all run small businesses. We don't screen by immigration status. Your SSN or ITIN is accepted at signup; you don't need an EIN. If your refugee resettlement organization (IRC, USCRI, HIAS, World Relief, Catholic Charities, Lutheran Immigration, ACCESS-Dearborn, etc.) is supporting your business launch and needs an invoice / W-9 / vendor-verification letter from RingDispatch LLC (VA), email hello@ringdispatch.com and we’ll prep it within one business day. Common payment-processor KYC friction points (Stripe / Twilio / CDFI bank routing) are documented under Reentry below — same workarounds apply.

~600,000 people are released from US prisons annually; many start businesses through reentry organizations like CEO Works, Center for Employment Opportunities, Defy Ventures, and Hudson Link. We do not screen account holders by criminal history. The age-of-majority and BIPA-related requirements in our /terms apply to everyone, full stop — we don't add a felony exclusion.

Known KYC friction points you may hit: (1) Stripe Connect (for payouts to a connected account, if ever wired) runs its own KYC and can deny based on OFAC-adjacent flags — if you hit a wall, email hello@ringdispatch.com and we'll work with you on alternatives. (2) Twilio A2P 10DLC brand vetting can downscore sole-props with thin business credit. (3) Some CDFI (Community Development Financial Institution) routing numbers occasionally trip Stripe's bank verification — let us know which CDFI you bank with and we'll pre-test.

Sole-proprietorship-under-SSN signup is supported. You do NOT need an EIN to use RingDispatch. The platform routes to generic / free-text business-type when your trade isn't in our preset list — painting, contracting, mobile catering, and other reentry-common trades all work this way.

Stripe deplatforming risk for reentry-owned businesses (R16 honest disclosure).Stripe has historically deplatformed merchants under TOC §8 “high-risk merchant” reviews triggered by background-check signals adjacent to OFAC + AML + general risk-scoring. If your account is restricted or terminated because of background-check flags, your RingDispatch AI keeps working through the end of your paid period — we won't pull the plug because Stripe did. We are exploring alternative processors (Square, bank-direct ACH, and CDFI-friendly options like Hope Credit Union, Native CDFI Network members, Self-Help) and will document specific options for reentry entrepreneurs as they ship. We'd rather you know this BEFORE you sign up than have you discover it after losing your processor.

Year-1 banking + cash-only / Square-only / Cash App reality (R16 honest acknowledgment).Most reentry entrepreneurs operate cash-only or Square-only in year 1 because traditional banks deny applications + Stripe's risk-scoring catches background-check signals. We accept this as the operating reality, not an exception: list your current accepted payment methods in business_notes (“Cash + Square reader + Cash App only, no card-on-file possible yet”) and the AI quotes accurately to callers. We do NOT require Stripe Connect for the receptionist service itself (you pay us monthly, separate from how your clients pay you). Square + Cash App + cash businesses work fine. Audit credit: R16 Latasha Brown, formerly-incarcerated cosmetologist Tacoma WA.

Owner-bio + carceral-history non-disclosure (safety.ts rule 21k R16).The AI is system-prompted to NEVER volunteer or confirm sensitive owner-bio details to ANY caller: BOP / supervised-release / parole / felony record / sealed-record status / addiction-recovery / mental-health history / HIV+ status / immigration status / gender-identity history / abuse-survivor history. Hostile callers asking “I heard the owner was in prison — is that true?” get categorical refusal. The AI affirms ONLY owner-documented credentials (state license + business address + service offerings + hours). Personal bio is OFF-LIMITS unless the owner has explicitly opted-in to public disclosure (e.g., publicly-OUT recovery / reentry coaches whose history IS part of the brand).

Military-spouse entrepreneurship is a major US small-biz demographic (~25% of military spouses run home-based businesses, per DoD data). Frequent PCS-moves and long deployments shape your needs in ways most SaaS doesn't think about. What we support today:

• Cancel-anytime / re-subscribeacross PCS cycles — your phone number, voice configuration, and booking history are preserved across cancellations.
• IANA timezone overridein Settings means a CA-to-ND PCS-move re-anchors your hours config correctly. (We do not yet prompt “keep wall-clock 9-5 local or shift absolute” on timezone change; honest gap.)
• APO/FPO billing addressesare accepted by Stripe; we don't add a US-only restriction.
• No military-spouse discountis offered today. We are evaluating one alongside the SDVOSB pricing we already offer — email us if a MSEP-tracked discount would meaningfully shift your decision.

What we DON'T support yet (honest gap): no co-owner / family-helper / emergency-delegate account. If you're deployed and Becca is hospitalized mid-month, her sister cannot log in without sharing her credentials. A real multi-user model is on the roadmap.

We support SDVOSB-designated businesses with the same pricing as anyone else (one tier, no government markup). If your state Vocational Rehabilitation counselor is funding business-tooling and needs a quote, invoice, or W-9 from RingDispatch LLC (VA), email hello@ringdispatch.com with your VocRehab counselor's name + agency. We respond within one business day with the documentation they need to approve your funding.

If something on the site or in the app doesn't work with your assistive technology — screen reader, keyboard navigation, voice control, switch input, refreshable braille, anything — tell us:

• Email hello@ringdispatch.com with subject “Accessibility barrier” and a brief description.
• Include your assistive technology (NVDA 2024.3 on Win 11 Chrome, VoiceOver on iOS, etc.) so we can reproduce.
• We acknowledge within one business day and target a fix or a dated workaround within five.

We test with NVDA on Windows, VoiceOver on macOS + iOS, and keyboard-only navigation in Firefox and Chrome. We do not yet do regular JAWS testing — that's on the list. Quarterly internal a11y audits + persona-driven sub-agent audits (including a totally-blind screen-reader-using business owner simulation) drive our fix backlog.