Website Accessibility

Accessibility statement for www.AccessibilityGuides.org

This website is run by the British Tourist Authority t/a VisitBritain/VisitEngland. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change styles using in-browser settings

  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen

  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard

  • 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.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

 

How accessible is this website?

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software

  • maps are not accessible

 

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

Please contact us on the details below should you require any content appearing on this website in a more accessible format, for example, a PDF.
More accessible formats may include: large print; easy read; audio recording and; braille.:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within ten days.

 

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact:

 

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’). Should you not be happy with how we respond to your complaint, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

VisitBritain 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.

 

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some of our interactive elements, like maps are not accessible for users with a screen reader. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-text Content.

Some of our PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards. For example, they may not be structured to be accessible for a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

When we publish any new textual or visual content, forms or documents, we will ensure accessibility standards are met.

 

Disproportionate burden

We plan to replace all our websites over the next 2-3 years. As part of that and our ongoing work on accessibility we will resolve the areas of non-compliance mentioned above. Some areas do however represent a disproportionate burden to resolve prior to the launch of our new websites.

This statement will be updated regularly with timings of fixes. If you require any material on the website in an accessible format, please contact accessibility@visitbritain.org
 

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 to be accessible for a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services and forms published as Word documents.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents which were published prior to 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

Live video

Live video streams do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live).

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

 

How we tested this website

We tested this website by using an accessibility testing tool - Monsido.

We tested our main website platform, available at https://www.accessibilityguides.org/

 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We have implemented training for relevant staff, developed documentation and checklists, and we have carried out work to implement multiple fixes in 2020. We will be developing a plan to implement other priority fixes between November 2020 and March 2021. Timings will be updated on this page.

This statement was prepared on 23rd September 2019. It was last updated on 8th September 2020.