Accessibility

Yuga is about conversation, and we want everyone to be able to join in: people who are blind or have low vision, people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, people who cannot use a mouse or a touchscreen easily, people who don’t speak aloud or whose speech is not well understood by computers, and people with cognitive, learning or attention differences.

Conversations in Yuga take place in our iPhone and Android apps, and can be spoken or typed, heard or read. We are designing the apps so that no part of a conversation depends on only one sense or one way of using a device, and the website, where you can read about the figures and manage your account, so that it works with a keyboard, screen readers and zoom. We have not got everything right yet. This statement is honest about what works today, what doesn’t, and what we are doing about it.

This statement covers the Yuga website and the Yuga apps for iPhone and Android, all provided by Hriday Vanka.

We aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, level AA, published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), on the website and, as far as the guidelines apply to them, in our apps. WCAG is the standard behind most accessibility laws, and the European standard EN 301 549 builds on it.

Our current status: partially conformant. Some parts of Yuga do not yet fully meet WCAG 2.2 AA. The known gaps are listed in section 4.

We also work to meet the accessibility laws that apply to us, including:

• the European Accessibility Act (EU Directive 2019/882), as it applies to consumer services sold online in the EU, including the purchase of paid plans when they go on sale;
• the Americans with Disabilities Act in the United States;
• the Equality Act 2010 in the United Kingdom, which requires service providers to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people;
• the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 in India, and the accessibility standards made under it.

Conversations without sound, and without speaking (in the apps)

Conversations with the figures take place only in our iPhone and Android apps. In both apps:

• Type instead of speaking. You can always type your question in the “Say something” box instead of using the microphone. The microphone is optional.
• Read instead of listening. What the figure says is also shown as a caption on screen while it speaks.
• Turn the voice off. Choose “Off (captions only)” under “Call options” in a call, and the figure answers in text alone. You can also choose “This phone’s voice”, which uses the speech voices installed on your phone.
• Read the whole conversation. “Transcript”, under “Call options”, shows everything you and the figure have said in the call, with notes on which replies quote the figure’s own writing.
• Suggested questions. At the start of a call you can pick one of the figure’s suggested questions instead of writing your own.
• No sound until you ask for it. Nothing plays automatically. The figure only starts speaking after you press the button to sit down with them.

On the website

The website has the home page, a page for each figure, our legal pages and the account page. It has no conversations, so it plays no voices and never uses your microphone.

• A “Skip to content” link is the first thing on every page, for keyboard and screen reader users.
• Pages are built with standard links, buttons, menus and form fields, so they can be used with a keyboard alone.
• Every focusable element shows a clear, thick outline when it has keyboard focus.
• Pages declare their language, so screen readers pronounce them correctly.
• Buttons that show only an icon, such as the theme switch and the menu button on phones, have text labels for screen readers.
• The animated 3D scene on the home page is decoration, and it is described in text. Screen readers hear the figure shown, for example, as sitting “in an armchair” in their place and year, “across a table from a visitor”. The scrolling “journey through time” on the home page also has a plain list of its stops for screen readers, and its pictures have text descriptions.
• You can switch between a light and a dark theme with the button in the header. Your choice is remembered on your device.
• If you have asked your device to reduce motion, the website shortens its animations and transitions, the home page stops moving from figure to figure on its own, and its 3D scene holds still: the camera cuts between shots instead of gliding, and the characters stop swaying and gesturing. They still blink and change expression, because expressions carry meaning.
• The site works when zoomed, and the layout adapts to narrow screens. Wide tables, such as those on our legal pages, scroll sideways rather than squeezing their text.
• Our legal pages are written in plain language, with a short summary at the top and a numbered list of contents.

In the iPhone app

• Most text uses Apple’s built-in text styles, so it grows and shrinks with the text size you choose in your iPhone’s settings (Dynamic Type).
• The call controls, such as “Talk”, “Leave the call” and “Call options”, have labels for VoiceOver, and the conversation scene is described.
• The help card that appears if you may be in danger is announced to VoiceOver as a dialog that needs your attention.
• The figure’s name and words, in captions and the transcript, grow with Dynamic Type too.
• With Reduce Motion on, the camera stops drifting and cuts between shots, and the figures stop swaying and gesturing; they still change expression.

