Accessibility
Our accessibility section covers:
Accessibility statement
UK Shared Business Services Ltd is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for all of our service users.
We seek to continually improve the user experience for everyone and apply the relevant accessibility standards.
UK SBS wants as many people as possible to be able to use this website in a way that supports individual needs. For example, that means the site is enabled to allow you 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)
UK SBS aims to provide information that is clear and jargon free on this website.
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
Conformance status
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) defines requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. UK SBS is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 level AA. Partially conformant means that some parts of the content do not fully conform to the accessibility standard.
Feedback
We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of the UK SBS website. Please let us know if you experience barriers to accessing the information we provide on UK SBS sites by emailing
communications@uksbs.co.uk. We try to respond to feedback within 2 business days.
Limitations and alternatives
We are on a journey, with the aspiration of meeting WCAG 2.1 AAA standard, and value your feedback to get us there.
Despite our best efforts to make information accessible on the UK SBS website, there may be some instances where you are unable to access. Please let us know if you encounter any issues by emailing
communications@uksbs.co.uk.
We monitor user feedback and in the majority of cases we can fix issues within 2 business days. If we are unable to fix an issue quickly or at all, we can provide the content in an alternative format to meet your needs.
Technical specifications
Accessibility of UK SBS sites relies on the following technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and any assistive technologies or plugins installed on your computer:
These technologies are relied upon for conformance with the accessibility standards used.
Assessment approach
This site was evaluated by the Digital Accessibility Centre on 22 September 2020.
Formal approval of this accessibility statement
This Accessibility Statement is approved by:
UK Shared Business Services Ltd
Formal complaints
If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or think this website is not meeting accessibility requirements, please email us at
communications@uksbs.co.uk. We will review your request and get back to you in 2 working days.
If you're not happy with how we respond to your complaint,
contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
About the Web Accessibility Initiative
The Web Accessibility Initiative promotes usability and accessibility for people with disabilities and promotes good practice amongst the web community
Access keys
The UK Government Access Keys Standard has been applied to this site. These provide a keyboard shortcut for users wishing to go directly to specific parts of the site and help those who do not use a pointing device, such as a mouse. To use the access keys press "Alt" then the number, then press your enter key.
A subset of the standard has been used and the access keys are defined as follows:
-
S = Skip navigation
-
1 = Home page
-
2 = News page
-
3 = Site map
-
6 = Help
-
7 = Contacts
-
8 = Disclaimer
-
0 = Key details
Visitors using recent versions of screen readers can navigate using the following keystrokes:
-
H to cycle forwards through the headings
-
Shift + H to cycle backwards through the headings
-
1 to navigate to the next level 1 heading (or a number between 1 and 6 to navigate to the next heading on this level)
-
Shift + 1 to navigate to the previous level 1 heading (or a number between 1 and 6 to navigate to the previous heading on this level)
-
INSERT + F6 to provide a list of all headings
In Opera, the following keys can be used to navigate headings:
-
S to cycle forwards through the headings
-
W to cycle backwards through the headings
Alternative text
All images on this site are accompanied by a brief alternative text which, where appropriate, identifies an image or its function. This alternative text (alt-text) is generally only visible when the browser's automatic image loading feature is turned off.
Those in purely decorative graphics or used for layout include null ALT attributes
Links
All text links are written so that they make sense when read out of context.
PDFs
Most complex Adobe® Acrobat® Portable Document Format (PDF) files on this site are tagged to allow basic accessibility. Simple PDFs should not represent an accessibility problem.
For more information about PDF accessibility see the Adobe website accessibility section.
Text size
The font used on our website can be changed in size in your browser settings to your own preference.
-
In Microsoft Internet Explorer choose View/ then Text Size and select the size you require
-
In Firefox choose View then Text Size/Increase or Decrease
-
In Safari choose View then Make Text Bigger or Make Text Smaller
-
In Opera choose View then Zoom and then a percentage
Further information on increasing the text size in your web browser, operating system and applications such as Word , Open Office Writer and Adobe Acrobat can be found on the following 'My Web My Way' pages on the BBC website.
Changing colours
The colours on our site are normally controlled using cascading style sheets. However, users can change the site's background colour, which can be particularly useful for those who rely on magnification technology as a white background can produce an uncomfortable glare. It is also possible to change the colour of body text on the site.
Further information on how you can change text and background colours in your browser and operating system to better suit your needs can be found on the following 'My Web My Way' pages on the BBC website.
Visual design
This site uses cascading style sheets for visual layout. If your browser or browsing device does not support style sheets at all, the content of each page should still be readable.
