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RDS website accessibility statement

Find out how we're making our website as accessible as possible.

Accessibility statement for the Research Data Scotland website

This accessibility statement applies to the domain www.researchdata.scot.

A separate Accessibility statement is available for the Researcher Access Service.

This website is run by Research Data Scotland (RDS). We strive for inclusivity in all areas of our work, including our website.

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:

  • 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)
  • access the website on smaller devices

We’ve also made the website’s text as simple to understand as we can. 

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

How accessible this website is

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

  • Some form elements do not have labels.
  • Some parts of the website cannot be used via a keyboard.
  • Some parts of the website are coded incorrectly and do not work properly.

More information on the accessibility issues appears in the section on non-accessible content, below.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or Braille, feel free to contact us:

  • email info@researchdata.scot
  • call +44 (0)131 460 4170
  • write Research Data Scotland, Bayes Centre, 47 Potterrow, Edinburgh, EH8 9BT
  • visit Bayes Centre, 47 Potterrow, Edinburgh, EH8 9BT
  • You can also use our Contact Us page.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within two days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that we haven’t listed on this page, or if you think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, we’d love to hear from you. Please send us an email in which you describe the problem and tell us which page you were using when it happened. Send this email to info@researchdata.scot.

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, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

You are welcome to contact us in advance, so that we can arrange reasonable accommodation for your visit. For example, you will be able to request a space with low lighting or low noise levels, or you can ask us to arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

You can also use our Contact Us page.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Research Data Scotland 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 2.1 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

This section lists the key ways in which this website fails to meet the WCAG 2.1 success criteria. It includes all violations of A and AA success criteria and all issues that the testing found to be serious or critical. It includes minor issues only if they relate to a Level A criterion. The issues appear in numerical order of the applicable success criteria.

Some elements in some forms do not have a corresponding label. This fails the following WCAG 2.1 success criteria: 1.1.1 (Non-text content, Level A); 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships, Level A); 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels, Level AA); 3.3.2 (Label or Instructions, Level A). We plan to ensure that all form controls on the website have corresponding labels by May 2024.

Some parts of the website cannot be used via a keyboard. This fails the following WCAG 2.1 success criterion: 2.1.1 (Keyboard, Level A). We plan to ensure that all parts of the site can be navigated via keyboard by May 2024.

Some parts of the website are coded incorrectly and do not work properly. This fails the following WCAG 2.1 success criterion: 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value, Level A). We plan to ensure that all WAI-ARIA elements contain valid roles, states and properties by May 2024.

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

Some of our PDF documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have published reports in PDF format. We plan to fix these documents or replace them with accessible HTML pages by 21 December 2023. 

Any new PDF documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. Before publishing new content as a PDF document, we will make sure that that alternative format is necessary, as advised by GDS.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We will continue to monitor how this website meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 AA standard and will update this statement when we find or fix any accessibility issues.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22 February 2023. It was last reviewed on 19 October 2023.

This website was last tested on 19 October 2023. The audit was carried out by Nexer Digital Ltd.

We chose the pages to audit on the basis of the following user journeys:

  1. Find the metadata catalogue
  2. Search the metadata catalogue
  3. Discover what’s involved in accessing secure data in Scotland
  4. Look at the initial enquiry form for applying to access secure data
  5. An extra random sample of pages, as guided by the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM)

The audit assessed the following pages and functions:

  1. Home page
  2. Metadata catalogue landing page
  3. Metadata catalogue search page
  4. Data access overview
  5. Meet the team
  6. News and insights
  7. News and insights article
  8. Governance page
  9. Initial enquiry form

The audit used the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1, levels A and AA, to determine how accessible the selected pages are.

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit The National Archives Open Government License for Public Information or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk.

Where we have identified any third-party copyright information, you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. 

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