Our commitment
Calíope is a professional database client, and we want every developer and database administrator to be able to use it — including people who rely on assistive technologies. We build on Apple's native accessibility frameworks so that Calíope works with the tools already built into macOS and iPadOS, and we test the features below against the real tasks of managing a database: connecting to a server, exploring a schema, writing and running SQL, reading results, and using the administration tools.
Feedback matters. Accessibility is never “done.” If you hit a barrier using Calíope with any assistive technology, please tell us at info@caliope.org and we will treat it as a priority.
Accessibility features supported
The table below summarizes the accessibility features Calíope supports on each platform, using the same feature names Apple uses for Accessibility Nutrition Labels on the App Store. A checkmark means the feature is supported for the app's common tasks on that platform.
| Feature | What it means in Calíope | macOS | iPadOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dark Interface | A full dark color scheme across every screen, menu and control, following the system appearance automatically. | Yes | Yes |
| Differentiate Without Color Alone | Status and state (connected/offline, added/removed rows, validation) are conveyed with icons, shapes or text — not color on its own. | Yes | Yes |
| Sufficient Contrast | Text and essential iconography meet a strong contrast ratio against their background in both light and dark appearance. | Yes | Yes |
| Reduced Motion | When you turn on Reduce Motion, Calíope removes or shortens non-essential animations and transitions; Reduce Transparency is honored too. | Yes | Yes |
| Captions | Not applicable — Calíope has no video or audio-only content. | — | — |
| Audio Descriptions | Not applicable — Calíope has no video content. | — | — |
How each feature works in Calíope
Dark Interface
Calíope ships a complete dark theme. Colors are defined as appearance-aware values that adapt automatically to the system Light or Dark setting — the app never forces one appearance over your system choice.
Differentiate Without Color Alone
Where color communicates meaning — connection status, schema-diff additions and deletions, validation feedback — Calíope pairs it with an icon, a shape or a text label, so the information does not depend on color perception.
Sufficient Contrast
The color system is tuned so that text and essential icons keep a strong contrast ratio against their backgrounds in both light and dark appearance, and translucent materials fall back to solid backgrounds when Reduce Transparency is on.
Reduced Motion
Calíope observes the system Reduce Motion setting. When it is enabled, non-essential animations and view transitions are removed or shortened, so movement in the interface stays minimal. Reduce Transparency is honored too, with translucent materials falling back to solid backgrounds.
Features in active development
We are actively improving and testing three more features and will declare them here once we can fully verify them across the app's common tasks on real devices:
- VoiceOver — Calíope is built with standard, labeled controls and speaks status announcements for events like query results and connection changes; we are completing end-to-end verification with the screen reader.
- Voice Control — builds on the same labeled controls, verified alongside VoiceOver.
- Larger Text (Dynamic Type) on iPad — we are extending scalable text coverage across the common workflows. The SQL editor already has its own independent font-size control.
Accessibility Nutrition Labels on the App Store
Apple lets developers publish Accessibility Nutrition Labels on an app's App Store product page, declared per device type. The features listed above as supported are the ones we declare for Calíope on macOS and iPadOS. This page is also the destination of the optional “Accessibility” link on our App Store listing.
Known limitations
We are transparent about what is still in progress. Some advanced, less-common views may not yet be fully optimized for every assistive technology, and we continue to refine Dynamic Type coverage and contrast across the app. If something does not work the way you need, your report directly shapes what we fix next.
Reporting an accessibility issue
Please email info@caliope.org with the platform (macOS or iPadOS), the assistive technology you were using, and what you were trying to do. We aim to respond quickly and to prioritize accessibility fixes.