Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to content published on the www.sepa.org.uk domain.

This website is run by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). 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 using browser or device settings
zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
navigate most of the website using a keyboard or speech recognition software
listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We’ve also tried to 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 this website is

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

most PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
none of our maps are accessible and do not contain a text alternative in most cases
you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader
some links on our website aren’t self-explanatory for a screen reader user
some table content is not marked up correctly for a screen reader user
some content may become truncated when applying custom CSS to the page

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact equalities@sepa.org.uk.

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

email equalities@sepa.org.uk
call 03000 99 66 99

We will consider your request and get back to you in 10 days.

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

SEPA 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 listed below.

Disproportionate burden

We have assessed the cost of fixing the following items and believe that fixing them immediately would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. Please note, we are working on these issues with available internal resource and expect to remove items from this list as and when they are fixed.

Documents published from 23 September 2018 onwards and documents created before that which users need to use a service, non-text content and images of text

The following issues have been identified in the above:

Some images within Word or PDF documents do not have appropriate text alternatives. Decorative images may contain alternative text. People using assistive technologies may not be able to access the information. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
Some data table rows and columns, and list elements are not marked up semantically, and this information may not be presented to assistive technologies. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (info and relationships).
Some links are not distinguishable without relying on colour. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1 (use of colour).
Some elements do not have sufficient colour contrast. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (contrast (minimum)).
Zooming is disabled for mobile devices. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4 (resize text).
The dropdown menus cannot be accessed by using a keyboard. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 (keyboard).
Some PDF documents do not include titles describing their topic or purpose. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 (page titled).
Certain links use general link text like ‘Click here’ with no surrounding context as to the purpose or destination of the link. Certain links lack an accessible name. Screen readers won’t read what the link does so will read out the whole URL instead. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose).
The default display of the focus indicator is not always visible. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 (focus visible).
Some elements do not have unique IDs, preventing assistive technologies from being able to interact with them. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1 (parsing).
Some form elements are missing labels, title attributes and/or ARIA (Accessible Internet Rich Applications) references, preventing assistive technologies from being able to interact with them. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (info and relationships) and 4.1.2 (name, role, value).
Navigational elements are using incorrect ARIA references. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role, value).

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

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

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

We are launching our new website at sepa.scot and plan to decommission sepa.org.uk in 2026.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 28th March 2024. It was last reviewed on 28th March 2024.

This website was last tested in March 2024.

SEPA carried out a self-assessment, completed by the web team. Several pages were tested using BrowserStack accessibility testing tool and Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE).