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Accessibility of this website

Website accessibility

Accessibility statement for hrp.org.uk

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 video elements may lack a transcript or audio descriptive track
  • some text lacks sufficient contrast against the background 
  • Word and PDF documents may not be accessible to screen reader users
  • some decorative images may not have an appropriate alternative value
  • social share buttons do not have an accessible name 

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 our Access information for each of our palaces at the links below.

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.

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.  Some images within word documents lack an alternative text that is read aloud by screen readers. This results in either nothing or the image file name being read aloud for users of screen readers. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-Text Content. We plan to resolve this by: March 2025 
  2.  Some decorative images may have a descriptive alternative attribute which may result in decorative alternative text being announced when focused by a screen reader. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-Text Content. We plan to resolve this by: March 2025.
  3. Word documents contain non-inline objects. Screen readers may not read non-inline objects or may read them in the wrong order. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 - Non-text Content. We plan to resolve this by: March 2025.
  4. Some pre-recorded video-only content lacks a text alternative. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.1 Pre-Recorded Audio-Only and Video-Only. We plan to resolve this by: March 2025
  5.  Some PDF documents may not be tagged resulting in the PDF being inaccessible to screen readers. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. We plan to resolve this by: March 2025
  6.  Some PDF documents may not contain XMP metadata, which may cause the content of the document to be inaccessible to screen reader users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value. We plan to resolve this by: March 2025.
  7. Some Google map iframes lack an appropriate title. Frames must be appropriately titled to support screen reader users. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.1 - Bypass Blocks. We plan to resolve this by: June 2024. 
  8. Some checkboxes, mostly found on the ‘What’s On', ‘History and Stories Full’ and ‘Enquire About a Venue’ pages in an unselected state do not meet the contrast minimum for user interface elements. The play button found on videos may also not meet contrast depending on what frame of the video is playing. This means some users may find it difficult to view and recognise user interface components easily. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.11 - Non-Text Contrast.  We plan to resolve this by: June 2024.
  9. The newsletter signup form field does not indicate to the user the required format. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.3.2 - Labels or Instructions. We plan to resolve this by: May 2024.
  10. Error messages do not provide suggestions as to how to correct the error. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.3.3 - Error Suggestion. We plan to resolve this by: May 2024.
  11. When navigating the site using Android Talkback (screen reader software) users can tab behind the active menu overlay. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 - Name, Role, Value.  We plan to resolve this by: June 2024.
  12. When navigating calendar features using iOS VoiceOver, the screen reader may not announce if the location is open or closed. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 - Name, Role, Value.  We plan to resolve this by: June 2024.
  13. When navigating the site using Android Talkback and iOS Voiceover, (screen reader software) when a user navigates to ‘Another date’ when it has been previously activated, it incorrectly announces as ‘double tap to activate,' when already active. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 - Name, Role, Value.  We plan to resolve this by: June 2024.

Disproportionate burden

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).

The social sharing widget may contain empty links that do not announce the destination when focused by a screen reader. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.4 - Link Purpose (In Context). 

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 2025.

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By March 2025, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

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.

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 04 April 2024. It was last reviewed on 22 April 2024. The website was last tested on 15 April 2024. 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.