This statement provides information on the accessibility of new Scottish Parliament websites. It also explains how we've tested the websites and areas that we still need to work on.
This website is run by the Scottish Parliament. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
view content with easy to read fonts and good colour contrast
navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)
We've also made the website text as simple as possible to understand and explained technical terms where we've had to use them.
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this beta website are not fully accessible including:
we don't have captions on video content from the Chamber and committee meetings
some areas of the website are not keyboard accessible including the:
on-page feedback form
date picker when filtering a search
our Bill documents and amendment documents are not accessible due to the limitations of the software used to create them
links are not always giving a pre-warning when they open in a new browser window
there's a limit to how far you can magnify the size our website
What to do if you cannot access parts of this website
If you need information on this website in a more accessible format contact the Web and Online project.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We're always looking to improve the accessibility of this beta website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we're not meeting accessibility requirements, contact the Web and Online project.
Enforcement procedure
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the 'accessibility regulations'). If you're not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.
Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.
Find out how to contact us on the Beta website contact us page.
Technical information about this website's accessibility
The Scottish Parliament is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
No closed captions or audio descriptions on multimedia due to legacy content: 1.2.2 (Level A) and 1.2.5 (Level AA)
Some features on the website such as date picker and feedback form cannot be accessed using the keyboard alone and there's ongoing work to fix this issue: 2.1.1 (Level A)
More context needs to be provided for links across the website, including contact details, icons and links that open in new browser windows: 2.4.4 (Level A)
Pages on the website cannot be magnified above 100% and there's ongoing work to fix this issue: 1.4.10 (Level AA)
Disproportionate burden
Closed captions and audio description on video content for all Chamber and committee meetings fails 1.2.2 (Level A) and 1.2.5 (Level AA). Due to the scale of legacy video content from Parliamentary business, this is not something that we will be able to solve in the short-term. We're currently looking at options to fix this for our business video content.
Legislation documents and amendment PDF documents (not included under WCAG 2.1 criteria). Due to the legacy system where the Bill documents and amendments are created, this is not something that we can solve in the short-term.
Content that's not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they're accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish, that are not Bill or amendment documents, will meet accessibility standards.
How we tested this website
We commissioned an external specialist partner between December 2018 and January 2019 to do a full accessibility audit of our website. The audit was carried out using:
automated tools such as WAVE
going through content manually with screen readers for example Jaws and NVDA
testing with screen magnification software, for example ZoomText
using colour contrast tools across the website
We made changes based on the recommendations where we could and some of these changes are part of our improvement plan.
We tested:
our beta website platform, available at https://beta.parliament.scot
our Festival of Politics microsite, available at https://www.festivalofpolitics.scot
What we're doing to improve accessibility
We're currently testing the website every 2-3 weeks and are keen to continuously improve the accessibility of the website. Please get in touch with our Web and Online project if you're interested in being involved in one of these informal research sessions.
This statement was prepared on 16 September 2019.