Accessibility

Scottish Enterprise is committed to making its services accessible to everyone who could benefit from them, irrespective of any disability they may have.

Our standards

This website is delivered by Scottish Enterprise (SE), the Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), Scottish Funding Council, CivTech and Innovate UK. 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 is this website? 

We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible, we are working to resolve these issues. A list of know issues can be found under the ‘non-accessible content’ section of this page. 

What to do if you can’t access parts of this website

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

  • Email enquiries@scotent.co.uk
  • Call 0300 013 3385 - calls charged at local rates
  • Call 0141 846 0200 - from mobile phones or if outside Scotland 
  • If you're deaf or hearing impaired you can use your textphone to contact us through Relay UK, or you can search for Relay UK on the App Store for iPhone or iPad and at Google Play for Android

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit, we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 2 working days.

Reporting a problem

Reporting accessibility problems with this website 

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

Scottish Enterprise (SE), the Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), Scottish Funding Council, CivTech and Innovate UK are committed to making the OpenInnovation.scot 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

Actions listed below will be taken to make non-accessible content accessible by March 2021. 

Web developer actions 

All pages 

The website is using static font sizes, meaning a user cannot increase the size of fonts on the page, via browser settings. 

  • We will switch all fonts from px, to em, allowing them to scale.  

The cookie notice header type, is too low for its purpose.  

  • Will we increase the type of the header from a header 4 to a header 2.  

The cookie notice “find out more” link, does not provide enough contextual information to explain its purpose when processed by assistive techs in isolation from its paragraph text. 

  • We will update the paragraphs content, to change the “find out more” link text to “find out more about cookies”, without breaking the readability of the paragraph text.  

The main navigation links colour contrast is not enough when in keyboard focus.  

  • We will copy the accessible on hover style over to be the same as the keyboard focus style for main navigation links.  

Content pages link styles do not provide enough colour difference from the main text colour. 

  • We will improve the difference in colour between main text and links.  

Homepage  

The jump link on the main hero panel has a couple of accessibility issues: 

  • We will apply of hover style to the link.  
  • We will change the link text from “Scroll to first element” to “Scroll to next section”. 

Content editor actions 

Readability 

Pages do not meet standards in terms of readability according to Siteimprove’s Automated Readability Index (ARI) 

We will focus on the pages that return an ARI score of 11 and higher (15 years+) as best practice guidance. 

  • To keep content short and to the point  
  • Provide users with bulleted lists, number lists or summary sections for easier scanning 
  • Use meaningful subheadings 
  • Avoid exaggerations and corporate marketing 
  • Avoid polysyllabic words 
  • Avoid tables 

Alt text on images 

Some images don’t have a text alternative, so the information in them isn’t available to people using a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). 

We plan to add text alternatives to images that add value to the narrative. If images are for decorative purposes only, we will add alt=”” so screen readers can skip image. We will make these changes for all images by September 2020. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards. 

Video captions 

Video captions/subtitles may not be fully accessible. 

We will ensure all new videos are captioned and have transcripts either embedded on the video or within the body copy. 

Navigation and accessing information 

There’s no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option). This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1 (bypass blocks). 

It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.4 (orientation). 

It’s not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4 (resize text). 

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. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (information and relationships). 

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when the supplier contract is up for renewal in 2020. 

How we tested this website

This website was last tested on 19-23 August 2019. The test was carried out by SE Digital QA Team. 

We tested our main website platform, available at https://www.openinnovation.scot/  

This statement was last updated on 25 September 2019.