Cookies on Stratford Timebank

We use some essential cookies to make this service work.

We would also like to use analytics cookies so we can understand how you use the service and make improvements.

View cookies
Skip to main content

Beta Give feedback

Back to all releases
Changelog

1.5.3

Released 2026-06-23

Added

  • Documentation, version, and changelog governance is now enforced. A root VERSION file records the platform version, npm run check:version keeps Composer, React package metadata, Laravel config, README, release status, changelog links, and current public collateral in sync, and npm run check:changelog catches release-relevant work that forgets to update CHANGELOG.md.
  • A maintained architecture map now anchors the docs. docs/ARCHITECTURE.md gives future maintainers a compact view of the runtime boundaries, tenant/feature model, UI surfaces, backend organization, operations references, and remaining documentation depth risks.
  • More of the accessible site now matches the main site, from a fresh module-by-module review: group file sharing (upload, list, download, delete) on the accessible group page; a volunteering safeguarding area to log training records and report concerns; a goal progress history timeline; likes and comments on individual resources; and a delete button for your own polls on the polls page.
  • The AI assistant is now on the accessible site. Ask the community assistant a question from the Explore page and it replies on the same page; your previous conversations are listed so you can pick one back up. It's a simpler, no-JavaScript version of the main site's chat — you send a message and the reply appears when the page reloads, rather than streaming live.
  • Voice messages on the accessible site. You can send a voice message by uploading a short audio clip — on a phone, the file picker opens the recorder directly. Voice messages play with the browser's built-in audio player and, where a transcription is available, include a "Show transcript" panel so they're accessible to everyone.
  • You can now attach files and images to messages. Both the main site and the accessible site let you send up to 5 images or documents (max 10 MB each) with a message — and a message can be just an attachment with no text. Previously the main site's message box let you pick files but they were silently dropped on the way to the server; now they're stored and shown in the conversation. Attachments are type-checked (images, PDF, text, and common Office documents only).
  • Group announcements can now be managed on the accessible site. Group owners and admins can post, edit, delete and pin announcements directly from the accessible group page — previously you could only see pinned announcements there, not manage them. Pinned items are clearly flagged and shown first.
  • Job hiring "bias audit" is now available on the accessible site. Admins get the same hiring-fairness report as the main site — application funnel, rejection rates by stage, time in each stage, outcome breakdown and where applicants came from — rendered as clear tables (no charts needed), with date-range and per-job filters.
  • Sellers can confirm a click-and-collect handover on the accessible site. A seller can type the short collection code the buyer shows them to mark an order as collected — the keyboard-friendly equivalent of scanning the buyer's QR code, no camera required.
  • The accessible (simpler, screen-reader-first) version of the site now does almost everything the main site does. Every community area — your wallet, messages, events, groups, volunteering, organisations, jobs, the marketplace, courses, podcasts, blog, reviews, ideas/challenges, goals, achievements and leaderboards, member profiles, search, saved items and collections, and federation — now works on the accessible site, with the same actions you'd expect: posting, applying, joining, transferring time credits, leaving reviews, managing your own listings/courses/events, and more. Links were added throughout so these pages are easy to find.
  • Identity Verification can now be switched on or off per community. Admins get a toggle for it under Settings → Module Configuration, just like every other feature. When it's turned off, the "Verify Identity" link is removed from the menu (top bar and mobile menu), the verification pages can't be opened, and members can't start a new verification; turn it back on and everything reappears where it was. It's on by default, so nothing changes unless an admin switches it off.

Fixed

  • A repeating event's "Expiry" and author details could disappear from its page. A formatting issue could blank out part of an event/listing detail page after an update; this is fixed.

  • Donating time credits to another member, group invitations by email, poll CSV exports, and group messaging all had behind-the-scenes faults that could make them silently fail; all are fixed.

