Accessibility statement

This website is run by Crown Commercial Service (CCS). 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 this website is

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

most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
some documents have not been saved in an open document format
alternative text has not been added for all of the images in the news section

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:

email info@crowncommercial.gov.uk
call 0345 410 2222

You will need to put ’accessible request’ as the subject line of your email.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in five 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: info@crowncommercial.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’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

Crown Commercial Service is committed to making its 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

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

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

Open document format

Some of our Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents are not saved in an open document format. This is particularly true for our agreement contractual documents. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role, value).

In September 2022 we carried out an accessibility audit of our documents. We found that 76% of our non-contractual documents are uploaded in open document format.

We aim to have either replaced the remaining non compliant documents by September 2024 or we will no longer need them on the website.

When we publish new non-contractual documents we will make sure they meet accessibility standards. We will continue to work with policy teams to replace contractual documents with accessible versions.

Alternative text for images

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). We plan to add text alternatives for all images by September 2024. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

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

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

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. By September 2024, we plan to either fix these or replace them with open document format versions.

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.

Update

On the rare occasion when a PDF is necessary we will publish it alongside an accessible version.

Live Video

Live video streams do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions – live).

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

How we tested this website

This website was last tested on Thursday 11 July 2023. The test was carried out by our internal testing team using the WAVE tool.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We formed accessibility working groups in 2019. We are continuing to work with them to remediate all accessibility issues on this site, and other CCS sites.

We are also preparing for the accessibility changes that will be announced with WCAG 2.2. We test our website for accessibility and fix identified issues on a quarterly basis.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23 September 2019. It was last reviewed on Friday 18 August 2023.