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Accessibility Statement

We want everyone who visits the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and Judicial Committee of the Privy Council websites to feel welcome, find the information they need and have a rewarding experience.

We are committed to making sure that our websites and other digital products are accessible to all users and comply with level AA of The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines – WCAG 2.1. in alignment with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This statement applies to the following websites:

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

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts using in-browser settings
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We have also made the websites’ text as simple as possible to understand, whilst at the same time retaining recognised legal terms.

AbilityNet [link to https://mcmw.abilitynet.org.uk/] has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible are these websites?

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

  • the text will not reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window
  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • most PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams do not have captions
  • some elements on the pages may not meet colour contrast standards
  • some of the tables and graphs are structured in a way that is difficult to read on a screen reader
  • our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
  • you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader

Feedback and contact information
If you need information on these websites 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 working days.

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:

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) [link to https://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/].

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

The Supreme Court building has audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Technical information about these websites’ accessibility

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

Compliance status

These websites are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:

  • 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).
  • The use of custom elements, which had not been coded in a way that incorporates the use of assistive technology, currently prevent screen reader users from accessing some parts of the website.
  • Some web pages are difficult to navigate using a keyboard or voice activation software.
  • Colour contrast in some areas in insufficient, including navigational elements and form fields, affecting users with low vision and colour deficiency.

We plan to improve accessibility on these websites, within the limits of the legacy technology and available resources and are developing an accessibility roadmap that will detail what we plan to do, how and when.

 

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.

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. For example, we do not plan to fix all previous judgment documents.

We are working to make any new PDFs or Word documents that we publish accessible.

Live video

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

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are making ongoing changes to improve the accessibility of this site. Particular areas we will focus on are:

  • Producing accessible PDF documents or publishing in HTML wherever possible.
  • On frequently visited landing pages, how the website responds to the screen size so that the content and data can be easily viewed on different devices.
  • Addressing heading structures across the website to aid with navigation for screen reader users.
  • Adding a skiplink to ensure screen reader and non-mouse users can navigate to the main content.
  • Making title tags unique to help provide context to users
  • Ensuring all images have an alt tag for screen reader users.
  • Addressing text spacing needs for users with visual/cognitive impairments
  • Adding a lang attribute to ensure that screen readers can read content correctly
  • Providing an alternate version of our interactive gallery to ensure non-mouse users can access the content
  • Preventing from slideshows automatically playing to help users using screen readers
  • Labelling forms correctly to assist screen reader users
  • Added a visible focus for keyboard users to navigate the website more easily
  • Addressing aria labels so screen reader users understand when content has adjusted on screen
  • Adding titles to links for screen reader users and ensuring linked text adds context to users
  • Titling iframes for screen reader users to assist the experience of screen reader users
  • Ensuring links are displayed and formatted correctly
  • Addressing colour contrasts that do not pass accessibility tests

Please be aware that while we have made and continue to make these changes across our websites collectively, we are not able to complete all improvements on each individual site.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23 September 2020. This website was last tested in September 2020. The test was carried out by the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) to carry out a WCAG 2.1 AA level technical compliance audit (completed 15 September 2020). This process included extensive testing by users with a wide range of disabilities.