Accessibility statement for Debbie

About Debbie

Debbie is an invoicing, expenses and tax app for UK sole traders, tradespeople, couriers and landlords. It runs in your phone's browser as a web app and can be added to your home screen. It keeps your records for Making Tax Digital and sends your updates and your tax return to HMRC from one place.

Debbie is run by James Pugh, trading as Debbie. We want as many people as possible to be able to use it. That means you should be able to:

• zoom in up to 500 percent on your phone without the text going off the side of the screen
• make the text bigger with the Aa button that sits above the navigation bar on every screen
• move through the app using only a keyboard
• use the app with a screen reader such as VoiceOver on iPhone or TalkBack on Android
• read everything in plain English, with an info button next to any tax term that explains it in a sentence or two

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible Debbie is

We built Debbie for a phone held in one hand on a job, so a lot of what helps accessibility was there from the start. In the app:

• every screen is a single column that fits a phone screen 375 pixels wide, with no sideways scrolling
• text can be resized with the browser or with the built in text size control and the layout reflows rather than clipping
• the dark theme uses light text on near black backgrounds that measures well above the 4.5 to 1 contrast ratio. The muted grey captions were lifted to that same level
• buttons and links are real buttons and links, so they work with a keyboard (Tab to move, Enter or Space to press) and every focused control shows an amber ring
• icon only buttons such as Close, Back and Log out have a spoken name for screen readers and decorative icons are hidden from them
• photos and logos carry a text description
• nothing plays automatically, nothing flashes and the few gentle animations switch off when your device asks for reduced motion
• there are no time limits on anything you do and you are not logged out for being idle
• sending a quarterly update or your tax return to HMRC always shows a full preview first and asks you to confirm the declaration before anything is sent

What is not fully accessible yet

We checked Debbie ourselves against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at level AA. These are the parts that do not yet meet the standard in full. We are working through them in the order below.

• Form labels. Most fields have a visible label next to them but the label is not yet linked to the field in code, so a screen reader may read the field without saying what it is for. This affects the job, invoice, customer, expense and settings forms. (WCAG 1.3.1, 3.3.2 and 4.1.2)
• Error messages. When something is wrong with what you typed, the message appears in red text next to the field but is not announced to a screen reader and the field is not marked as invalid in code. (WCAG 3.3.1)
• Orange buttons. The main action buttons use white text on Debbie's amber colour, which is below the 4.5 to 1 contrast ratio for normal sized text. (WCAG 1.4.3)
• Text field outlines. The thin grey border around an empty text field is low contrast against the dark background until you tap into it. (WCAG 1.4.11)
• Pop up sheets. Most of the sheets that slide up from the bottom of the screen are not marked as dialogs and do not move keyboard focus into themselves when they open, so a keyboard or screen reader user may have to tab to find them. (WCAG 2.4.3 and 4.1.2)
• Screen titles. Most screens in the app share the same browser tab title rather than one that names the screen you are on. (WCAG 2.4.2)
• Skip link. There is no skip to content link in the app, so a keyboard user tabs through the header and the navigation bar on every screen. (WCAG 2.4.1)
• A few tappable rows. The property list rows and document thumbnails on the Properties screen plus the receipt thumbnails on jobs are tappable areas rather than buttons, so they cannot be opened with the keyboard yet. The grey backdrop behind a sheet also closes on tap only, although every sheet has a Close button. (WCAG 2.1.1)
• Rotation when installed. If you add Debbie to your home screen it stays in portrait and will not rotate to landscape. In a normal browser tab it rotates as usual. (WCAG 1.3.4)
• Autofill hints. Sign up and login fields tell your phone what to autofill but some customer and property address fields do not yet. (WCAG 1.3.5)

Feedback and contact

If you find something in Debbie that is hard to use or you need information from the app in a different format such as large print or plain text, email [email protected]. We reply within two working days.

Please tell us which screen you were on, what you were trying to do and what phone or browser you were using, so we can find it quickly.

The free help lines are there for anyone who finds the app hard to use for any reason, not only a disability. You will reach James, who built Debbie, not a call centre.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. Debbie is a private business rather than a public sector body, so those regulations do not apply to it. We hold ourselves to the same standard. If you are not happy with how we respond to a complaint, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this app's accessibility

We are committed to making Debbie accessible. Debbie is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the items listed under what is not fully accessible yet.

How we tested

This statement was prepared on 5 October 2026 from a self assessment of the app carried out by James Pugh, the developer, against every success criterion in WCAG 2.1 levels A and AA. The assessment read the app's code for text alternatives, labels, keyboard handling, focus styles, colour contrast, page language and titles, timing, motion and error handling. It also tried the app on an iPhone at 375 pixels wide at the default and largest text sizes. The completed checklist is available on request.

Debbie is not a public sector body and this statement has not been reviewed by any outside body.

What we are doing to improve

The form label and error announcement fixes are first on the list because they matter most to screen reader users, followed by the button contrast and the sheet dialog roles. We will update this page as each one ships and the What's New page records every change to the app.

This statement was prepared on 5 October 2026. It was last reviewed on 5 October 2026.