Accessibility

SQA continuously works towards creating accessible websites. The structure of the website, and how it displays information is designed to be accessible, and all new content is checked to ensure compliance.

Accessibility statement

This website is run by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able 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
listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We are working towards making the website text as simple as possible to understand.

We know some parts of this website aren't fully accessible:

you can’t modify the line height or spacing of text
some older PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
you can’t skip to the main content when using a screen reader

Problems accessing the content of this website

If you have problems accessing pages or documents published on this website, or think we're not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact our Digital Services Support Helpdesk on 0345 213 5060 or at das.helpdesk@sqa.org.uk.

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 this website's accessibility

SQA is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector
Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version
2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Navigation and accessing information

There’s no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main
content’ option). This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1 (bypass blocks).

It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without
making it more difficult to view the content. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion
1.3.4 (orientation).

Interactive tools

We have a chatbot on our site which can be activated using either text or speech. It is
provided by a third party. We understand that this is WCAG 2.1 compliant.

PDF documents

Many of our older PDF documents don’t meet accessibility standards - for
example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t
meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

The accessibility regulations don't require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they're not essential to providing our services.

Any new PDF documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested 18/09/20. The test was carried out by our Digital Team.

We tested our SQA SOLAR website at https://www.sqasolar.org.uk

We used:

What we're doing to improve accessibility

We test the website every six months and fix any accessibility errors we find.

We are training staff in accessibility awareness and clear and confident writing.

The accessibility statement was prepared on 22/09/20. It was last updated on 29/07/22.

SOLAR Software

SOLAR runs on the Surpass platform. Access the Surpass Accessibility Statement.