Manaakitanga — the practice of care, respect, and hospitality — shapes how we build our website. We believe that everyone deserves a comfortable and seamless shopping experience, regardless of how they navigate the web. Accessibility isn't an afterthought at Native Possum — it's built into every page, every product listing, and every line of code.
Our website is designed and built with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA standard as our benchmark. From day one, we've considered colour contrast, keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, clear heading structures, and readable text sizing — not as a retrofit, but as a foundation. We test against it regularly and fix what we find.
What we've built in
- Text and controls that meet WCAG AA colour contrast
- Every menu, filter, popup and form works with a keyboard alone, with a clear focus outline that's never hidden behind the header
- Clear heading structure and page landmarks for screen readers, with a "skip to main content" link
- Descriptive alt text on product photos
- Works in Windows high contrast mode
- Respects your device's "reduce motion" setting, and the homepage slideshow can be paused
- Buttons and links large enough to tap comfortably
- Works at any zoom level and on small screens, without scrolling sideways
- Labelled forms that say what needs fixing and keep what you've typed
- No time limits and no puzzle-style CAPTCHAs
- We check key pages with automated accessibility testing before every site update and every week, and test by hand with a keyboard
- Our search, filters and wishlist are built by us in-house, to the same standard as the rest of the site
Known limitations
- Checkout is run by Shopify, and we can't change it. Shopify publishes its own accessibility report for checkout and is still working on some issues.
- Third-party features such as payment buttons and the cookie banner come from other providers, and we can only partly control them.
We want to hear from you
We haven't been able to test on every assistive device and browser combination, and we know there may be things we've missed. If you experience any difficulty using our website — whether it's a screen reader issue, a navigation problem, or something else entirely — we genuinely want to know.
Email us at service@nativepossum.nz or use our contact page. It helps to tell us which page you were on, what happened, and the device and browser you were using. We'll reply within two working days and do our best to fix it promptly.
Accessibility is part of how we practise kaitiakitanga and manaakitanga — caring for the natural world and for the people in it.
Last reviewed: October 2026
