Peel is for every reader: dyslexic, colour blind, low vision, finding motion uncomfortable, using a keyboard or a screen reader, or needing a calmer screen. Every option here is free.
What you can change in Peel
Open Settings → Reading and access. Every setting applies to the library, the PDF reader, the popup and the side panel.
Reading
- OpenDyslexic, a font made for dyslexia, or Atkinson Hyperlegible, made for low vision.
- Wider spacing between letters, words and lines.
- Text size of 100%, 115%, 130% or 150%. Browser zoom works too.
- Underlined links.
Colour and contrast
- A colour overlay: a soft tint over the whole page, in cream, yellow, peach, rose, lilac, blue, aqua, green or grey, like the coloured overlays many dyslexic readers use.
- High contrast: solid fills, stronger outlines and no faded text.
- Shapes beside colours, so colour is never the only clue: a diamond on gaps, a square on duplicates, and a tick when a source is complete.
Motion
- Animations follow your system’s “reduce motion” setting, or you can turn them down or off yourself.
Keyboard and screen readers
- Everything works with the keyboard. Dialogs keep focus inside until you press Esc.
- Shortcuts while reading: Alt + P opens Peel’s popup, Alt + S the side panel, Alt + Q saves the words you’ve selected as a quote, and Alt + C copies the citation for the page. Your browser lets you change them.
- In the PDF reader: 1 to 4 highlight the selected words in a colour, H in your usual colour, and J and K go to the next and previous page.
- Single-key shortcuts can be turned off, for speech input or switch control (Settings → Keyboard shortcuts).
- Labelled buttons and fields, visible focus outlines, and announcements for changes such as a saved quote.
On this website
- The Reading comfort button at the top of every page turns on a dyslexia-friendly font, bigger text, high contrast or a colour overlay, saved in your browser only.
- Each guide labels every part of a reference with a number, a shape and a name, not just a colour.
- Every page works with the keyboard, has a skip link, and follows your “reduce motion” setting.
How we check it
We aim to meet WCAG 2.2 level AA.
- Peel’s screens (the welcome, the library, every part of Settings, the popup, the side panel and the PDF reader) and this website’s pages are checked with automated accessibility tests (axe-core, WCAG 2.2 A and AA rules). They currently report no issues.
- The main tasks are tested using only the keyboard.
Peel hasn’t had an independent audit or formal testing with screen reader users yet. Until it has, we describe it as partially conformant with WCAG 2.2 AA.
Known limitations
- PDFs: Peel’s reader shows a PDF’s own text, so a scanned PDF with no text layer can’t be read aloud by a screen reader or highlighted. A PDF made without tags may be read in an odd order.
- Highlights are made by selecting text, which is easiest with a mouse or trackpad. With a keyboard, save a quote from the page instead.
- Screen reader support has been built in carefully but hasn’t yet been tested with NVDA, JAWS or VoiceOver users. We’d love to hear how it works for you.
Tell us what doesn’t work
If something is hard to use, or you need it to work differently, email hello@kanbananza.com. We read everything and aim to reply within five working days.