Accessibility statement

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This accessibility statement relates to all web content on the SPICe Spotlight website located at https://spice-spotlight.scot.

SPICe Spotlight is run by the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body (SPCB).  We are committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. We are continually improving the user experience for everyone, and applying the relevant accessibility standards.

SPICe has continued to work to improve the accessibility of its output through regular training and development of staff, for example in use of alt text and there is a regular quality assurance process around ensuring accessible, descriptive links are used.  The data visualisation team has also developed and improved use of colour, contrast etc in all charts, graphs and images.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • 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
  • 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 this website is

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

  • Element Description: Lack of accurate alternative text for image description and use of incorrect or no titles for headings. Some elements have not been named. This leads to confusion about the content of the element.
  • Use of colour and styling: Lack of contrast between text and background colours and lack of efficient element outlines eg underlining and borders to allow accurate visual focus.
  • Language : Some parts of the website contains sentences that are too long; including the use of jargon and acronyms and uses language that is not fully understandable to the general audience.
  • Links: Some links do not provide an accessible name for an image which is the only content in the link.
  • Keyboard: The position of the navigation is not clear on some elements and some of the website features cannot be used with anything other than a keyboard.
  • Navigation: Some main elements appear as a descendant of a section element and the website is unable to bypass blocks of content that are repeated on multiple Web pages.

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

Get content in other formats

We will do our best to provide you with the content you need in a format that is suitable for you. Please get in touch.

  1. Email us at SPICe@parliament.scot  
  2. Describe the format you need, for example audio CD, braille, BSL or large print.
  3. Provide your name and email address.

We’ll aim to reply within 2 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

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

  1. Contact webteam@parliament.scot.
  2. Add the web address (URL) of the page the content’s on or choose the whole site.
  3. Let us know your issue.
  4. Provide your name and email address if you want a response, or leave this blank if you want to remain anonymous.

If you request a response, we’ll aim to reply within 2 working days.

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

SPCB is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Conformance status

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) defines requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. SPICe Spotlight is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 level AA, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Partially conformant means that some parts of the content do not fully conform to the accessibility standard.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some issues flagged in regards to accessibility are connected to the element description. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA Success Criteria 1.1.1, 1.2.1, 2.4.2, 2.4.6 and 4.1.2 when alternative text has been omitted.

Some links do not have an accessible name and have a focus outline which is difficult or impossible to see. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA success criterion 2.4.4 and 2.4.7.

Some parts of the website contain too much text, sentences that are too long and use jargon or acronyms, in a language that is not understandable.This fails WCAG 2.1 AA success criterion 3.2.

Some text and background colours have low contrast, failing WCAG 2.1 AA success criterion 1.3.1, 1.4.3 and 1.4.11.

There are some issues with keyboard navigation and general navigation across the website.  These fail WCAG 2.1 AA success criterion 2.4.1, 4.1.1, 2.5.1, 2.5.2, 2.5.3 and 2.5.4.

We’ll fix this issue through staff training to ensure content is compliant, and as part of the continuous-improvement strand of the new web content governance model.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

Some articles may have uploaded files in PDF format. Older PDFs documents may not meet accessibility standards. For example, they may not be structured to be accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2.

However, it passed on manual and automated tests, presenting a good level of accessibility with bookmarks, tab support, and reading order.

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

Any new PDFs we publish will meet accessibility standards.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested in March 2020. The test was carried out by accessibility Passion4Social CIC (third-party), not involved in the design and development process.

We used this approach to test:

  • Automated tests: We used 6 software tools to identify accessibility and navigation issues across the entire website;
  • The web pages with most issues were added to the manual testing;
  • Using Google Analytics, we selected the pages most accessed by the users since January 2020 and added to manual testing;
  • Manual tests: performed by three people with disabilities (blindness, global learning disabilities, and motor disabilities) and one professional web developer that run 3 simulation tools for dyslexia, low or partial vision, colour blindness, trembling movements, and keyboard navigation;

We tested the following pages:

As all pages are based on the same platform and template, they have not been tested individually but some samples have been selected from all of them.

Compatibility with browsers and assistive technology

SPICe Spotlight is designed to be compatible with the following assistive technologies:

  • JAWS
  • NVDA
  • VoiceOver
  • Android
  • BlackBerry
  • Chrome
  • Edge
  • Internet Explorer (from version 10)
  • Firefox
  • Opera
  • Safari
  • iPhone/iPad
  • Microsoft Edge

Technical specifications

Accessibility of SPICe Spotlight relies on the following technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and any assistive technologies or plugins installed on your computer:

  • HTML
  • WAI-ARIA
  • CSS
  • JavaScript

These technologies are relied upon for conformance with the accessibility standards used.

Check out the full evaluation report.

This statement was prepared on January 2020.