  • The "Verified" badge in the top bar shows in green again. Once you've completed identity verification, the "Verified" indicator next to your menu is green, as intended. A styling change had quietly left it the same muted grey as everything else, so it no longer stood out.

  • Recurring events now show their cover image on every date, not just one. When you create a repeating event with a photo, the photo now appears on all of its dates. Previously it only attached to a single date in the series (which showed up last in the list), leaving the rest with no image.

Changed

  • Public documentation is tidier and version-consistent. The README, public module engine reports, and open-source announcement collateral now identify Project NEXUS as v1.5.2; the stale federation integration report has been replaced with a concise pointer to the maintained federation manual and coverage documents; docs-public/README.md now separates current collateral from dated engine snapshots; accessible frontend docs now distinguish the public Beta track from legacy alpha route/code names and record govuk-frontend 6.3.0 as the latest verified stable; retired documentation links in tests/workflows now point to maintained guidance; docs hygiene rules now keep prompts, scratch plans, generated reports, PDFs, and private notes out of docs/.
  • Documentation architecture is now explicit. Added maintained docs for documentation standards, API reference policy, test-layer meaning, security-scanner interpretation, and module-guide priorities; removed tracked root generated artifacts and updated stale public references to ignored local notes.
  • The project documentation and GitHub presentation got a substantial overhaul. The README now carries status badges, a live-demo callout, a table of contents, and an architecture diagram; new SUPPORT.md, GOVERNANCE.md, GitHub issue templates, and a funding config were added; thirteen maintained module guides covering every major module (wallet & exchanges, members & GDPR, volunteering, notifications, search, admin, listings, messaging, events, groups, gamification, jobs, goals & impact), a new-contributor getting-started tutorial, and a real API getting-started guide were written from the live code; the federation, contributing, and module-map docs were corrected; the security-scanning and accessible-frontend guidance was expanded; and stale one-off engine reports and dated snapshots were archived out of the public repository.
  • The Events page now shows one card per repeating series instead of every single date. A repeating event now appears once — as its next upcoming date — with a "Repeats weekly · N dates" label, so the page no longer fills up with the same event over and over. Open the event to see the full list of its upcoming dates.
  • Clearer limit when choosing how many times an event repeats. The "number of occurrences" field now states the allowed range (2–52). Entering a number outside it shows a clear error, flags the field in red and jumps you straight to it, instead of the form silently doing nothing.
  • Accessibility and visual polish across every page of the accessible site. A platform-wide pass to the GOV.UK Design System standard: status labels are now colour-coded by state (so an approved application looks different from a declined one at a glance), the keyboard now jumps straight to errors and confirmations, the current section is announced to screen readers, images reserve their space so the page doesn't jump as it loads, and the sign-out control and message-count badge are cleaner and fully keyboard-accessible.
  • A clearer Polls page on the accessible site. Polls are now split into "Open polls" (which you can vote on) and "Closed polls" (results), with a short note explaining that you vote once and results stay hidden until a poll closes to keep things fair. Open polls show their closing date; closed polls show each option's share of the vote with the leading option and your own choice clearly flagged.
  • A clearer, less crowded header on the accessible site. Your personal things now live together in a top-right "My account" area: a single "My account" link opens a hub for your wallet, messages, connections, matches, group exchanges, achievements, leaderboard, NEXUS score, profile and settings (with your unread-message count shown alongside). The main navigation bar is now a lean community bar — Dashboard, Feed, Listings, Members, Events, Volunteering and Explore — with Exchanges and Polls moved onto the Explore page alongside the other discovery features, so the bar stays uncluttered as more is added.
  • Volunteering is far easier to find your way around on the accessible site. The Volunteering page now clearly separates the two things you might be doing there — taking part as a volunteer, and running an organisation. If you run an approved organisation, an obvious "Post an opportunity" button and a link to manage it now sit right at the top of the page (previously this was buried and genuinely hard to find). If you've registered an organisation that's still being reviewed, you'll see its approval status; and if you don't run one yet, there's a simple prompt to register one. Organisations also moved off the main menu bar onto the Explore page, with a "Browse organisations" link kept on the Volunteering page so it's still one click away.

