Accessibility
This website is run by RCVS Knowledge and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS). We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
- 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 JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver).
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:
- PDF documents may not be fully accessible to screen reader software
- some videos may not have captions
- some pages may contain minor errors such as incorrect heading hierarchy, empty headings, or broken anchor links
- some content in complex tables may be hard to understand.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
We are committed to making this website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. As a charity, RCVS Knowledge is exempt from these regulations, but we are striving to meet these regulations to make our website easy to use for as many users as possible.
Compliance status
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard (WCAG v2.1 AA), due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard
- Some embedded videos do not contain descriptive title attributes stating what the video represents in contradiction to WCAG v2.1 AA. We are evaluating a future move to an alternative 3rd party embedding tool. (Criterion 1.2.1 Audio-only and video-only (A))
- Some forms on the site make use of an anti-spam tools called reCAPTCHA that is provided by Google. This results in a form element that does not include a valid label element and as such is non-compliant with WCAG v2.1 AA. We are evaluating a future move to an alternative anti-spam mechanism (Criterion 2.5.3 Label in Name (A))
- Some pages may have a non-logical heading hierarchy that can inhibit the use of screen readers or other similar assistive technologies and that is non-compliant with WCAG v2.1 AA. These are being worked through and should be corrected over time. (Criterion 1.3.1 Info and relationships (A))
- Some pages contain complicated tables that may not be marked up in such a way that it is easy to determine the relationship between headings and values and hence are non-compliant with WCAG v2.1 AA. These are being worked through and should be improved or replaced with alternative representations over time. (Criterion 1.3.1 Info and relationships (A))
- Some pages may contain other minor errors such as empty headings or broken anchor links which are non-compliant with WCAG v2.1 AA. These are being worked through and should be corrected over time. (Criterion 1.3.1 Info and relationships (A) and Criterion 2.4.4 Link purpose (in context) (A)).
Disproportionate burden
- Keyboard navigation of the main "mega-menu" is awkward when using the Firefox browser due to an issue specific to this browser. There is no known work around to this issue that doesn't require the user to change their browser settings. As a result we have not and cannot implement a solution to this problem without redeveloping the menu and presenting it totally differently for all browsers. (Criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard (A))
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 23 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 23 September 2020.
This website was last tested in August 2020. The test was carried out in partnership between RCVS and NetXtra Ltd and included tests involving keyboard navigation and screen readers.
As part of the testing process, a set of representative sample pages was identified that contained the most commonly used page templates and components. As improvements were made these pages were re-tested using a mixture of automated and manual procedures to review the impact of the improvements.
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format, for example large print, accessible PDF etc, please email [email protected]
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We’re 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, please contact us at [email protected]