In the Android app

• Text sizes are set in units that follow the font size you choose in Android’s settings.
• The call controls, such as “Leave the call” and “Call options”, have descriptions for TalkBack, and the conversation scene is described.
• With Remove animations on, the camera stops drifting and cuts between shots, and the figures stop swaying and gesturing; they still change expression.

These are the problems we know about. We are working on them, roughly in this order.

Across the website

• The dark theme does not yet switch on automatically when your device is set to dark mode; you need to choose it with the theme button.
• The Google and Apple sign-in buttons on the account page are provided by Google and Apple, and their accessibility is in their hands.
• You cannot hold a conversation on the website. If you cannot use our iPhone or Android app, please tell us, and we will try to find another way for you to get what you need.

In the apps

• We have not yet fully tested the apps with VoiceOver and TalkBack, and there may be unlabelled controls we haven’t found.
• Captions are not announced as they appear. The caption is on screen, and VoiceOver or TalkBack can read it when you move to it, but it is not read out automatically. The whole conversation is always in the transcript.
• Expressions are visual only. The figure’s facial expressions (warm, amused, stern and so on) are not described in text. The words of the reply are always available.
• Contrast over the 3D scene. The call screen uses its own dark colours, and some text is light and partly see-through over a moving scene. We have not yet measured its contrast everywhere, and some of it may fall below the WCAG minimum.

Voice input

• Voice input is available only in the apps. Turning speech into text is done by your phone, not by Yuga, so its accuracy depends on it. It may work less well with some accents, speech differences or background noise. It listens in your phone’s language where the speech service supports it; otherwise the iPhone app uses US English, and on Android the speech service uses its own default language.
• If your Android phone has no speech recognition service, the app tells you so, and you can type instead.

The 3D scenes

The 3D rooms and characters in the apps, and the 3D scene on the website’s home page, are decorative: they add atmosphere, but in a call everything you need is in the words, which are available as captions and in the transcript. The scenes themselves cannot be explored with a screen reader beyond their text description.

We have not yet had Yuga independently audited. This statement is based on our own review of the website and the apps. From now on we will:

• run automated accessibility checks on the website as part of building it, and fix the problems they find before release;
• test every new feature, including the call screen and anything we add to it, with a keyboard alone, and with screen readers: VoiceOver on Mac and iPhone, NVDA on Windows and TalkBack on Android;
• test with large text sizes, zoom up to 400 per cent, dark mode and reduced motion turned on;
• check colour contrast against the WCAG 2.2 AA minimums;
• invite disabled people to try Yuga and tell us what gets in their way, and act on what they say;
• commission an independent audit against WCAG 2.2 AA, and publish its outcome in this statement.

If something in Yuga is hard or impossible for you to use, please tell us. You don’t need to know the technical cause; just describe what you were trying to do and what happened. It helps to know which device, browser or app, and any assistive technology you use.

• Email: support@foundationalcreations.com
• Post: Hriday Vanka, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Our target is to reply within 5 working days, and to tell you what we will do and when. If we can’t fix the problem quickly, we will try to find another way for you to get what you need.

If you need any of our legal pages, such as the Privacy Policy or Terms of Use, in another format, such as plain text or large print, ask us at the same address.

Please contact us first, so we can try to put things right. If you are not happy with our response, you can contact the authority responsible where you live:

• European Union: each EU country has named national authorities to check that services meet the European Accessibility Act and to handle complaints. You can find yours through your national government or consumer protection authority.
• United Kingdom: the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) gives free advice on discrimination, including about services that are not accessible. The Equality and Human Rights Commission enforces the Equality Act in Great Britain, and the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland in Northern Ireland.
• United States: you can file a complaint under the Americans with Disabilities Act with the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice.
• India: you can complain to the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, or to the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities in your state, under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

Other countries have their own equality or disability rights bodies.

This statement was prepared on 28 October 2026. It is based on a review of the Yuga website and the iPhone and Android apps by the developer, checking how they are built against WCAG 2.2 AA. It has not yet been checked by an independent auditor.

We will review this statement at least once a year, and whenever we make a significant change to Yuga, such as a new conversation screen, paid plans or classroom features. The date at the top of this page shows when it last changed.