Web Accessibility Policy 

Enacted on March 31, 2022

The Kao Group is committed to ensuring that its web sites are accessible to everyone, with the goal of people-friendly communication.

Under its environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy, the Kirei Lifestyle Plan, Kao aims to achieve sustainable, fulfilling lifestyles from a consumer perspective, and is strengthening its environmentally and socially conscious initiatives. Through its web accessibility efforts, Kao will strive to enable more users to easily gain the information they need to select and use products, from a wide variety of user environments, situations and circumstances.

Furthermore, as one of the core values in the Kao Way (corporate philosophy) “Integrity as the only choice” suggests, Kao will consider and implement efforts to improve web accessibility from a long-term prospective to ensure that this will not become a one-time effort, but a continuous improvement process that never ends. 

Target 

Kao will target the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA, published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).   

Scope 

Revision will start from the following websites and gradually be expanded to other domains.

However, some web pages use third-party-provided components or contents. These components or contents will be exempt from the scope as they include uncontrollable code. 

The following is a non-exhaustive list of examples:

  • Web pages using YouTube or Brightcove video players.
  • Web pages using Google Maps. 
  • Web pages embedded with a social media feed.  

Formulation of the “Kao Web Accessibility Guidelines”

Kao has formulated an original set of guidelines targeting WCAG 2.1, Level AA, the Kao Web Accessibility Guidelines. Kao will endeavor to revise current websites in accordance with these guidelines, and also apply them to new web sites created in the future. In addition, the guidelines will be reviewed on a regular basis and updated.

Target Schedule

2022

  • Commence in-house education on the importance of web accessibility to employees and how to address it, as well as starting web site revision and new web site creation in accordance with the Kao Web Accessibility Guidelines.

2023

2024

  • Major web sites meet WCAG 2.1, Level AA quality standards. 

2025

  • All web sites run by the Kao group meet WCAG 2.1, Level AA quality standards.
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