Added

  • An Explore area on the accessible site: search, groups, goals, a skills directory and organisations. A new Explore link in the main menu gathers the community's discovery features in one tidy place: a global search across members, listings, events and groups; groups you can browse and join or leave; goals you can set and track with a progress bar; a skills directory to find members offering a particular skill; and an organisations directory where you can also register a new organisation for approval.
  • Do more with your goals on the accessible site. Goals went from a simple list to a full feature: you can now edit a goal's name, target, deadline, check-in reminders and whether it's shared, or delete it behind a clear warning. Each goal page shows a progress timeline of what's happened so far (created, progress updates, milestones reached, completed). You can start a goal from a ready-made template — pick one, give it your own name if you like, and it's set up for you. And there's a new buddy system: offer to support another member's public goal to help keep them on track, and see all the goals you're buddying in one place. Private goals stay private — only the owner (and their buddy) can see them.
  • Edit and delete your own messages on the accessible site. In a conversation you can now correct a message you sent — within 24 hours of sending it — or remove one, choosing whether to delete it just for yourself or for both people. Messages that have been changed are marked "Edited", and deleted ones show a short placeholder. This matches what the main app allows.
  • Confirm your email, unsubscribe, and review members straight from the accessible site. The links in your verification and newsletter emails now open proper pages on the accessible site: one confirms your email address and sends you on to sign in; the other unsubscribes you from newsletters (you will still receive essential account and security emails). And the reviews page now lets you leave a star rating and a few words for someone directly from your "still to review" list, instead of sending you elsewhere.
  • Event waitlists, event polls and recurring-series dates on the accessible site. When an event is full you can now join its waitlist and see your place in the queue (or leave it again). Events with an attached poll let you vote, with the running totals kept hidden until the poll closes so voting stays fair. And an event that is part of a repeating series now lists its other dates, with the one you are looking at clearly marked, so you can move between them.
  • Volunteer certificates, shift waitlists and shift swaps on the accessible site. You can now download a certificate for the volunteering hours you have given; join or leave the waitlist for a shift that is already full; and request to swap one of your shifts with another volunteer, accepting or declining swap requests that others send you.
  • Richer organisation pages on the accessible site. An organisation's page now shows its open volunteering opportunities — which you can apply to right there — alongside the reviews members have left it and a short summary of its impact: how many volunteers it has, the total hours given and its average rating.
  • Choose how often you get an activity digest on the accessible site. Your notification settings now include an "activity digest" choice — off, as it happens, daily or monthly — so you control how often the community emails you a round-up, matching the option in the main app.
  • Subscribe to the community blog on the accessible site. The blog now has a standard RSS feed, so you can follow new posts in any feed reader.
  • Block a member on the accessible site. You can now block someone from their profile — once blocked, they can no longer see your profile or contact you, and any connection between you is removed. A new "Blocked members" page in your settings shows everyone you have blocked and lets you unblock them.
  • Turn on authenticator-app sign-in on the accessible site. Your security settings now let you set up two-step verification with an authenticator app — scan a QR code (or type the key in by hand), confirm with a 6-digit code, and save your one-time backup codes in case you lose your phone. You can turn it off again at any time with your password, and you will get an email whenever it is switched on or off.
  • Filter listings and events by distance on the accessible site. Both pages now have a "Distance" option — within 5, 10, 25 or 50 km — that uses the location saved on your profile to show only what is near you. No map or location pop-up needed; if you have not set your location yet, the page tells you how.
  • React to posts, share and save them on the accessible feed. You can now react to a post or a comment (like, love or celebrate), share a post to your own feed, and save a post to read later — saved posts show up under the feed's "Saved" filter. Every post also has its own page now, so links to a post from a notification or email open the right place.
