An illustration of a computer screen with different blocks of colour

Accessibility statement for Zero Waste Scotland

This accessibility statement applies to https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk.

This website is run by Zero Waste Scotland. 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 200% 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: 
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams do not have captions
  • some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
  • some pages and document attachments are not written in simple language
  • poor colour contrast some images do not have image descriptions
  • some form controls do not have corresponding label

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 days.

If you cannot view our location on a map, call or email us for directions.

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: digitalteam@zerowastescotland.org.uk.

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

Zero Waste Scotland 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 2.1 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 images 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).

We plan to add text alternatives for all images by September 2021. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Some embedded videos do not have captions or subtitles. Captions are provided for all pre recorded audio content in synchronised media, except when the media is a media alternative for text and is clearly labeled as such. This fails WCAG 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) (Level AA), 1.2.1 Prerecorded Audio-only and Video-only (Level A), 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) (Level A), 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded) (Level A)

We plan to add captioning to all videos by December 2021. When we publish new video content we’ll make are our use of video meet accessibility standards.

Navigation and accessing information

It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.

It’s not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping.

Interactive tools and transactions

Some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag.

Our forms are built and hosted through third party software and ‘skinned’ to look like our website.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We will change this as we further develop the website with an aim to have it completed by March 2022.

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

PDFs and other documents

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. By September 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

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 or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

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

Some pages and document attachments are not written in simple language

Some of the PDFs and Word documents are not written in simple language. This is not accessible for WCAG AAA standard.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Our accessibility roadmap below shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website.

Our roadmap to greater accessibility

Zero Waste Scotland’s website is currently undergoing some amends to deliver a more inclusive online experience. Our aim is to deliver an experience that meets or exceeds the WCAG AA guidelines by the end of Q1 2022. The following is a list of planned activity and estimated delivery:

  • Redesign Non-accessible Colour Scheme: Q2 2021
  • Upload an alt-text description for each image on the website: Q3 2021
  • Video captioning added to all videos: Q4 2021
  • Missing label tags from forms on the website: Q1 2022

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 5/5/21. It was last reviewed on 5/5/21.

This website was last tested on 20th November 2020. The test was carried out by The Union Advertising Agency.

We used this approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test: we chose a range of pages for each page template so that we could cover all of the content block types.