Accessibility statement

Accessibility statement for https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk

This accessibility statement applies to crowncommercial.gov.uk. It does not cover crowncommercial.gov.uk subdomains such as service subdomains (for example our Public Procurement Gateway service). Subdomains and service subdomains have their own accessibility statement.

How you should be able to use this website

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 contrast levels, colours and font using browser or device settings
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

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

some pages and document attachments are not written in plain English
most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
some documents have not been saved in an open document format
some elements of our documents, such as spreadsheets, may use colour to convey meaning or have poor colour contrast
alternative text has not been added for all images
some tables on our upcoming agreement pages do not have row or column headers
some heading elements are not consistent
some images do not have image descriptions
some links or button text may not be descriptive or unique

Feedback and contact information

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of our website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, let us know using our contact form.

In your message, include:

the web address (URL) of the content and the issue
your email address and name

You can request a document in an accessible format from the relevant agreement webpage. Click ‘Request an accessible format’ to contact the team that published the document.

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 websites 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 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

Images on some pages do not always have suitable image descriptions. Users of assistive technologies may not have access to information conveyed in images. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content). When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.
Some tables do not have table row or column headers. This means assistive technologies will not read the tables correctly. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships). When we publish new tables we’ll make sure all new tables meet the accessibility standards.
Some documents have images or tables which use colour as the only way to convey meaning. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.1 (Use of Colour). When we publish new documents we’ll make sure all new tables and images meet the accessibility standards.
The text on some buttons and links doesn’t accurately describe what the button or link does. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels). We are planning a cross site audit of all our pages to ensure they meet our style guide and accessibility criteria. We plan for this to be rectified by July 2025.
There is no visible focus on the ‘back to top’ button on our webpages. This fails WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible. Issue has been fixed for laptop and computer devices. This is out of scope for mobile devices as the ‘back to top’ button does not appear in mobile view.
The ‘Back to top’ button cannot be accessed using the keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard. Issue has been fixed for laptop and computer devices. This is out of scope for mobile devices as the ‘back to top’ button does not appear in mobile view.
Some feedback links in our page headers have insufficient colour contrast. This fails WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum). Issue partially fixed. We are unable to fix this fail in IOS due to a known web issue.
Some elements of our website such as some radio buttons, accordion features and links do not use compliant ARIA attributes. This fails WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value. We are working with our development teams to fix this. This issue is partially fixed. We were unable to fully fix this due to a known issue described in the gov.uk design system.

Open document formats

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 February 2024 we carried out an accessibility audit of our documents. We found that 80% of our non-contractual documents pass accessibility criteria.

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.

PDF 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).

We no longer publish PDFs to our website by default. On the rare occasion when a PDF is necessary we will publish it alongside an accessible version.

If a PDF is essential to providing our services, it will be replaced with an accessible version. We aim for all essential non-contractual documents to be replaced with accessible versions by July 2025.

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

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.

PDF documents

We do not plan to replace non-essential PDFs published before 23 September 2018 as they are out of scope of accessibility regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We formed accessibility working groups with colleagues from across the organisation in 2019.

We continue to work alongside them to fix content which fails to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard. This includes updating non accessible documents and ensuring web pages and content is written in plain language.

Contractual documents are the responsibility of the policy team and they are aware of their obligation to produce accessible versions.

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 18 September 2024.

This website was last tested on 30 August 2023. The test was carried out by our internal testing team using the WAVE tool. We also did a secondary test using Axe.

Going forward we will continue testing our website on a quarterly basis using Axe accessibility tool.

The Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) also carried out a neurodiverse user testing of our website in November 2023. We have worked through the report and completed identified fixes to improve the accessibility of our website.

Accessibility statement