Accessibility

Accessibility statement for the Scottish Enterprise website

We want to make our services accessible to everyone who could benefit from them, irrespective of any disability they may have.

Scottish Enterprise are committed to making this 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 Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the issues listed on this page.

This statement was prepared on 24 April 2020. It was last reviewed on 24 April 2023.

How we approach accessibility

We regularly test our websites with disabled users to identify and address any issues. We have an in-house accessibility lab and testing team, who test new features and changes to the site for accessibility issues. This website was last tested in April 2023. The test was carried out by our internal test team.

As well as aiming to build our website in a way that’s easy for all users to use and navigate, we’re also working towards making the language we use as simple as possible to understand by using plain English principles.

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

Accessibility problems we’ve found

During testing of our website, we’ve found the following problems, which we’ll aim to fix by November 2023. Once we’ve fixed a problem, we’ll remove it from this list.

The navigation menu:

• On mobile the main navigation menu can’t be expanded using the keyboard 
• The close button on sub menus of the main menu is not keyboard accessible. 
• On mobile hidden navigation sections can still be accessed by the keyboard despite not being brought into focus. 
• When the navigation menu is open on mobile, users can still cycle into background elements on the page outside the menu, until the user closes it or navigates to a new page from the menu. This can cause problems for users navigating by keyboard or using assistive technology 

• The navigation menu becomes completely unusable at 200% zoom on mobile and desktop 
• On some mobile devices the expanded navigation menu can be larger than the available screen size, with no way to scroll to off screen links 
• The navigation menu button doesn’t report its state to screen-readers. This is because the aria-expanded attribute is applied to the buttons parent element rather than the button 
• The fly-out styles, especially the horizontal, may cause issue to those sensitive to motion. 

Search  

• The search landmark is set to the search input field, but it should cover the search feature as a whole. 
• The tab order for search components changes between mobile and desktop views despite the order of the components remaining the same 
• When search is closed via the close button, keyboard focus is lost. It should be set to the open search button. 
• The search button always says “view search”. When search is expanded this should change to “submit search”. 

Footer  

• Scottish Enterprise logo has no link text 

Homepage  

• There is a key section of the page without a header 2 explaining its purpose. This means the page jumps from a H1 to a H3 
• ‘Sign up to email updates’ should be marked up as a header 2. For users with assistive technology, this panel will be interpreted as sitting within the ‘Not sure how we can help?’ H2. 

General  

• There are navigation landmarks used throughout the site, which don’t have an aria label explaining their purpose. 
• Podcasts and videos are missing text transcripts
• Code on some of our pages means some text (such as headers or links) will be repeated or missed by assistive technology
• Some of our pages organise content into separate ‘tabs’. Due to some issues with the ways this tab component is built and labelled, assistive technology may struggle to understand what the component is and it may be difficult to navigate through it
• Some pop-ups across the site may not be detected by assistive technology and may be difficult to interact with
• Some of our videos use auto-generated captions and therefore are not always accurate
• The table on our cookies policy page doesn’t use the correct header tags
• Our accordion component doesn’t let assistive technology know how many accordions are in a list
• There’s no link to the sitemap in the footer section
• Some elements on some pages don’t appear in the same order visually as they do for screen readers
• To access our live chat tool using a keyboard, you need to tab through all other links on the page first

Visual problems:

• On some browsers, the visual indicator we use to show which element is in focus is not very clear and may be easy to miss
• In our service finder component, a submission error is only indicated through a visual change of colour without any explanatory text, and no explanation is given to assistive technology

Problems with links:

• When opening some links, assistive technology does not notify the user that a new window has opened
• Links in the footer are not grouped together by a nav tag, meaning it may be difficult for assistive technology to locate or skip past them

Net Zero Accelerator tool

We've been made aware of blocking issues when assistive technology users attempt to use the Net Zero Accelerator tool found within our sustainability support section.

We're currently putting the tool through a thorough accessibility audit so we can create a prioritised list of issues. We'll then fix these issues in order of priority, with blocking issues fixed first. We expect to complete the audit and blocking fixes by early 2023.

Further details of known issues and fix dates will be added to this page once the audit is complete. If you have any questions, please contact us using the links below.

How we’re addressing accessibility issues

We’re in the process of redesigning and rebuilding some of the components on our website. Many of the issues described on this page will be resolved when these new components are introduced. Remaining issues will be fixed as part of the normal maintenance of the website.

We aim to fix the accessibility issues highlighted on this page by November 2023.

What to do if you cannot 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, you can contact us using these contact details:

• enquiries@scotent.co.uk
• 0300 013 3385 (calls charged at local rates)
• 0141 846 0200 from mobile phones or if outside Scotland

Or you can submit an enquiry using our enquiry form.

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.

Reporting a problem

You can use the same contact details to report an accessibility problem on this website.

If you've contacted us regarding accessibility and are still dissatisfied with our decision or the way we dealt with your complaint, you can ask the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) to look at it.

The SPSO cannot normally look at:

• A complaint that has not completed our complaints procedure (so please make sure it has done so, before contacting the SPSO)
• Events that happened, or that you became aware of, more than a year ago
• A matter that has been or is being considered in court

Contact the SPSO

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).