  • Donate time credits and see your community fund on the accessible site. Your wallet now lets you donate credits to the community fund (or to another member), shows the community fund's balance, and lets you filter your transaction history (all, earned, spent), page through older entries, and download it as a CSV file.
  • Group pages now show events and a group feed on the accessible site. A group's page now lists that group's upcoming events and — for members — shows the group's posts and lets you add your own, so each community group is a place to talk and not just a member list.
  • Partner communities are now a real, browsable network on the accessible site. Federation went from a single read-only list to a full area: a hub with your network stats and an opt-in prompt, opt-in/opt-out and privacy settings you control, a page for each partner community, and the ability to browse members, listings and events across the communities yours is connected to.
  • Connect, message and share hours with partner communities on the accessible site. The partner-communities area is now fully interactive: you can send and respond to connection requests with members of communities yours is linked to, exchange private messages across communities, and send some of your time credits to a member of a partner community. Everything respects the same privacy choices and safeguards as the main app — you only appear to, and can only reach, members who have opted in — and each alert is sent in the recipient's own language.
  • A guided sign-up on the accessible site that helps keep everyone safe. New members now get a short step-by-step setup — add a photo and a few words about yourself, pick your interests, say what skills you can offer and what help you're looking for, answer any optional safeguarding questions your community asks, then confirm. The safeguarding step is fully private and opt-in (nothing is ticked for you, and you can choose "none of these apply"), and it's wired straight into the same protections the main app uses. You can change any of it later from your profile.
  • A fuller notifications inbox on the accessible site — and the emails that go with your actions. Your notifications page now tags each update by kind (message, connection, event, credits, safeguarding and so on), marks an unread item read with one click, links straight through to whatever it's about, and lets you clear them all at once. And the things you do on the accessible site now send the same alerts the main app does: applying for an opportunity emails you a confirmation and alerts the employer; RSVPing, applying to volunteer, signing up for a shift or editing an event now notifies the organiser and everyone affected — each in the recipient's own language.
  • A news & blog area on the accessible site, now in Explore. The community blog now appears in Explore, shows each post's publish date, links the author to their profile, and — for signed-in members — lets you read and post comments on an article. Posts also carry proper search-engine and social-share information.
  • Edit and delete your own listings on the accessible site. A listing's owner now sees an Edit listing button on its page, opening a pre-filled form to change the title, description, category, hours, delivery method, location and photo — with the same field-by-field validation as creating one. The edit page also lets you delete the listing, behind a clear warning. Previously the accessible site could create listings but never change or remove them.
  • Opportunities, ideas, resources and saved items on the accessible site. Four more areas, reached from Explore or your "My account": an Opportunities board listing the community's roles and volunteer openings — each tagged by type (volunteer, paid or time-credit) with its closing date — that you can open and apply to with an optional note; an Ideas area where you can read the community's challenges, submit your own idea and vote on others'; a Resources library of shared guides and materials you can search and download; and a Saved items list gathering everything you've bookmarked.
  • Marketplace, courses, podcasts and more on the accessible site. When your community has them switched on, the accessible site now offers: a Marketplace to browse items for sale, swap or free (with photos, prices and a full item page); Courses you can browse and enrol on, paying with time credits where a course has a cost (with a clear message if you do not have enough); Podcasts with an episode list you can play in the page; a Coupons page of local merchant offers; a Premium page to subscribe and support your community; a Clubs directory; and a Partner communities page showing the communities yours is federated with. Each appears in Explore only when your community has the feature enabled.
  • More of the platform on the accessible site: notifications, your activity, a reviews page, and Features/FAQ. A notifications inbox (in My account) lists your updates with an all/unread filter, mark-all-as-read and delete; an activity page summarises your hours given and received, connections, a month-by-month chart and recent activity; a reviews page gathers the reviews you've received and given plus any you still need to write; and plain-language Features and FAQ pages explain how the community works.
