Our website accessibility statement

We want as many people as possible to be able to use our websites – this means you should be able to:

• zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• use most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

Keeping our website accessible

We continuously scan our website for accessibility issues and fix issues when we are able.

We use a service called Silktide that scans our website for any accessibility issues.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Our websites are partially compliant with the web content accessibility guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

• Some of our historic pdf files are not accessible. Accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018. Please fill in a website feedback form if you cannot access a pdf on our website and we will do what we can to provide you with an accessible version,.
• We now work to limit the publication of pdfs where possible and instead publish all website content as web pages.
• Some pdfs hosted on our website are owned by third parties and some do not meet accessibility standards. The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix content that is owned by third parties.
• Some embedded maps have been flagged as images that do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). Unfortunately, while we have investigated possible fixes, as this is a third-party product we have no control over this.

Give us your feedback

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability. We also follow AbilityNet’s guidance.

If you are unhappy with the accessibility of our websites, please fill in a website feedback form so we can work to put it right and we will do all we can to make improvements.

If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) and we will work with them to put fixes in place.