Accessibility

Gryt's goal is to be a 100% accessible voice chat platform. Accessibility is not an afterthought — it is a core design principle that shapes every decision we make, from the fonts we ship to the components we build.

Why accessibility matters

Voice chat platforms are inherently social tools. If they aren't accessible, they exclude the very people who could benefit most from low-friction, real-time communication. We believe everyone deserves equal access to online communities regardless of visual, motor, auditory, or cognitive ability.

Typography: Atkinson Hyperlegible

Gryt uses Atkinson Hyperlegible Next as its primary typeface and Atkinson Hyperlegible Mono for all monospaced text (code blocks, hotkey badges, debug panels, and technical displays).

Atkinson Hyperlegible was created by the Braille Institute of America with one goal: maximum legibility. Traditional typefaces optimize for aesthetics; Atkinson Hyperlegible optimizes for character differentiation. Key design decisions include:

Exaggerated letter forms — Characters like I, l, 1 and 0, O, Q are unambiguously distinct, reducing misreadings for users with low vision.
Open apertures — Letters like c, e, and s have wider openings so they remain distinguishable at small sizes or low resolutions.
Asymmetric shapes — Mirrored letters such as b/d and p/q have subtle asymmetries that make them easier to tell apart.
Variable weight axis — The font ships as a single variable file supporting weights 200–900, so we can use it everywhere from thin labels to bold headings without loading extra files.

The mono variant applies these same legibility principles to fixed-width text, making it significantly easier to read code, IP addresses, keybinds, and latency numbers compared to traditional monospace fonts.

Current accessibility features

Every interactive element in Gryt is reachable and operable with the keyboard alone. Voice controls, server switching, channel navigation, and chat all work without a mouse.

Configurable hotkeys

Users can rebind push-to-talk, mute, deafen, and other voice controls to any key combination. This lets users with limited mobility choose key placements that work for them.

We use semantic HTML and ARIA attributes throughout the client. Voice state changes (mute, deafen, speaking) are announced, and all controls have descriptive labels.

Theme support

Gryt supports light and dark themes with system preference detection. Both themes are designed for WCAG AA color contrast compliance, and we are working toward full AAA compliance.

Focus management

All modals and dialogs trap focus correctly, focus indicators are always visible, and tab order follows a logical reading sequence.

Roadmap

We're actively working toward full WCAG 2.2 AA compliance across the entire platform. Here's what's on our radar:

Reduced motion mode — Respect prefers-reduced-motion and disable all non-essential animations.
High contrast mode — A dedicated high-contrast color scheme beyond standard dark/light themes.
Live regions for chat — Use ARIA live regions so incoming messages are announced by screen readers without interrupting the current focus.
Audio cues — Optional sound effects for state changes (user joined, muted, etc.) so users who can't see visual indicators still get feedback.
Captioning and transcription — Real-time speech-to-text for voice channels, making spoken conversations accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing users.
Full AAA contrast — Upgrade all color pairings to meet WCAG AAA (7:1) contrast ratios.

Contributing to accessibility

If you encounter an accessibility barrier in Gryt, please open an issue and label it accessibility. We treat accessibility bugs with the same urgency as security issues.

We also welcome contributions that improve accessibility — see the contributing guide for how to get started.