Accessibility

Our commitment

Scriptorium is for anyone who wants to read the Bible slowly and study it closely. That includes people who are blind or have low vision, people who are deaf or hard of hearing, people with limited mobility or dexterity, and people with dyslexia, attention difficulties, tremor, fatigue or other disabilities, whether permanent, temporary or simply part of getting older. We want every part of Scriptorium to work for you, with the tools you already use.

Scriptorium is made by one person. This statement explains what the App and the website do today to be accessible, where they fall short, and how to tell us when something gets in your way. We will listen, and we will fix what we can.

Standards we aim for

• Website: we aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at Level AA.
• App: we follow Apple's Human Interface Guidelines for accessibility, and we apply WCAG 2.2 Level AA to the App where its success criteria fit a native app (following the W3C's guidance on applying WCAG to non-web software).

Conformance status: the App and the website partially conform to WCAG 2.2 Level AA. This means some parts do not yet fully meet the standard. The known gaps are listed under Known limitations, with workarounds where there are any.

What the App supports

VoiceOver

• Buttons, icons and controls have spoken labels, and many have hints that say what will happen (for example, "Opens the lexicon entry").
• Selected states are announced, such as the chosen Claude model or an active dictation button.
• Decorative images and repeated icons are hidden from VoiceOver so they do not add noise.
• Related text is grouped so a verse, a note or a prayer-list item is read as one item.
• Custom actions let you do things without dragging or precise gestures. For example, in a day's readings you can use the Actions rotor to move a passage up or down or remove it; in the Companion you can make a verse the current verse; and in the composer you can detach a passage from an entry.
• In the interlinear, each Hebrew or Greek word is read with its transliteration, its English gloss and its grammar spelled out in words (for example, "noun feminine singular absolute"), and the original word is marked as Hebrew or Greek so VoiceOver can use a voice for that language when one is installed.
• The map reads the names of the places it shows, and every place is also listed as text below the map, with its verses.

Text size and Dynamic Type

• Scripture grows with the system text size (Dynamic Type).
• On top of that, Settings, under Accessibility, has a Reading text size with five steps: Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large and Huge (up to 1.7 times the standard size). The two work together, so the largest settings give very large text.
• Hebrew and Greek text use a typeface with full vowel points and accents, and scale with your settings.
• Most of the interface uses Apple's standard text styles, which follow your Dynamic Type size, including the larger accessibility sizes.

Reading comfort

• Line spacing: Normal, Relaxed or Spacious space between lines of Scripture.
• Bold Scripture text: shows Scripture in a heavier weight. The system's Bold Text setting does the same.
• A live sample: Settings shows a sample verse that changes as you adjust size, spacing and weight, so you can see the result before you read.
• Original words under every verse: an option in Settings, under Reading, if you prefer to see the Hebrew or Greek in line rather than tapping for it.

Contrast, color and Dark Mode

• Scripture and main text have high contrast in both light and dark appearance (around 13:1 or more).
• With the system's Increase Contrast setting on, fainter secondary text and dividing lines darken (or lighten, in dark appearance) so they are easier to see.
• Dark Mode: every screen has a dark appearance. Scriptorium follows the system setting, or you can choose Light or Dark in Settings, under Reading, then Appearance.
• Completed steps and items use check marks or words as well as color. Passage references inside text are real links, which VoiceOver announces as links and lists in its Links rotor.

Motion

• Scriptorium follows the system's Reduce Motion setting. Settings, under Accessibility, also has its own Reduce motion switch, which follows the system until you change it.
• With motion reduced, slides and springs become simple fades, the map jumps to a place instead of gliding, and bouncing or pulsing icons stay still.
• Nothing in the App flashes.

Haptics

Scriptorium gives gentle vibration feedback when you save an entry, add to your prayer list or mark something prayed. You can turn this off in Settings, under Accessibility, then Haptics. The system's own haptics setting also applies.

