Accessibility

Accessibility statement for the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC).

This accessibility statement applies to SSSC.uk.com.

This website is run by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC). We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to do the following.

The content is not restricted to a single display orientation.
Colour is not the only visual means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element.
Text can be resized beyond 200% without loss of content or functionality.
Content will reflow when the site is zoomed up to 400% without spilling off the screen.
No loss of content or functionality occurs when text spacing is changed by the user, this includes line height, spaces following paragraphs, letter spacing, and word spacing.
The site is navigable using a keyboard, there are no keyboard traps present, and pages are in a logical order.
A mechanism is present to bypass blocks of content that is repeated on multiple web pages.
Web pages have titles, headings, and labels that describe their topic or purpose.
The purposes of each link can be determined by the user.
There is a consistent navigation throughout the site and there are multiple ways to navigate the site.
Mouse pointers do not make a selection until the mouse button is released, allowing for the user to cancel their selection by dragging away from the element before releasing the mouse button.
No changes of context are initiated on the page when a component receives focus or on input.
Components that have the same functionality within a set of webpages are identified consistently.
Error identification is available and is conveyed to the user with text and with colour as well as suggestions to fix the errors.
The name, role and value of user interface components and status messages have been programmed into the site to assist with the use of accessibility devices.
Most of the site can be listened to using a screen reader (this was tested using Pericles: Text to Speech Screen Reader, Read Aloud: A Text to Speech Voice Reader, Chrome Screen Reader (ChromeVox), and NVDA).

We’ve also written the website text in plain English to make it as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible is our website?

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible.

Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
Some sections of the site have not been labelled in the source code in accordance to semantic HTML5 specifications, this means that some assistive technologies may struggle to find landmarks on some of the pages.
Links within the main navigation menu are not accessible using the keyboard.
Magnified content across the webpage is cut off and not fully visible for users.
Some elements have poor colour contrast.
Text links currently rely on colour to distinguish them from surrounding text.
Some elements do not have descriptive text or an accessible name.
Some error messages are being read incorrectly by the screen reader.
There is currently no mechanism to dismiss some menus without moving the mouse pointer, dismissing menus is often done using the escape key.
The keyboard focus indicator is not always visible when tabbing through pages, this varies between browser.
Some text input fields throughout the site do not appear to have accessible names.
Some form buttons do not have a descriptive value.
There are some parsing errors in the site’s code that could cause issues with some devices and accessibility aids.
The magnification allowed on the map on our Contact us page is controlled by Google Maps and not by the SSSC.

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 email communications@sssc.uk.com. We’ll consider your request and get back to you within five working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

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, please email communications@sssc.uk.com.

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).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

Currently we do not provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired, or have a speech impediment.

For your convenience our offices have both fixed and portable audio induction loops.

BSL users can contact us via contactSCOTLAND-BSL, the online British Sign Language interpreting service. If you are visiting our office and require British Sign Language interpreting, please email communications@sssc.uk.com to arrange this.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The SSSC 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 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Disproportionate burden

Guideline 1.1.1 Non-text Content: (Level A)

Some form buttons do not have a descriptive value.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing this issue and we believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We are currently carrying out a research and scoping project to inform the planned redevelopment of our website during 2024-25. We anticipate publishing an updated website by the end of March 2025.

Guideline 1.3.1 Info and Relationships: (Level A)

There are large sections of the site that are not using semantic HTML5 and are using non-semantic HTML incorrectly.

Guideline 1.3.3 Sensory Characteristics: (Level A)

The error messages on the site work well for sighted users, however for people that are using a screen reader to access the site issues were found with some of error messages on the site.

Guideline 1.4.1 Use of Color (Level A)

Hyper text links across the site rely on colour to distinguish them from surrounding text.

Guideline 1.4.10 Reflow: (Level AA)

When accessing the secondary and tertiary menu items, there is no way to dismiss the content without moving the mouse or keyboard focus.

Guideline 1.4.13 Content on Hover or Focus: (Level AA)

The menus on the site fail due to them not being dismissible when they are focused on without navigating off them.

Guideline 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum): (Level AA)

Certain site elements have. poor colour contrast, including the 'Search this site' placeholder text within the search bar.

Guideline 1.4.4 Resize Text: (Level AA)

At 200% magnification, content across the site is cut off and not fully visible for users.

Guideline 2.1.1 Keyboard: (Level A)

Secondary and tertiary inks within the main navigation menu are not accessible using the keyboard.

Guideline 2.4.3 Focus Order: (Level A)

At 200% magnification, logical navigation using a keyboard is impiared.

Guideline 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context): (Level A)

Some elements do not have descriptive text or an accessible name.

Guideline 2.4.7 Focus Visible: (Level AA)

The keyboard focus indicator is not always visible. The extent of this varies from browser to browser, that is, Chrome’s focus is clearer than it is on Firefox but neither are particularly clear.

The focus indicator for the main navigation menu appears to not be working correctly as it is showing focus on pages other than what is active.

Guideline 2.5.3 Label in Name: (Level A)

There are input fields throughout the site that do not appear to have accessible names or the accessible names do not match the name that is presented visually.

Guideline 3.1.1 Language of Page: (Level A)

The whole website is set to en-US, this needs to be set to the correct code of en-GB (English-Great Britain). This is a failing of the content management system (CMS) we use that defaults incorrectly to en-US and currently has no provision to accommodate the correct en-GB as dictated in the ISO 639-1 language and the accompanying Country codes as recommended by W3C, the organisation that defines the standards for the World Wide Web.

Guideline 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value: (Level A)

Some elements do not have descriptive text or an accessible name, including the magnifying glass icon in the search bar.

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

Guideline 1.2.5 Audio Description (Pre-recorded): (Level AA)

There are no audio descriptions available for the videos on the site. Under the Gov.uk guidance Understanding accessibility requirements for public sector bodies lists audio and video published before 23 September 2020 as something that might not need to be fixed.

We will endeavour to make any new video content compliant in the future.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22 June 2021. It was last reviewed on 12 January 2024.

This website was last tested on 09 November 2023.

The pages of the site were tested with the W3C Mark-up Validator Service and the browser plugins WebAIM and Wave.

Other websites by the SSSC

The SSSC has created a number of other websites that provide specific services for learning and statistic reporting.

Workforce Data

As an Official Statistics provider, The SSSC publishes data on the social service workforce in Scotland.

Learning Zone

Develop your skills with resources you can use on your computer, tablet or smartphone.

Step into Leadership

Find resources and information to develop your leadership skills, whatever your role in social services.

Open Badges

Open Badges are digital certificates recognising learning and achievement.