Accessibility at Hume

Where we are

Hume is early, and we'd rather say where we actually stand than publish a conformance badge we haven't earned.

If something here stops you doing what you came to do, that's a bug and we want to hear about it — not a limitation you're expected to work around.

The site and the app

What we're building toward, and check as we go:

• Structure that makes sense without sight — real headings, labelled form fields, error messages that say what went wrong and how to fix it.
• Everything reachable by keyboard, with a focus outline you can actually see.
• Contrast and text sizing that hold up when you zoom, and a dark mode that follows your system.
• Text alternatives for images that carry meaning.
• Captions on video. Discovery on Hume runs on short-form video, which makes this the accessibility question that matters most here — a feed without captions simply isn't usable by a lot of people. We're working on it, and it isn't finished.
• Nothing that depends on colour alone, on a precise gesture, or on reacting inside a time limit.
• Reduced motion respected when your device asks for it.
• The flows that matter most tested first — finding an Experience, booking it, cancelling it, and reporting something.

You can always do any of those by emailing us instead. Support by email is a first-class route here, not a fallback for when the product fails you.

Accessibility at Experiences

This is the part Hume can't fix with better code. Experiences happen in cafés, studios, parks and apartments that Hume doesn't own, run by independent people. What Hume can do is make sure you know what you're walking into before you pay.

Every Experience page must honestly describe how much walking and standing is involved, stairs and step-free access, washroom access, the terrain, how loud and how bright it gets, whether there's somewhere to sit, weather exposure, animals, food and drink, and anything else that decides whether the Experience works for a given person.

An Experience Creator who describes an Experience as accessible without a reasonable basis for saying so is breaking the Community Guidelines, and we treat it as seriously as any other misleading listing.

If you're an Explorer

• Ask before you book. Message the Experience Creator through Hume, or ask us and we'll find out. No question is too specific — "how many stairs" is a better question than an assumption.
• You never have to explain why. Tell a Creator what you need, not what you have. "I need to be able to sit every twenty minutes" is enough; you don't owe anyone a diagnosis.
• What you share stays with the Creator running your Experience, and isn't visible on your profile or to the rest of the group.
• Bring a support person or a service animal. Tell the Creator in advance so they can plan the space, and a support person doesn't pay for a spot.
• If a Creator turns you away on a ground protected by the Ontario Human Rights Code — including disability — tell us. That's a removal, not a misunderstanding.

If you run Experiences

• Describe the space as it is, not as you'd like it to be. Count the stairs. Check whether the washroom is down a flight. Say if the room gets loud.
• Answer questions straight. "I'm not sure, let me check" is a good answer. Guessing is not.
• Accommodate where you reasonably can — a slower pace, a chair, a quieter table, a different meeting point. Most accommodations are small and cost nothing.
• You may decline a specific request only where meeting it would be unsafe, unlawful, genuinely impossible, or would change what the Experience fundamentally is. Say so honestly, offer what you can, and Hume will support a refund. Ontario human rights law sets the standard here and it applies to you as an independent provider, not just to Hume.
• Never turn someone away because of a disability where the Experience would actually work for them. That ends a Creator account.
• Caption your video where you can. It's the single highest-leverage thing an Experience Creator can do for reach and for access at the same time.

What we can't promise

Hume can't guarantee that any given Experience, venue or third-party space will meet any given need. Much of Toronto's most interesting space is in old buildings with steps at the door, and no policy of ours changes that.

What we can promise is that the page won't mislead you, that asking won't be awkward, and that if an Experience Creator misrepresents access, we'll refund you and act on it.

Tell us when it doesn't work

Email withhume@gmail.com with "Accessibility" in the subject. If it's about the site, tell us the page, your device and browser, and any assistive technology you're using — that's usually enough for us to reproduce it.

We'll reply within 2 business days, tell you a way to do the thing in the meantime, and fix it. If we can't fix it quickly, we'll say that too rather than going quiet.