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Accessibility statement for the Scottish Funding Council

This accessibility statement applies to the website https://www.sfc.c.uk.

This website is run by the Scottish Funding Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use it and aim to comply with 'AA' level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.

For example, that means you should be able to:

  • Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard.
  • Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software.
  • Listen to most of the website content using a screen reader.
  • Zoom in and out to re-size text to suit your needs.

We also use Plain English to make the content easy to understand.

How accessible this website is

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

  • At 200% zoom and more, the dropdown menus within the hamburger menu cannot be expanded using the keyboard.
  • The carousel of images at the top of the home page cannot be paused, stopped or hidden.
  • Insufficient colour contrast on the cookie banner.

Feedback and contact information

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact: webmaster@sfc.ac.uk.

If you need information on this website in a different format, such as large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, contact us at webmaster@sfc.ac.uk. We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible and no later than 20 working days.

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

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 are 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 Scottish Funding Council 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 standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  1. At 200% zoom and more, the dropdown menus within the hamburger menu cannot be expanded using the keyboard and the dropdown menu 'Related Material' is not accessible using the keyboard. This fails WCAG success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard.
  2. The carousel of images at the top of the home page cannot be paused, stopped or hidden. This fails the WCAG success criterion 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide.
  3. White text on a teal background within the cookie banner. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum).
  4. The three radio buttons in the carousel of images in the top corner of the home page. This fails WCAG success criteria 1.3.1 Info and Relationships and WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.
  5. Links for the menu at the top of web pages. This fails WCAG success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.
  6. The keyboard tabs from the URL into the 'Log in' box. This fails WCAG 2.4.3 success criterion Focus Order.

Disproportionate burden

With regards to Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations listed above:

  • There are limitations when using the keyboard, e.g. when zooming to 200% and more and using the 'Log in' box.
  • Users are unable to pause, stop or hide the home page carousel of images.
  • The cookie banner has insufficient colour contrast.
  • Some navigation links and elements are insufficiently defined.

We have assessed the cost of fixing these issues and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations, for the following reasons:

  • Following a tender exercise in 2023, we have appointed a new supplier to redesign this website, due to be launched in January 2024. Fixes to the issues reported will be incorporated into the new site as standard.
  • Our existing supplier's lead times are currently 6-8 weeks and are unable to fix the issues on the current site until January 2024.
  • Associated costs to fix the issues on the current site are disproportionate to the minimal timescale before the current site is replaced by the new one.

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

The following 3rd party tools used on this website may not comply fully with the accessibility regulations:

  • Social media share buttons.
  • Disqus blog comments.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are currently redesigning this website and will launch the new site in January 2024. All instances of
non-compliance with the accessibility regulations will be resolved on the new site. We will continue to monitor, test the new site's accessibility in line with the accessibility regulations.

We will also aim to fix the issues listed above on the current website, subject to disproportionate burden on the basis that it will be replaced by the new site in January 2024.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 12 December 2022. It was last reviewed on 26 October 2023.

This website was last tested on 12 December 2022.

Accessibility testing of this website

We ran a series of internal accessibility tests using the axe accessibility checker for Chrome. We used the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 Checklist of 50 success criteria to test a sample of site pages which represent the range of site features.

We used the axe tool to align with the Government Digital Service (GDS), which uses it to monitor public sector bodies' compliance with regulations. The axe tools report on compliance with WAI Guidelines, with issues reported under these categories:

  • Violations.
  • Needs review.
  • Rejected.
  • Best practices.

The scope of our testing was restricted to issues marked as Violations, i.e. those that must be resolved. We are now working to resolve these issues before testing the other categories.

We also do ongoing internal reviews on content published on this website.

Additional support using this website

Using this site with your keyboard

Use the TAB key to move around the navigation menus. Use the down arrow key to open up a menu and then use the arrow keys to move around the menu's links. Open a link with the Return key.

PDF documents

This site contains a large number of downloadable PDF files which may present issues to users of earlier versions of JAWS screen reader with Adobe Reader. You should, if possible, use the latest versions of both applications.

Find out more about using the Read Out Loud feature with PDF files. This feature may only be available in Adobe PDF Reader so you should check for a similar tool if you use other PDF reading software.

Browser accessibility support

The Web Accessibility Initiatve (WAI) provides guidance on how to customise your particular browser and computer for better web browsing.