Accessibility Statement

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is committed to making its digital estate accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This accessibility statement applies to The Engine Shed https://www.engineshed.scot/.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information found within the website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

email digital@hes.scot
call us on 0131 668 8994

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of the website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, contact the digital team:

email digital@hes.scot
call us on 0131 668 8994

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission 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).

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Images

Some images are used as decoration on the websites and should be marked as such but this is not always the case on the website. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 A-level success criterion 1.1.1 Non-text content: decoration, formatting, invisible.

Colours

The colours on the blog area have some repeated contrast issues that are programmatical. They have been logged with our developers and are scheduled to be amended in early 2024. The related WCAG 2.2 success criterion is 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum).

Buttons

Some buttons that are visual cues to start a search of data are poorly labelled for users of assistive technology. We are working to fix these components with our developer and will implement a solution in early 2024. The related WCAG 2.2 failure is success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.

Keyboard only users

There are some interactive areas of the website which filter content by date. Where there are date pickers, these are currently unavailable to keyboard only users and assistive technology. This fails against WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard.

Videos

Some of our videos (including videos provided through third party distributors like YouTube) currently lack audio description options. YouTube’s recent announcement to enable audio description channels into their embedded media player will enable us to change our production process to include audio descriptions where necessary in future videos. The related WCAG 2.2 success criterion is 1.2.5 Audio Description (Pre-recorded).

Headings

Although rare, some pages on the website have a poor hierarchy/ordering of headings or occasionally skip a heading level. This means that the content structure is not always logical for assistive technology users. We regularly scan the website for this type of authoring error and fix these issues upon detection. If the errors are programmatical, we will raise these with our developers to fix upon the next development cycle. The above failures relate to WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships and 1.3.2 Meaningful sequence.

Social media buttons

The buttons that are used to link to our social media channels are not adequately labelled and could be improved upon. The WCAG 2.2 success criteria failed is 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.

Disproportionate burden

We are not claiming that any of our accessibility issues are disproportionate to fix.

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

PDFs and other documents

Some of our older office file format documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDFs) were published before 23 September 2018 and are not used for administrative or essential purposes and so may be inaccessible. Due to their age and non-essential status, they are exempt under Regulation 4(2)(a) of the accessibility regulations.

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

Pre-recorded video (created before 23 September 2020)

Our videos created before 23 September 2020 might not have complete or accurate closed captions, alternative text, audio descriptions or transcripts that describe the events and content of the video in text format. We don’t plan to add these alternatives because pre-recorded video from before 23 September 2020 are exempt under Regulation 4(2)(b) of the accessibility regulations.

Third party content and technologies

Some types of content and technology used on these websites are provided by third party distributors (like YouTube or social media sites). We have not paid for, developed, nor controlled these services at any time; therefore, we are not liable for their accessibility compliance under Regulation 4(2)(e) of the accessibility regulations.

How we tested the websites

The Engine Shed was tested by following the Government’s Simplified Audit method.

The web pages tested against contained web components that are replicated across the website, our common templates and our most visited pages and travelled routes.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We’ll continue to update and audit our accessibility on an annual basis to ensure we work toward fully meeting single A and double AA standards.

We are always looking to improve our accessibility services and view accessibility as an ethical and professional obligation. Our team undergo regular training to improve and learn the latest best practice in digital accessibility.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was initially prepared on 11 November 2019. It was last reviewed and updated on 20 December 2023. It will be reviewed on 20 December 2024. The website was last tested on 15 November 2023.

The self-assessment test was carried out by the Digital Accessibility Lead at Historic Environment Scotland.