Accessibility

This accessibility statement applies to foodstandards.gov.scot.

This website is run by Food Standards Scotland. 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.

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

• the text will not reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window
• you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
• the education interactive games are not accessible
• the campaign interactive games are not accessible
• most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
• many documents are in PDF format and are not accessible
• some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
• you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, email our Enquiries Mailbox or call 01224 285100 and tell us:

• the web address (URL) of the content
• your name and email address
• the format you need, for example, audio CD, braille, BSL or large print, accessible PDF

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 5 working days.

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

For people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment please use the Contact Scotland Service for phoning us.

If you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

You can also Contact Scotland BSL. Contact Scotland BSL is a Scottish Government service that provides telephone access for deaf BSL users throughout Scotland through an online BSL interpreting video relay service (VRS).

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, please report this using the feedback tool at the bottom of all website pages.

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).

Food Standards Scotland 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’ listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content that is not accessible is outlined below with details of:

• where it fails the success criteria
• planned dates for when issues will be fixed

Interactive games

'Crazy Kitchen’, ‘Hazards in the kitchen’ and ‘Bacteria Busters’ are not accessible and fail the following success criteria:

• the games rely on visual cues to complete. This fails success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content) and 1.3.1 (info and relationships)
• users must operate the games using only landscape desktops, this fails success criterion 1.3.4 (Orientation)
• users relies entirely on shape, colour, size and visual cues to operate the games which fails success criterion 1.3.3 (Sensory Characteristics)
• the page does not reflow which fails success criterion 1.4.10 (Reflow)
• the Voice Over and tab options are hidden from view which fails success criterion 2.1.1 (keyboard)

‘Storage Solutions’, ‘What Goes Where’, ‘Fridge Facts’, 'Allergy Meal Match' and ‘Kitchen Crimes’ are not accessible and fail the following success criteria:

• the games rely solely on visual cues. This fails success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content)
• the games are not keyboard accessible which fails success criterion 2.1 (keyboard)
• some elements of the games do not use correct semantic markup (external links / buttons) to indicate functionality which fails success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose)

These tools will be updated as part of the website refresh project due to be completed by March 2025.

YouTube videos

We have added closed captions to all of our YouTube videos. However, our current Content Management System (CMS) does not support the functionality to have closed captions on YouTube videos embedded on the website. This will be resolved when we update the CMS which is due to be completed by March 2025. Until this is completed, to make the videos more accessible we have added burnt in subtitles to new videos and have added toggleable BSL versions. 

Forms

Our interactive forms may not be accessible. For example, the alert subscriptions sign-up form and reporting a food incident form.

PDF publications

Some of the downloadable PDF documents on our website are not accessible. We aim to resolve this by March 2025 when we launch our new website. The new website will provide an improved structure for hosting accessible HTML documents.

Disproportionate burden

We do not claim disproportionate burden for any content on the Food Standards Scotland website.

PDFs and other documents published before 23 September 2018

Some documents may not be fully accessible, including some in PDF, Word and Excel formats.

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. For example, we do not plan to fix Board papers, enforcement letters and research documents.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

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

We plan to identify and fix issues according to the timescales shown for each area above.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 8 October 2020. It was last reviewed on 16 January 2024. 

This website was last tested on March 16 2020 with a full audit. The audit was carried out by Whitespace who manually reviewed each page listed below visually, using tab keys and the Mac Voice Over screen reader. The WAVE Chrome browser extension was used as a support resource, but issues raised there were verified with manual testing.

The audit was completed against WCAG 2.1.

The pages that were tested include:

• Home (includes global navigation, review and footer)
• Gateway (food safety)
• Content page with side navigation and related items (Sugar)
• Campaign page
• Education resource gateway page
• Education resource page (Bacteria Busters)
• Education resource page (Crazy kitchen)
• Campaign interactive resource
• Publications page
• Events listing page
• Search Results
• Local Authority page
• Publications search
• Full width content page

This testing was done by someone without visual, auditory, or colour impairments, and is not a replacement for testing with users who use assistive technologies in their day to day lives.