Read aloud

• In the Bible tab, Listen reads the chapter, or the verses you have selected, aloud. The verse being read is marked on screen so you can follow along.
• Choose the voice and speaking rate (from 0.6 to 1.4 times normal) in Settings, under Read aloud, and play a sample to try them.
• English texts are read in your chosen voice. The Hebrew and Greek texts are read with the system's voice for those languages when one is installed.
• If VoiceOver is running and you have not chosen a voice or rate, Read aloud uses VoiceOver's own voice and rate.
• Other audio lowers while it reads, spoken audio such as podcasts pauses, and both return when reading stops. The screen stays awake while it reads.
• Read aloud happens on your device. No text or audio is sent anywhere.

Dictation, Siri and hands-free actions

• You can dictate journal entries, prayers, prayer-list items and Ask questions with the microphone button. What you have said appears as you speak.
• Siri and Shortcuts can mark today as read, add to your prayer list, open today's reading, open a passage, or start praying through your list, without navigating the App.
• Reminders have buttons ("Mark as read", "Prayed") that work straight from the notification, and widgets have buttons that work from the Home Screen.

AI-written guides

• Guides written by Claude are divided into titled sections, each of which you can open or close, with short paragraphs and lists inside.
• While Claude is writing, a status line says "Thinking" or "Writing" with the time elapsed, and a Stop button is always available.
• Guides you have opened before are saved on your device and open instantly the next time.

Hebrew, Greek and right-to-left text

Scriptorium shows the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament in their original languages, alongside English.

• Right-to-left: Hebrew is laid out right to left, in verses and in the word-by-word interlinear, while the rest of the screen keeps its usual layout.
• Language marking: Hebrew and Greek verses in the reader, and each Hebrew or Greek word in the interlinear, are marked with their language, so VoiceOver can use a Hebrew or Greek voice when one is installed. Read aloud reads the Hebrew and Greek texts with a voice for their language. To add a voice, open iOS Settings, then Accessibility, then Spoken Content (or VoiceOver), then Voices.
• Always with English: every original word can be opened to show its transliteration (the sounds in Latin letters), its English meaning, its dictionary form and its grammar in words. You never need to read Hebrew or Greek script to use Scriptorium.
• On the website: any Hebrew or Greek text is marked up with its language, for example lang="he" and dir="rtl" for Hebrew such as בְּרֵאשִׁית ("in the beginning"), and lang="el" for Greek such as λόγος ("word").

How to turn on accessibility features

To open Scriptorium's Settings, go to the Today tab and tap the Settings button (the gear) at the top. iOS settings are in the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad. Menu names below are for recent versions of iOS and may differ slightly on yours.

How the website is built

• Semantic structure: a header, a main area and a footer, one main heading per page, and headings in order, so screen reader users can move by landmark and heading.
• Skip link: the first thing on each page is a "Skip to main content" link, which appears when you press Tab.
• Keyboard: every link, button, form field and question in the FAQ can be reached and used with a keyboard alone, in a logical order.
• Visible focus: the element you are on always has a clearly visible focus outline.
• Language: each page declares English as its language, and Hebrew and Greek passages are marked with their own language and direction.
• Forms: every field in the waitlist form has a visible label. Optional fields say "optional". The choices are grouped and named. If something is wrong, a message in words explains it, focus moves to the field that needs attention, and the message is announced to screen readers. Messages about sending are announced too.
• Images: images that carry meaning have text alternatives. Decorative images, including the phone pictures at the top of the home page, are hidden from screen readers, and what they show is described in the text around them.
• Motion: sections fade in as you scroll, but not if your device is set to reduce motion. Smooth scrolling is turned off with it too.
• Color and contrast: the site follows your light or dark setting, and text is designed to meet WCAG contrast ratios in both.
• Zoom and reflow: the site works at narrow widths and when zoomed to 400%, without scrolling sideways, and text can be enlarged to 200%.
• No time limits, no automatically playing audio or video, and nothing that flashes.
• No cookie banners or pop-ups in the way, because the site sets no cookies.
• Fonts are served from the site itself and fall back to system fonts.

Known limitations

We know about these problems. We are working on them, and we list them so you know what to expect.

