Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to nationalarchives.gov.uk and discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. It does not include the services listed in the ‘Services not covered by this Statement’ section, which have their own Statements.

The domains covered by this Accessibility Statement are run by The National Archives.

Accessibility and inclusion are important to everyone at The National Archives and we want as many people as possible to be able to use www.nationalarchives.gov.uk. The text should be clear and easy to understand. 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 are continually working to improve the accessibility of our digital services, and to develop our skills in relevant standards and techniques. See our current development standards.

As well as working with the Digital Accessibility Centre on key journeys, most of our accessibility testing is conducted in-house using automated tools and the best professional judgment of our digital teams. We acknowledge that this approach is not perfect and recognise that we may get some things wrong, especially regarding some of our older ‘legacy’ web pages and applications and even in some of our newer applications.

How accessible is this website?

Some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

Specific non-compliances are listed below.

Feedback, contact information and reporting accessibility problems

If you need information on this website in a different format, for example accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or Braille, email webmaster@nationalarchives.gov.uk or call 020 8876 3444. We will respond to your request within 10 working days.

You can also use these contact details to report accessibility problems with this website.

If you have an accessibility need and would like to participate in user testing as we make improvements to our website, email uxresearch@nationalarchives.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 are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Contacting us or visiting in person

You can contact us by phone, email or Live chat. We provide information about visiting in person. People with health conditions or impairments that may impact their visit can find out more.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The National Archives 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 and exemptions listed below:

Non-accessible content

Based on sample testing of pages selected by our user experience and metrics teams, we know that the content listed below is non-compliant with the accessibility regulations for the following reasons:

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  1. Some images require CSS to achieve contrast with page background.
    There are several images (the site logo and social media links) that require CSS to be visible where the user has a default background colour.
    Recommended fix: replace these images with versions which have a contrasting stroke or background fill.
  2. There are problems with the footnote links on Terms of reference
    These links are very small, do not receive keyboard focus and are not are not visible when hovered over. This fails several success criteria.
    Recommended fix: use standard link pattern for these links (not superscript) and state that they are footnotes in the link text (i.e. ‘Footnote 1’)
  3. There is a table missing headers on the File List page
    The file listing on the File List page is a table that lacks headers. This is a failure of Success Criterion 1.3.1.
    Recommended fix: either replace the table with a list or use correct mark-up for the table.
  4. Contrast issues, including links that appear on a non-white background (Success Criterion 1.4.3: Contrast)
  5. Use of colour as the only visual means to convey text as a link (Success Criterion 1.4.1: Use of Colour)
  6. Heading levels not accurately representing the document outline (Success Criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships)
  7. The image viewer controls in Discovery are not fully keyboard accessible (Success Criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard)
  8. Form inputs missing labels (Success Criterion 2.4.6: Headings and Labels)
  9. Buttons missing a value (Success Criterion 3.3.2: Labels or Instructions)
  10. Duplicated ID attributes, for example different forms on the same page, having inputs that share an ID attribute (Success Criterion: 4.1.1 Parsing)
  11. Incorrect use of list attribute (Success Criterion: 4.1.1 Parsing)
  12. Images missing descriptive alt text attributes (Success Criterion 1.1.1: Non-text Content)
  13. Some pages do not describe the human language they contain (Success Criterion 3.1.1: Language of Page)
  14. Some pages have a ‘Skip to content’ link to a non-existent page fragment (Success Criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships)
  15. There are links to PDFs and other non-HTML content that do not inform the user of the file type (Success Criterion 2.4.4: Link Purpose (In Context))
  16. Some data tables contain an empty table header (Success Criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships)
  17. Incorrectly applied ARIA attributes, with ‘role=search’ being applied to an input rather than a form and aria-labelled-by being misspelt (Success Criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships)
  18. The cookie notice banner includes a link whose purpose is not clear when navigating out of context (Success Criterion 2.4.9 Link Purpose (Link Only))

Advisory Council section of our website:

  1. Some images require CSS to achieve contrast with the page background
  2. Footnote links on the Advisory Council Terms of Reference page do not receive keyboard focus and become invisible when receiving hover
  3. There is a table missing headers on the Advisory Council File List page

We have prioritised these fixes based on the number of pages affected and the popularity of the page. We are currently working to fix these issues and will update this statement to reflect progress.

Issues 1, 2, 3 and 6 from the above list have been ‘fixed to the best of our ability’.

Disproportionate burden

Not applicable.

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

  • PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018.
  • Live video.

While reproductions of items in heritage collections are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations, we are investigating ways to use emerging technology to improve the data and accessibility of our heritage collections.

Services not covered by this Statement

The following subdomains, websites and website sections are not covered by this Accessibility Statement because they are developed and maintained by third-parties: Image Library, Shop, and UK Government Web Archive.

Click on each third party link to be taken to their sites where they will have their own Accessibility Statements.

The website was tested, based on key user journeys, in 2019 by the Digital Accessibility Centre. It was tested again in-house in August 2020 using the Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE), Google Lighthouse and our best professional judgement.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on Monday 17 August 2020. It was last reviewed on Thursday 12 August 2021.