Accessibility Statement

Home Accessibility Statement

This statement applies to content published on the aace.org.uk domain. 

It is designed to be used by as many people as possible. The text should be clear and simple to understand. You should be able to:

  • zoom in up to 200% without problems
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
  • use most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

How accessible this website is:

Parts of this website may not be fully accessible. For example:

  • some pages and document attachments are not written in plain English
  • some tables may not have row headings
  • some PDF documents have poor colour contrast
  • some heading elements may not be consistent
  • some older images may not have image descriptions
  • some images and graphs may not include a detailed explanation
  • some video or audio files do not include captions or transcripts
  • some buttons are not correctly identified
  • some error messages are not clearly associated with form controls
  • many site documents are in PDF format and therefore are not perfectly accessible

Feedback and contact information:

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please either:

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

How accessible are our documents?

We want as many people as possible to be able to use those documents. For example, when we produce a document, we endeavor to:

  • provide a plain text webpage (‘HTML’) option where possible
  • tag headings and other parts of the document properly, so screen readers can understand the page structure
  • make sure we include alternative text alongside non-decorative images, so people who can’t see them can understand what they’re there for
  • avoid using tables, except when we’re presenting data
  • use plain English whenever possible

Reporting accessibility problems with this website or documents:

If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or you think we’re not meeting the accessibility requirements, contact us here.

Enforcement procedure:

If you contact us with a complaint and you’re not happy with our response contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

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’).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility:

AACE 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 2.1 AA standard. We are continually working to improve the non-accessible elements.

Non-accessible content:

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some tables in content do not have table row headers when needed. This means assistive technologies will not read the tables correctly. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).

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 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content).

Some pages have duplicate titles. This may make it difficult for users to orient themselves and find the right content. This fails WCAG 2.4.2 success criterion (Page Titled).

The change in the default written language is not correctly identified on some pages. This means screen readers will not read content correctly. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.1.2 (Language of Parts).

Translation Navigation is inconsistently named. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.2.4 (Consistent Identification).

Some pages cannot be found through more than one type of navigation. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.5 (Multiple Ways).

Some pages have inconsistently-placed language navigation. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.2.4 success criterion (Consistent Identification).

Some content looks like headings but is not. This makes it difficult for screen reader users to navigate the page. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).

Some pages have poor colour contrast. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1 (Use of Colour).

Many documents are in less accessible formats, for example PDFs.

PDFs and non-HTML documents

Many documents are not accessible in a number of ways including missing text alternatives and missing document structure.

View the accessible document policy of the organisation that published the document to report any problems or request documents in an alternative format. If more than one organisation is listed, view the accessible document policy of the first.

Disproportionate burden

We believe that fixing the accessibility problems with some content would be disproportionate because the relevant platform will be retired soon.

Applying for licences

Some of the content used to apply for some types of licence is non-accessible. For example, applying for a Temporary Events Notice:

adjacent links to the same pages mean it’s not easy to navigate using keyboard alone – this fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 (Keyboard)

Some forms controls are not detectable by screen reader software – this fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value)

Some pages may be missing a heading – this fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships)

How we tested this website:

We use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level A and level AA to test how accessible this website is.

We used the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) approach to decide on a sample of pages to test.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility:

Departments and agencies are urgently fixing content which fails to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. We will update this page when issues are fixed.

Preparation of this accessibility statement:

This statement was last reviewed and updated in December 2022.