Policies
Privacy, terms, accessibility, cookies
Written to be read. If anything here is unclear, that is a fault in the document and we would like to know: info@stento.info.
01
Privacy policy
Last updated 1 April 2026 · applies to stento.info and to Institute recordsStento is a registered Canadian charity and handles personal information under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and Nova Scotia privacy legislation. We hold two very different kinds of personal information and treat them differently.
Information you give us through this website
The contact form collects your name, email address, organization and phone number where you supply them, along with the message itself. We use this only to answer you and to keep a record of the enquiry. Bulletin subscriptions store an email address and the date consent was given. Nothing from this website is sold, rented, or shared with advertisers, and we run no advertising or behavioural tracking of any kind.
Information in the collections
Recordings, transcripts and catalogue records contain personal information about narrators and about people they mention. This material is held for archival and research purposes in the public interest. Access is governed by the consent the narrator gave and recorded on a release form, not by our preference. Narrators, or the family contact they designated, may change an access level, correct a catalogue record, or request that a recording be closed, at any time and without giving a reason.
How long we keep things
Enquiry correspondence is kept for three years. Membership and donation records are kept for seven years, as charity reporting requires. Deposit agreements and consent forms are kept permanently, because they are the evidence of what a person permitted. Bulletin subscriptions are kept until you unsubscribe.
Who else sees it
Our email and file storage are provided by Canadian-hosted services under contract, and bulletin delivery uses a mailing provider that processes only your email address. Web fonts on this site are loaded from Google Fonts, which means your browser makes a request to Google's servers to fetch them. We do not use analytics, advertising pixels or social media tracking.
Your rights
You may ask what personal information we hold about you, ask for corrections, withdraw consent, or ask us to delete anything we are not legally required to keep. Write to info@stento.info or to the Director at 2158 Gottingen Street, Suite 300, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3K 3B4. We reply within thirty days. If our answer does not satisfy you, you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
02
Terms of use
Last updated 1 April 2026By using stento.info you accept these terms. They cover the website. Deposits, lab work, commissions and memberships are each governed by their own signed agreement, which takes precedence over anything written here.
What the site is for
The website describes the Institute's holdings, services and programmes. Catalogue descriptions, rates, dates and holdings figures are published in good faith and reviewed monthly, but may change. Rates shown are in Canadian dollars, exclude applicable taxes, and are confirmed in a written estimate before any work begins. A page on this site is not a contract.
Using our published material
Our standards documents, release forms and metadata templates are released for reuse and adaptation with attribution to Stento. Website text, illustrations and the Stento name and mark remain ours; please ask before reproducing them.
Using material from the collections
Recordings and transcripts are subject to the access level set by the narrator and, separately, to copyright, which usually rests with the narrator and the interviewer rather than with us. Quotation from open material is permitted with citation of the catalogue number. Broadcast, exhibition and commercial use require written permission, requested through the contact form. Nothing on this website transfers any right in a recording.
Limits
We take reasonable care but do not warrant that the site is uninterrupted or error-free, and we are not liable for loss arising from reliance on information here where a written estimate, agreement or catalogue record says otherwise. External links are provided for convenience; we are not responsible for other people's websites. These terms are governed by the laws of Nova Scotia and the federal laws of Canada that apply there.
03
Accessibility
Last updated 1 April 2026 · target: WCAG 2.1 Level AAAn archive of voices is worth very little if part of the public cannot reach it. We work toward WCAG 2.1 Level AA on this website and toward the standards set under the Nova Scotia Accessibility Act in the building.
On this website
- Semantic structure with landmarks, headings in order, and a skip link on every page
- Full keyboard operation, with a visible focus outline that meets contrast requirements
- Text and interface colours tested against the AA contrast ratios; nothing is conveyed by colour alone
- Text resizes to 200% without loss of content, and the layout reflows to a single column
- Forms with real labels, described errors, and status messages announced to screen readers
- Illustrations carry titles and descriptions; motion is suppressed when your system requests reduced motion
In the listening room
- Step-free entrance from Gottingen Street and an accessible washroom on the same floor
- Two of four listening stations with hearing loop and a synchronised transcript display
- Adjustable text size and contrast at every station; adjustable-height desks at two
- Checked transcripts for about 61 per cent of holdings, with unchecked machine drafts clearly marked for the rest
- Quiet appointment slots, longer sessions and staff assistance available on request
Known gaps we are working on
Older PDF publications from before 2019 are not fully tagged for screen readers; we are remediating them in order of use and will supply an accessible version of any of them on request within five working days. Machine-drafted transcripts contain errors, particularly with dialect and with Gaelic and Mi'kmaw terms.
Tell us
If something here blocks you, email info@stento.info or call (902) 555-0187 with the page or the task. We acknowledge within two working days, give a fix date, and provide the information another way in the meantime.