Accessibility
Accessibility statement
This accessibility statement applies to gov.scot.
This website is run by the Scottish Government.
It is designed to be used by as many people as possible. You should be able to:
- use your web browser to change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- zoom in up to 200% without loss of information
- 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)
- access the website using a mobile or tablet.
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
How accessible this website is
We know that some parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:
- most PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
- at magnification of 200%, the menu button is not functional using the keyboard
Feedback and contact information
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: website@gov.scot with details of the problem you have encountered.
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
The Scottish Government is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
Compliance status
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 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
The following items of non-compliance were identified as part of an external audit on 23 August 2023 (see below) and will be fixed by April 2024:
- search input field uses ARIA incorrectly
- collapsed menu items invisible but available to keyboard and screen reader users
PDFs and other documents
Some document formats such as PDF, MS Word and Excel may not be fully accessible. We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.
Disproportionate burden
We are not claiming that any of our accessibility issues are disproportionate to fix.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and office file formats
The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services.
Where documents are updated and new PDF documents published, they will meet accessibility standards.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
Recent audits have identified a significant number of PDFs that do not meet accessibility guidelines.
As part of our work to improve the accessibility of this website, we are reviewing our policy on PDFs and other methods of delivering information with a view to making them as accessible as possible.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 23 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 12 February 2024.
Accessibility tests by the Government Digital Service and Cabinet Office to check against WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria were carried out on 23 August 2023.
The tools used to carry out this test were:
Type |
Software used |
Operating system |
Windows 11 Pro and iOS 16.3 on iPhone 11 |
Browser |
Chrome on PC (viewport of 1280x1024), Safari on iPhone |
Assistive technology |
NVDA screen reader |
Accessibility testing software |
Axe, WAVE, HTML Validator, Colour Contrast Analyser, Adobe Acrobat Pro |
We are currently implementing changes based on this test and will update this page with new information about the improvements we make.
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