Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to https://www.visitscotland.com and https://businessevents.visitscotland.com.  

How you should be able to use these websites 

These websites are run by VisitScotland. We want as many people as possible to be able to use our websites. For example, you should be able to: 

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts 

• zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen 

• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard or speech recognition software 

• listen to the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver) 

We also make the website text as simple as possible to understand. 

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

How accessible are these websites

Parts of these websites are not fully accessible. For example: 

• A correctly formed heading structure is not present to facilitate navigation 

• Some videos on the site lack an audio alternative 

• Where present, multiple languages are not defined 

• Multiple parsing errors are present 

• Some pages have poor keyboard navigation 

Feedback and contact information 

If you need information on this website in a different format, please email info@visitscotland.com. 

We will consider your request and get back to you within five working days. 

If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or you think we’re not meeting the accessibility requirements, contact us. 

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). 

Technical information about the accessibility of these websites 

VisitScotland is committed to making its websites 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 2.2 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: 

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations 

1. Videos on some pages do not provide an alternative for time-based media or an audio track. Users with hearing or visual impairments will be unable to access the information within the videos. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.1 (Audio-Only and Video-Only (pre-recorded).  

2. A correctly formed heading structure is not present to facilitate navigation across the site, with empty heading levels present in the cookie banner and a skipped H1 heading within the top navigation. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.1 (Bypass blocks).  

3. Multiple languages are present on certain pages that have not been programmatically determined. Both assistive technologies and conventional user agents can render text more accurately if the language of each passage of text is identified. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.1.2 (Language of parts). 

4. Some documents are in PDF format. They are not accessible in a number of ways, including missing text alternatives and missing document structure. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and relationships). 

Disproportionate burden 

Content delivered by older applications, such as our business web listings, tours listings, product search results pages and tours search widget, contain accessibility issues. For example: 

• Missing form input labels 
• Related form fields not properly grouped 
• Some custom controls lack defined roles that would allow them to be controlled by assistive technologies 
• “Skip to content” links not properly configured 
• Some child elements are focusable but are not voiced by screen readers 
• Zoom in and out does not work on some pages 

This non-accessible content is delivered through applications which we are transitioning to our design system and shared component library, which will resolve the accessibility issues outlined above. We believe that fixing the accessibility problems caused by these older applications would be disproportionate. 

What we are doing to improve accessibility 

We are committed to continually improving the accessibility of our website. We achieve this by: 

• Performing regular accessibility audits 
• Incorporating feedback from users to improve our services 
• Providing a dedicated channel for audio described videos 

Preparation of this accessibility statement 

This statement was prepared on 15/02/2023. It was last reviewed on 02/10/2024. 

This website was last tested on 23/02/2023. The test was carried out by Zoonou. Zoonou used WCAG-EM to define the pages tested and test approach.