Accessibility statement

Last reviewed on 23 October 2026. This statement is made by APIDLY LTD, which operates Wordtide (see company information).

Conformance status

We test Wordtide against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA. Wordtide partially conforms: most of the game meets the standard, and the parts that do not yet are listed below under “Known limitations”.

What you can do

• Play with the keyboard alone. On the board, arrow keys move a cursor, letter keys place tiles from your rack, backslash or Shift+Space turns the typing direction, Backspace takes the last tile back, Enter plays the word and Escape takes your tiles back. Shift+H asks for a hint, Shift+S swaps tiles, Shift+M opens the world map, and ? lists every key. Tab always moves between controls. If single-key commands get in the way of speech input, turn off Single-key shortcuts in Settings: then keys only type letters, and only while the board has focus.
• Use a screen reader. Each square is described: where it is, what is on it, which words it belongs to or touches, and which way you are typing. Every tile you place is confirmed, together with whether your word plays and for how many points, or why it does not yet. Rewards and celebrations are read one at a time, and windows such as Today or your Profile keep focus inside until you close them with Escape.
• Hear the board around you. The board is drawn as a picture, so three commands put it into words. Shift+D (Describe around me) reads the words crossing or near the cursor and which way they run, the nearest open squares next to a word, bonus squares nearby and any treasure in view. Shift+W (Read this word) reads the whole across and down words through the cursor. Shift+N (Next open square) jumps the cursor to the next empty square beside a word. The same commands work as Alt+Shift+D, W and N, and as buttons that appear when you Tab to them; with Single-key shortcuts off the buttons stay on screen. Words are read in the language of the world you play in.
• Skip dragging. Tap a tile, then tap a square, or type. The world map has buttons, key controls and a list view.
• See it your way. Settings has High contrast, a dark theme, a colour-blind-safe board palette, and Easy mode with bigger squares and tiles. Focus rings are clearly visible in every theme, and buttons are at least 24 pixels (most are 44).
• Keep it calm. Calm board turns off drifting sparkles and bouncy tiles, and your device’s “reduce motion” setting is respected. Music, sound effects and vibration can each be switched off.
• Take your time. No move is ever timed. The Tide combo for quick moves, High Tide hour and weekly events only add extras; a slow move scores the same. Keep notices longer (Settings) leaves every message on screen ten times as long, with a close button.
• Hear it. Read aloud speaks letters, words and scores with your device’s voice.
• Your language. The interface comes in 42 languages, including right-to-left Arabic, Hebrew and Persian. The board plays in 36 languages, each world with its own dictionary, and its words are marked with their language, so screen readers pronounce them correctly.
• Little ones. Little Tide, for ages 3 and up, uses pictures and listening rather than reading, with big targets, and every round can be played with a keyboard. A grown-up can turn on captions of everything Tidy says in the Parent corner; they are always on while her voice is off.
• Zoom. The controls stay on screen at 320 pixels wide and at 400% browser zoom.

Known limitations

• Single-key shortcuts can be turned off, but not yet remapped to other keys.
• At 400% zoom the row of event chips (Tide Pass, theme of the hour, weekly event) and the minimap step aside to keep the game controls on screen; the same information is in Today, and the world map stays one button away.
• Little Tide’s listening rounds need sound, or a grown-up to read the captions to a child who cannot hear them yet.
• We have checked the game with automated tools and the browser’s accessibility tree, and are still completing tests with every major screen reader.

Tell us about a barrier

If something stops you playing, or could work better for you, please write to us through the contact form at wordtide.app/contact. Tell us what you were doing, the device, browser and any assistive technology you use, and what went wrong. We read every message.

How it is built

Wordtide is a web app built with HTML, ARIA, CSS and JavaScript; the board is drawn with WebGL. Its accessibility relies on all of them.