  • Achievements, Leaderboard and NEXUS score on the accessible site. Three new pages, reached from your "My account" area: Achievements shows your level, experience and the badges you've earned (with a nudge towards the ones you're close to unlocking); the Leaderboard ranks members by a metric you choose — time credits, volunteer hours, badges and more — over all time, this month or this week, with your own place highlighted; and your NEXUS score shows your community reputation out of 1000, how it breaks down across engagement, quality, volunteering, activity, badges and impact, and tips on how to improve. All HTML-first and accessible.
  • A polls page on the accessible site. A new Polls page (in the main navigation) lists the community's polls so you can vote and see results in one place, instead of only coming across them in the feed. While a poll is open the running totals stay hidden to keep voting fair; once it closes, each option shows its share of the vote with your own choice highlighted.
  • Group exchanges on the accessible site. A new Group exchanges section (in the main navigation) lets a member organise an exchange of time between several people at once: create one with a title and a total number of hours, add people as either giving or receiving time, set how the hours are shared (equally or set per person), and see who has confirmed. Once everyone has confirmed, the organiser completes it and the time credits move between everyone automatically. Each person confirms their own part, and only the organiser can add or remove people, complete or cancel.
  • See your matches on the accessible site. A new Matches page (in the main navigation) shows members whose offers and requests fit yours, ranked by how well they match, with the reasons for each match and a link to their listing — powered by the same matching engine as the main app. Previously the accessible site could save your match preferences but never showed you any matches.
  • A "How timebanking works" guide on the accessible site. A plain-language page explaining the idea — give an hour, earn a credit, spend it on help from anyone — with the principle that everyone's hour is equal, and clear next steps. Linked from the community home page and open to everyone, including people not yet signed up.
  • A connections inbox on the accessible site. A new Connections page (in your "My account" area) gathers everything in one place: requests waiting for your response (with Accept and Decline), the members you're already connected with (with Remove), and requests you've sent that are still pending (with Cancel) — each linking through to the member's profile. Previously you could only send a connection request from someone's profile, with nowhere to manage incoming ones.
  • Type-ahead search for sending credits. The wallet's recipient search now offers suggestions as you type — each showing the member's location and how long they've been a member, so you can pick the right person (even two members called "Mary") without leaving the box. It's a progressive enhancement: with no JavaScript, the original search-and-choose list still works exactly as before.
  • Tell apart members with the same name when sending credits. The wallet's recipient search now shows each person's location and how long they've been a member (e.g. "Cork · Member since March 2024") beneath their name, so two members called "Mary" are no longer indistinguishable. Works with no JavaScript.
  • A time wallet on the accessible site. Signed-in members now have a Wallet page showing their time-credit balance, total hours earned and spent, and a full history of who they exchanged with and for what. You can also send credits to another member of your community: search for them by name, choose an amount, add an optional note, and send — with clear errors if you don't have enough credits or pick someone outside your community. Wallet now appears in the main navigation and on the home page.
  • Manage your own events on the accessible site. An event's organiser can now edit it (with the same field-by-field validation as creating), cancel it with an optional reason (which notifies everyone who RSVP'd), or delete it — each with a clear confirmation step.
  • A "For you" tab on the accessible volunteering page. Signed-in members now see volunteer shifts recommended for them — matched to their skills and availability, with a match score, the organisation, location, time and spaces left.
  • Sort listings by Newest or Recommended on the accessible site. The listings page now has a "Sort by" control, with Recommended surfacing featured listings first.
  • See who's going to an event on the accessible site, with clearer create errors. An event page now lists the people going and interested (with their photos), and the "Create an event" form now highlights each field that needs fixing with a message beside it, instead of one vague error.

