Accessibility

Accessibility Statement for UK Ship Register

This accessibility statement applies to https://www.ukshipregister.co.uk/

It does not apply to content on www.ukshipregister.service.mcga.gov.uk domain.

This website is run by the UK Ship Register with support from Spindogs. 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 have 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 is the website?

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

Most older PDF documents linked to Gov.uk are not fully accessible to screen reader software
Videos do not have captions
Keyboard Navigation for Sub Menus

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:

email us at UKSR.Comms@mcga.gov.uk
call us on 020 3817 2000

In your message, include:

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

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

If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, call or email us for directions.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you have any accessibility query including:

Issues with accessing information or using this website
An accessibility problem not listed on this statement
Any positive feedback about this website’s accessibility

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: UKSR.Comms@mcga.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

The UK Ship Register 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

The UKSR website is partially compliant and meets most requirements of the WCAG 2.1 AA standard.

The content in question is in scope of the regulations, but there’s an accessibility problem with it.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the follow reasons listed below.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Field set elements are not labelled with legend elements, which does not provide a label or description for the group. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.2 (Labels or Instructions)
ARIA control has no label. This means screen readers may not be able to voice the labels correctly when reading the control. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).
Some document title are blank. This means the web page has a title, but the title does not identify the contents or purpose of the web page. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 (Page Titled).
Some pages have duplicate ID. This may cause problems for assistive technologies when they are trying to interact with content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1 (Parsing)
Some pages do not provide an accessible name for an image which is the only content in the link. This means screen readers may not be able to voice what the link does. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4, 2.4.9 and 4.1.2 (Link Purpose (In Context), Link Purpose (Link Only) and Name, Role, Value).
Role and column headers in data tables are not marked up appropriately. This means assistive technologies will not read the tables correctly - Screen reader users will not be able to understand column and role relationship. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
Some pages do not have iframe and frame elements of a title attribute. This means some screen readers may read out the frame filename, which is usually meaningless. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1 (Bypass Blocks).
Decorative images are not hidden from screen readers and mages 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).
No Space between attributes. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1 (Parsing).
Some PDFs are not tagged to be accessible by screen readers. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
Quote in attribute name missing. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1 (Parsing).

Some pages have links that are not visually evident without color vision. Removing the underlines and leaving only the color difference for such links would mean no other visual indication (besides color) that it is a link, which makes it hard for color-blind users to see them. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1 (Use of Color).
Some pages have the same title, so the title cannot be used to distinguish pages. This may make it difficult for users to orient themselves and find the right content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 (Page Titled).
Some button elements are empty and has no accessible name. This means assistive technology may not be able to determine which label goes with which control. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).
The default written language on some pages are not correctly identified. This means screen readers will not read content correctly. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.1.1 (Language of Page).

Some text and background colors lack contrast. Users with low vision may find it difficult for example to read light gray text on a white background, dark gray text on a black background and white text on a red background. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum).
Some pages are missing a heading. This makes it difficult for screen reader users to navigate the page This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels)
The CSS outline or border style on some elements makes it difficult or impossible to see the dotted link focus outline. Using a border or outline style that obscures the focus ring causes problems for keyboard-only users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 (Focus Visible)

The accessibility issues have been made known to us and we endeavour to rectify these.

Disproportionate burden

Navigation and accessing information

There’s no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option).

It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.

It’s not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping.

Interactive tools and transactions

Some of our forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when the support contract is up for renewal, likely to be in 2021.

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

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have information linked to Gov.uk on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents.

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 newsletters.

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

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Here is what and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 30 October 2020.

This website was last tested on 18^th September 2020. The test and review was carried out by Spindogs,

In order to produce a statement, it’s standard practice to sample the key templates on the site alongside with the Homepage. This enabled Spindogs to identify any areas which require remediation work. The reason sample templates are used, is that, if one issue is identified on one template, it’s highly likely that this issue will be present on other templates too so a fix will go site wide.