Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to mygov.scot.

This website is run by the Scottish Government. It is designed to be used by as many people as possible. You should be able to:

• use your web browser to change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• zoom in up to 300% without loss of information
• navigate the website using just a keyboard
• navigate the website using speech recognition software
• listen to the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)
• access the website using a mobile or tablet

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

Feedback and contact information

We want to find ways to improve the accessibility of this website.

If you find any problems or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, email contentupdates@gov.scot with details.

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

The Scottish Government is committed to making this 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 (WCAG) version 2.2 A and AA success criteria. The non-compliances are listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Some document formats such as PDF, MS Word and Excel may not be fully accessible. We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

This fails WCAG success criteria:

• 1.1.1 (non-text content)
• 1.3.1 (info and relationships)
• 1.3.2 (meaningful sequence)
• 1.4.3 (contrast (minimum))
• 2.4.5 (multiple ways)

Conditional reveal components

‘Conditional reveal’ components, where selecting a radio option in a form reveals more fields, do not communicate whether they are open or closed to screen readers.

This fails WCAG success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role, value).

Accordion headings

Some accordion header levels are inconsistent. For example, an h3 header follows an h1 header on some step-by-steps. 

This fails WCAG success criterion 1.3.1 (info and relationships).

Page title tags

Some title tags do not have sufficient context. For example, the title of the checker will not be read out by a screen reader when you navigate to any page of the checker. Checker pages ask you a series of questions before presenting a tailored answer.

In some cases, the page title tag does not change as you move through pages of the same form.

This fails WCAG success criterion 2.4.2 (page titled).

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

As part of our work to improve the accessibility of this website, we are reviewing our policy on PDFs and other methods of delivering information with a view to making them as accessible as possible.

We will implement any changes required to ensure that this website is fully compliant with the WCAG version 2.2 AA standard.

We also plan to phase out the use of conditional reveal on this website.

This site uses the Scottish Government Design System which has accessible styles, components and patterns.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 19 April 2024. It was last reviewed on 28 November 2024.

The website was last tested on 15 April 2024 by the Digital Accessibility Team in the Scottish Government.

The accessibility team ran an automated test across the site, to detect compliance with WCAG 2.2 (AA). The automated tests were completed using the latest version of Axe.

Following an accessibility report from the Cabinet Office on 21 August 2024, we have updated the statement to reflect further non-compliances that were identified. We are currently implementing changes based on this report and will update this page with new information about the improvements we make.