Fixed

  • Maps are now OFF by default for every community — turn them on per-community when you want them. Previously maps defaulted to ON, so any community that hadn't been explicitly configured kept showing maps even after you'd disabled them. Only hOUR Timebank had ever been set to off in the database, which is exactly why it behaved differently from every other community. Maps are now uniformly off across the whole platform and only appear on a community when a super-admin explicitly switches them on for it — so no community silently differs from another.
  • Maps can be turned on or off per community again, and the map provider is switchable. The admin "Maps & location" controls were locked, so the maps on/off switch only ever took effect on one community and nobody could change the map provider. Super-admins can now toggle maps for each community individually — turning it off reliably removes every map across listings, members, events, groups and the marketplace — and can choose a different map provider (Google, OpenStreetMap or Ordnance Survey) per community.
  • Google maps now show their pins even when no Map ID is configured. Google's newer "advanced" map pins silently render nothing unless a Google Map ID is set, which made maps look empty or broken. Pins now fall back to classic markers when no Map ID is present, so locations always appear; and when a map genuinely can't load (for example a billing or key problem) a clear "map view is not available" message is shown instead of a blank gap.
  • The accessible home page no longer mislabels sign-in-only sections as "not enabled". When you're signed out, sections that simply need you to log in (Dashboard, My Profile, Messages, Exchanges) now say "Sign in to use this" and link to the login page, instead of wrongly saying "This module is not enabled for this community". Sections the community has genuinely turned off still say so.
  • Skill endorsements now work again across the whole platform. Endorsing a member's skill was silently failing with a server error (the endorsements table has no "updated at" column, but the code tried to write one). Endorsing and un-endorsing now work everywhere.

Added

  • Endorse a member's skills on the accessible site. A member's profile on the accessibility-first site now shows how many endorsements each of their skills has, and lets you endorse (or remove your endorsement of) any skill.

  • The accessible community home page now shows live stats and the community's tagline. The landing page displays the community's own one-line tagline and live totals (members, hours exchanged, active listings and communities), matching the main site.

  • A more visual accessible dashboard. The dashboard's recent-activity and recent-listings cards now show author photos and images, and the quick links now include Messages and Members.

  • More detail on the accessible volunteering pages. Your applications now show the organiser's note when one was added on an approved or declined application, and your hours page now shows a progress bar towards your next round-number hours goal.

  • Listing pages on the accessible site now show expiry and renewal details. A listing's page now tells you when it expires (or expired), and how many times it has been renewed, when that information applies.

  • Manage your own feed posts and comments on the accessible site. You can now reply to a comment, edit or delete your own posts, and edit or delete your own comments — each with a plain confirmation step for deletions, and all working without JavaScript. Previously replies could be read but not written, and you could not change or remove anything you posted.

  • Richer feed cards on the accessible site. Posts and comments in the feed now show the author's profile photo, and feed cards for events and volunteer opportunities now link through to their full page (previously only listings did, leaving other cards as dead ends).

  • Friendlier messages on the accessible site. The Messages page now has a "Message a member" button (so you can start a brand-new conversation, not only reply to existing ones), shows each person's profile photo next to their conversation, and shows photos next to each message in a thread.

  • Change language anywhere on the accessible site — and have it stick. Every page of the accessibility-first site now has a language chooser in the header offering all 11 supported languages, and your choice now actually takes effect and is remembered as you move between pages (previously changing language had no effect at all). Arabic now also displays right-to-left. The Messages link in the navigation shows a count of your unread messages.

  • Clearer exchange pages on the accessible site. A time-bank exchange now explains its current status in plain English (for example, "Waiting for the service provider to accept or decline this request"), shows the star ratings and comments both members have left once it's completed, and notes who made each change in the activity timeline.

  • Add a cover image when creating an event on the accessible site. The "Create an event" page now lets you upload an optional cover image (JPG, PNG, GIF or WEBP, up to 8MB), which appears at the top of the event page — matching the cover image the listing form already offered and the event page already displayed. Previously an event created from the accessible site could never have an image.

