Accessibility Statement

1. Commitment

House of Watches wants buyers, sellers, dealers, and visitors to use the marketplace regardless of disability, device, input method, or assistive technology.

We are working toward an experience that is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust, using the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as our practical reference and the European Accessibility Act as an important regulatory framework for e-commerce services in the EU.

2. Scope

This Statement covers the House of Watches website and marketplace flows, including browsing, search, listing pages, account access, onboarding, saved searches, messaging, checkout, support, and legal pages.

Some third-party tools, payment screens, identity verification flows, maps, embedded content, or externally hosted services may be controlled by third parties. We choose providers with accessibility in mind and report issues to them, but some remediation depends on those providers.

3. Accessibility target

Our target is substantial conformance with WCAG 2.2 Level AA for user-facing web experiences, while continuing to monitor EU and Romanian accessibility requirements for e-commerce services.

We prioritise keyboard access, visible focus states, semantic structure, labels for form controls, meaningful alternative text, colour contrast, readable layouts, predictable navigation, compatibility with screen readers, and error messages that explain how to recover.

4. Current accessibility measures

The platform is designed with semantic headings, labelled buttons and forms, keyboard-operable navigation, visible focus treatment, text alternatives for brand and product imagery where meaningful, responsive layouts, and language-aware routing.

Legal pages include structured headings, anchored sections, and a table of contents so users can move through long documents more easily.

Account, checkout, seller, and support flows are reviewed for keyboard navigation, screen reader labels, validation messages, and interaction states as they are built.

5. Known limitations

House of Watches is still evolving, and some areas may not yet meet our target standard in every state. Known risk areas include complex filters, image-heavy listings, third-party payment or verification screens, dynamic messaging states, maps or location selectors, and older content that may need improved alternative text or structure.

We treat accessibility issues affecting account access, checkout, seller onboarding, payment, support, or legal information as high priority.

6. Testing and review

We use a mix of automated checks, manual keyboard review, screen reader spot checks, responsive layout review, colour contrast review, and component-level testing.

Automated tools are useful but not sufficient. We also review real workflows such as creating an account, searching, reading a listing, contacting a seller, submitting a service request, and reviewing legal information.

7. Feedback and assistance

If you encounter an accessibility barrier, contact accessibility@houseofwatches.com. Include the page URL, what you were trying to do, the assistive technology or browser you used if relevant, and a short description of the problem.

If an accessibility issue blocks you from completing an urgent account, order, payment, seller, or support action, you can also contact support@houseofwatches.com so we can provide an alternative route while the issue is investigated.

8. Response process

We review accessibility reports, classify severity, and route them to product, engineering, support, or provider contacts as appropriate.

For critical barriers affecting core marketplace tasks, we aim to acknowledge the report promptly and provide a workaround where feasible. For lower-severity issues, we group fixes into normal product maintenance and accessibility improvement cycles.

9. Ongoing improvement

Accessibility is part of our product quality process, not a one-time audit. We review new components, legal content, forms, navigation, and transaction flows as the platform changes.

We will update this Statement when there are material changes to the platform, our accessibility target, known limitations, or feedback process.