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Website accessibility statement

Accessibility statement for hrp.org.uk

Historic Royal Palaces is the independent charity that loves and looks after six of the most wonderful palaces in the world. We are committed to ensuring our website is accessible to as many people as possible.

This accessibility statement applies to www.hrp.org.uk

This website is run by Historic Royal Palaces. 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
  • 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

We've also made 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 is our website?

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

  • some decorative imagery contains inappropriate alternative attributes 
  • some text lacks sufficient contrast against the background  
  • user interface components and graphical objects do not meet contrast requirements  
  • multiple issues surrounding the use of screen readers, including incorrect focus order and incorrect announcements  
  • content is not available when content viewed within a limited browser window at a high zoom 
  • social share buttons do not have an accessible name 

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact us via email at webmaster@hrp.org.uk and our web team will deal with your report.

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) or for users in Northern Ireland, the Equalities Commission for Northern Ireland.

Contacting us to visit in person

If you need any assistance or information to help you plan a visit to one of our palaces, please contact us:

Email: info@hrp.org.uk
Tel: 0333 320 6000
You can also read Access information for each of our palaces at the links below.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Historic Royal Palaces 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 2.2 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. Decorative images within the blog pages have been given alternative attributes, resulting in unnecessary information being announced to users of screen readers. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 - Non-Text Content.   We plan to resolve this by: October 2025.  
  2. Pre-recorded Audio-Only content on the ‘Podcast’ pages do not provide a corresponding text transcript. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.1 - Pre-Recorded Audio-Only and Video-Only.  We plan to resolve this by: November 2025.
  3. The videos that are present do not contain audio descriptions to describe the visual information. (Some videos that were published after 23rd September 2020 do not contain audio descriptions to describe the visual information). This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.5 – Audio Description (Pre-Recorded). We plan to resolve this by: March 2026.
  4. When navigating the site using Android Talkback and iOS Voiceover (mobile screen reader software) the ‘another date’ section doesn’t announce, and the date states aren’t announced to the user. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 - Name, Role, Value. We plan to resolve this by: November 2025.
  5. When navigating the site using Dragon Naturally Speaking users are not able to access multiple elements across the website. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 - Name, Role, Value. We plan to resolve this by: November 2025.  

Disproportionate burden

Navigation and accessing information 

When navigating through the cookie consent modal with a keyboard, the tab order is observed to not be logical.  

Some buttons relating to social media sharing may lack an accessible name, resulting in no content being announced by a screen reader. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-Text Content. 

Text contrast within the social pop-up does not meet the minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum). We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when the supplier contract is up for renewal, likely to be in March 2026.  

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when the supplier contract is up for renewal, likely to be in March 2026.

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Some of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards.

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. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Pre-recorded media 

Some older videos do not have captions or an Audio Described alternative. The Accessibility Regulations do not require us to fix pre-recorded time-based media published before 23 September 2020. Any new video content will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

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

Third Party Content 

We are aware of issues relating to third party content being present on the site that we do not pay for the usage of: 

  • Google Arts and Culture third party embedded content which includes insufficient contrast for copy and the purpose of links not being determinable. 

These are exempt from the Public Sector Bodies (Website and Mobile Applications) (No.2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We plan to continue to improve the accessibility on this website over the next 12 months to ensure that new content and components are built to the highest WCAG standards where possible. We will test our design, products and content for accessibility. 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 30 April 2025. It was last reviewed on 06 May 2025. The website was last tested on 28 April 2025. The test was carried out by Zoonou.

Zoonou used WCAG-EM to define a representative sample of pages and the test approach. 

 

Accessibility at the palaces

Please see below for information on accessibility at any of our palaces, including provision for visitors with mobility needs, for parents and families with children on the autism spectrum, for blind and partially sighted visitors and for deaf people and those with hearing loss.