  • Connect with other members on the accessible site. A member's profile on the accessibility-first site now has a "Connect" button. You can send a connection request, see when one is pending, cancel a request you sent, accept or decline a request someone sent you, and remove an existing connection — each with a clear confirmation message. Previously connections could not be managed from the accessible site at all.

  • Vote in polls on the accessible feed. Polls in the feed on the accessibility-first site can now be voted on — pick an option and submit (no JavaScript needed). Once you've voted, or once a poll closes, you see the results, and you can't vote twice.

  • Rate an exchange after it's completed on the accessible site. Once an exchange is finished, its page now invites you to leave a star rating (1–5) and an optional comment, and shows a thank-you once you've rated. If an exchange ends up disputed (because the two members confirmed different hours), the page now explains clearly what's happening.

  • More context when requesting an exchange on the accessible site. The "Request an exchange" page now shows a fuller summary of the listing (including the time estimate and who posted it) and your current time-credit balance, so you can see what the exchange is likely to cost before you send the request.

  • Message a member and see their badges on the accessible site. A member's profile on the accessible site now has a "Send message" button (so you can start a conversation directly, not only from a listing) and shows the badges that member has earned.

  • A fuller accessible dashboard: time-bank balance, progress and upcoming events. The accessible dashboard now shows your time-credit balance (the core figure, previously missing entirely), your level, XP and progress towards the next level with a progress bar, the badges you've earned, and a list of upcoming community events — alongside the existing recent activity and quick links.

  • Communities can now upload their own header logo. A community admin can upload a custom logo (PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF or SVG, up to 2 MB) under Settings → Header Logo, and it replaces the default initials/name in the site header — on both the main app and the accessible site. You can provide a separate dark-mode version for viewers using dark themes (the main app swaps automatically; the accessible site, which has a dark header, uses the dark version when supplied), and remove either at any time to revert to the default. Uploaded SVGs are sanitised on the server so they are safe to display.

  • Communities can now set their own header colour on the accessible site. A community admin can choose the background colour of the accessibility-first site's header — and the colour of the thin line beneath it — under Settings → Accessible header colour, with a live preview. Leave it unset to keep the standard black header with the blue line; pick a brand colour (for example a council's blue) to match your community. The header text automatically switches between white and dark to stay readable on whatever colour is chosen, and if you set a background but no line colour, the line takes the background colour so two near-but-different shades never clash.

  • Change your email, password and language on the accessible site. The accessible "Profile settings" page gained a "Sign-in and security" section to change your email address (confirmed with your current password) and your password (with the same length, breach-reuse protections as the main site), plus a "Language" section to switch the interface to any of the 11 supported languages. Previously none of these could be changed from the accessible site.

  • Two-factor authentication now works on the accessible site. If your account has two-factor authentication turned on, signing in now takes you to a page to enter your authenticator code (or a backup code) instead of stopping with an unusable message. Previously two-factor sign-in was a dead end on the accessible site.

  • You can now reset a forgotten password from the accessible site. The accessible sign-in page now has a "Forgot your password?" link that takes you to a page where you can request a reset link by email, plus a "Choose a new password" page for setting it — with clear inline guidance (minimum length, breached-password and reuse checks) and a friendly message when a link has expired. Previously a locked-out member had no way to recover their account from the accessible site.

  • You can now manage volunteer applications on the accessible site. The volunteering "My applications" tab now lets you filter by status (pending, approved, declined, withdrawn), page through a longer history, and withdraw a pending application — none of which was possible before.

  • Volunteer hours breakdown and organisation logos on the accessible site. The volunteering hours page now shows your approved hours broken down by organisation and by month, and a volunteer opportunity now shows the organisation's logo.

  • Sign up for and cancel volunteer shifts on the accessible site. If your application to an opportunity has been approved, each available shift now has a "Sign up for this shift" button (and a "Cancel signup" once you're on it), all without JavaScript.

  • Record your accessibility needs for volunteering on the accessible site. A new "Manage your accessibility needs" page lets you tell organisers which categories of need apply (mobility, visual, hearing, cognitive, dietary, language, other), describe them and the adjustments that would help, and add an emergency contact — all controlled by you and removable at any time.

  • You can now load older messages in a conversation on the accessible site. Long conversations previously only showed the most recent messages with no way to reach earlier ones; there's now a "Show older messages" control that works without JavaScript.

  • You can now post a listing on the accessible site. The accessibility-first version of the platform gained a "Create a listing" page, so members can offer a skill or ask for help without switching to the main site (previously you could only browse and request exchanges). It's a clear, standard form — offer or request, title, description, category, estimated hours, how it's delivered (in person, remote, or either), location, and an optional photo — with proper inline error messages that link to the field that needs fixing, and it keeps what you typed if something needs correcting.

  • Event photos and the join-online link now show on the accessible site. Events on the accessibility-first version of the platform now display their cover photo — a thumbnail in the events list and a large cover image on the event's own page (with a proper text description for screen-reader users, and nothing shown when there's no photo). Online events now also show their "Join online" link, and shared event links preview with the event's own photo.

  • Listing photos now show on the accessible site. Listings on the accessibility-first version of the platform now display their photos — a thumbnail on each listing in the browse list, and a large cover photo plus a photo gallery on the listing's own page. Every photo has a proper text description for screen-reader users, and listings without a photo simply show no image rather than a broken one. The listing page also now shows the delivery method (in person, remote, or both), a "Featured" badge where relevant, the listing's status, any skills, and a richer "About the member" panel with the member's photo, rating, reviews and completed-exchange counts, and a link to their profile. Shared listing links now preview with the listing's own photo.

  • You can now add a profile photo on the accessible site. The accessibility-first version of the platform gained a photo upload on the Edit-your-profile page — pick a JPG, PNG, GIF or WEBP and it's automatically cropped to a neat 400×400 square, with an option to remove it again. It uses the same image pipeline (and the same size and safety checks) as the main site.

  • You can now attach a photo to a post on the accessible site. The accessible feed's "Write a post" box now takes an optional photo, with its own field to describe the image for people using a screen reader.

  • Privacy and data controls on the accessible site (GDPR). The accessible Edit-your-profile page now has a "Your data and privacy" section: choose whether to receive newsletters, request a downloadable copy of your personal data, and delete your account through a clear, password-confirmed step. These use exactly the same data-request and erasure process as the main site.

  • A full footer — and all the pages it links to — on the accessible site. The accessibility-first site now has a complete footer, organised into Platform, Support and Legal columns that mirror the links on the main site, along with the open-source licence notice and a link to the source code. Every page those links point to now exists as a clear, standard page: an About page (how it works, our values, live community statistics and credits), a Legal hub, Terms of service, Privacy policy, Cookie policy, Community guidelines and Acceptable use (showing the same community-managed wording as the main site, with a plain-English fallback when none has been published), a single Accessibility statement covering WCAG 2.2 AA, a Trust & safety page, a Help centre, a Knowledge base, and a Blog. Previously the accessible site had only a minimal footer and none of these pages.

Changed

  • The accessible version of the platform has moved from Alpha to Beta. Having been tested and rounded out, the accessibility-first site now shows a "Beta" label instead of "Alpha", and the remaining "alpha" wording has been removed.

Fixed

  • Clearer registration errors on the accessible site. When something is wrong while signing up — a mismatched password, an email that isn't accepted, a missing invite code, or unticked terms — the accessible registration form now highlights the specific field and shows the message next to it, as well as in the summary at the top, instead of only a single summary message.
  • Safer sign-out on the accessible site. Signing out is now a proper protected button rather than a plain link, so it can't be triggered unintentionally.
  • Clearer exchange and volunteering statuses on the accessible site. Status labels now always show readable text (never an internal code), and exchange statuses are colour-coded so their state is easier to scan at a glance.

Back to all releases