• Some small text does not grow with Dynamic Type. A few compact labels use a fixed size: the transliteration, gloss and grammar lines under words in the interlinear, some details in the word panel, labels on the map, and some text in widgets. Workaround: use Zoom or Hover Text, or open the word panel, where the main word and meaning are larger. We are moving these to text styles that scale.
• Some faint text is below the WCAG contrast ratio in the default colors. Timestamps, hints, captions and some gold section labels are lighter than 4.5:1 against their background. Workaround: turn on Increase Contrast, which darkens most of this text to well above 4.5:1. We are darkening the default colors.
• iPhone is portrait only. On iPhone the App does not rotate to landscape. On iPad it works in every orientation.
• Color settings. The App does not yet adjust itself when Differentiate Without Color is on. Most states use words, icons or check marks as well as color, but a few do not: in the reader, the small marks beside verses that have a note (gold) or a journal entry (blue) differ mainly by color, and some progress and calendar views may rely on color more than they should. VoiceOver announces "Has a note" and "In your journal" for those verses.
• AI-written guides are long. They can take a while to read with a screen reader, and while Claude is still writing, the text keeps growing, which can interrupt VoiceOver. Workaround: wait until the "Writing" status disappears before reading.
• Guide sections are not yet headings. Section titles in guides are buttons that open and close each section. They are not yet marked as headings, so the VoiceOver Headings rotor cannot jump between them, and whether a section is open is not yet announced. Workaround: swipe through the guide, or set the rotor to Buttons to move from title to title.
• The map is visual. Distances, routes and the shape of the land are not described in words. Places, their verses and journey stops are listed as text.
• Photographing a reading plan needs sight to frame the page. Workaround: paste the plan's text instead, or pick an existing photo.
• Hebrew and Greek voices depend on voices installed on your device. Without them, VoiceOver and Read aloud may mispronounce the original words, but the transliteration and English meaning are always available.
• Pages outside Scriptorium, such as sources on Sefaria, the support payment page, the Anthropic Console, the App Store and TestFlight, are run by other organizations. We cannot control their accessibility, but we will tell them about problems you report to us.
• Licensed translations. If we add licensed Bible translations in future, some licenses may not allow the App's Read aloud feature for their text. System tools such as VoiceOver and Speak Screen are not affected.

Compatibility and testing

The App works on iPhone and iPad with iOS 17 or later. The Control Center control needs iOS 18 or later.

The website works with current versions of Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Edge.

Before each public release, our goal is to confirm that every common task works with the assistive technologies below. The common tasks are: reading a chapter, looking up a word, reading a guide, writing a journal entry or prayer, adding to and praying through the prayer list, marking a day read, importing a reading plan, and joining the waitlist.

These are our testing goals, and we will say here when each has been confirmed for the current release. If you use another combination, such as Switch Control, a braille display, JAWS or TalkBack, we would be glad to hear how it works for you.

How we assess accessibility

We assess Scriptorium ourselves (self-evaluation). We have not yet had an independent audit. Our approach:

• reviewing the App's code for labels, traits, text styles, language marking and support for system settings;
• measuring color contrast with the WCAG formula for every text color against every background, in light, dark and increased-contrast appearances;
• testing by hand with VoiceOver, Voice Control, the largest text sizes, Bold Text, Increase Contrast and Reduce Motion;
• using Apple's Accessibility Inspector for the App, and automated checkers for the website, followed by manual checks, because automated tools find only some problems;
• listening to the people who use Scriptorium, including beta testers.

We review this statement and retest before each major release, and at least once a year.

Feedback, help and other formats

If something in Scriptorium or on the website is hard to use, or you need information in a different format, please tell us. You do not need to know technical terms. It helps to include:

• what you were trying to do, and where (the screen or web page);
• what happened;
• your device and its iOS version, or your browser; and
• any assistive technology or accessibility settings you use.

Response: we will reply within 5 business days. We will tell you what we plan to do and, where we can, give you a workaround while we fix the problem.

Other formats: on request, and free of charge, we will provide the content of this website, including our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, as plain text, in large print, as an accessible document, or read aloud as an audio file. We will also help you by email with anything in the App or on the website you cannot reach.

About this statement

This statement was prepared on September 24, 2026, based on a review of the App's code and the website. It applies from September 27, 2026, and we update it as Scriptorium changes. The date it applies from shows when it last changed.