GSS > Accessibility statement for the Government Statistical Service website

Accessibility statement for the Government Statistical Service website

This accessibility statement applies to the Government Statistical Service website (https://gss.civilservice.gov.uk). The website is managed by a team within the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

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 screen reader software

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

How accessible the website is

We know some parts of the GSS website are not fully accessible:

  • some tables do not have row headers
  • the file names of some downloadable files are not easy to read or understand
  • some headings elements are not consistent
  • some pages and document attachments are not clearly written
  • some documents are not accessible

How to request content in an accessible format

If you need information from the GSS website in a different format please email gssnet@statistics.gov.uk and tell us:

  • the web address (URL) of the content
  • your name and email address
  • the format you need, for example audio, braille or large print

We will consider your request and get back to you within 5 working days.

Technical information about the website’s accessibility

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

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or you think we’re not meeting the accessibility requirements, please email gssnet@statistics.gov.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 contact us with a complaint and you’re not happy with our response contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Compliance status of the website

The GSS website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard due to the following non-compliances and exemptions.

Non-accessible content on the website

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some filename downloads cannot be easily read or understood. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criteria 3.1 (readable) and 3.2 (predictable). We plan to resolve this by 31 October 2020.

Some old non-accessible documents have been removed from web pages but may still live in our media library. We are currently removing these documents so that do not come up in any search engine results. We plan to resolve this by 31 October 2020.

Some of the headings may be tagged incorrectly. This fails success criterion 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels). We are currently addressing these and plan to resolve them all by 31 October 2020.

We are currently working on simplifying the language across the site. Some pages do not use plain English. This fails success criterion 3.1.5 (Reading Level). We plan to resolve them by 31 March 2021.

We have updated a lot of acronyms to make sure they are expanded in first use on a page. There are still some acronyms that have not been expanded in full. This fails success criterion 3.1.4 (Abbreviations). We plan to fix these by 31 October 2020.

Some tables do not have sufficient table row headers. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1: (Info and Relationships). This is due to a limitation with our table building tool. We plan to resolve this by 31 March 2021.

Our ratings component within our policy and guidance section has colour contrast issues and does not work properly with assistive technology. This fails success criterion 1.4.11 (Non-text Contrast), 2.1.1 (Keyboard) and 2.4.7 (Focus Visible). We plan to resolve this by 31 October 2020.

Disproportionate burden

We have a number of Power BI dashboards which are non-accessible. Power BI is a third-party product which can be made accessible but we do not have the resources to manage this. We are currently developing alternative HTML versions. The alternative versions will be available by 31 October 2020.

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

Older PDFs and other documents

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. For example, we do not plan to fix International collaboration guidance.

Any new or updated documents that we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Third party content

We have some documents on our website that were produced by a third party. We do not have any control over these documents, so we will not be able to fix any of them. For example, we will not be fixing the presentations for the Open data, HTML and interactive dashboard webinar.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

We plan to fix issues for the GSS website according to the timescales shown for each area above. We are also working with other GSS departments to make accessibility central to the way we create content and documents.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 18 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 23 September 2020.
The GSS website was last tested on 1 September 2020. The test was carried out by The Dextrous Web Ltd (trading as DXW).

DXW carried out automated and manual testing using assistive technology, different web browsers and mobile devices using a sample of pages that represented the most commonly occurring page types.