The Employee Handbook website is run by The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB). We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

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We aim 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.

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How accessible this website is

 

We are currently developing a new corporate website for the Scottish Parliament to which the Employee Handbook content will be transferred. This is expected to be complete by January 2021. We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

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• some text will not reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window.

• you cannot modify the size of the text without some text overlapping.

• most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.

• video streams do not have captions.

• you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader.

• low contrast between link colour and background colour makes the text difficult to read for some visitors.

• labels are not explicitly connected to their related form input fields.

• some text elements are marked up as a heading when they are not headings.

 

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What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

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

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• email humanresources@parliament.scot

• call the Human Resources offices on 0131 34 86500

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We will respond to your request within 1 working day.

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If you cannot view our 'contact us' page, call or email us for directions.

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Reporting accessibility problems with this website

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If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we're not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact the Human Resources Office by phone on 0131 348 6500 (calls via NGT welcome) or by email at humanresources@parliament.scot.

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If you are unhappy with the response from the Human Resources Office you can make a complaint to the Public Information Office using the online complaint form or by phoning the main switchboard on 0800 092 7500 or 0131 348 5000. If you would like to contact us using British Sign Language (BSL), contactSCOTLAND-BSL gives you access to an online video relay interpreting service.

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Enforcement procedure

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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).

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Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

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We are happy to be contacted via the Next Generation Text (NGT) service for people who are D/deaf, have hearing loss or have a speech impediment.

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If you would like to contact us using British Sign Language (BSL), contactSCOTLAND-BSL gives you access to an online video relay interpreting service.

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We can also arrange for a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter to be available for in person meetings. Due to interpreter availability it is helpful if you contact us 2 weeks before a visit.

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Our phone number is 0131 34 86500

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Our email address is humanresources@parliament.scot

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Technical information about this website's accessibility

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The Scottish Parliament is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

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This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

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Non accessible content

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The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

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Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

Accessibility problems:

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• You cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option). WCAG 2.1 reference: 2.4.1 (bypass blocks).

•  Videos on the site do not have captions. WCAG 2.1 reference: 1.2.1 (Either an alternative for time-based media or an audio track is provided that presents equivalent information for prerecorded video-only content.)

• Low contrast between link colour and background colour makes the text difficult to read for some visitors. WCAG 2.1 reference: 1.4.3 (Minimum contrast ratio).

• When text is resized content overlaps. WCAG 2.1 reference:  1.4.4 (text can be resized without assistive technology up to 200 percent without loss of content or functionality)

• When a browsers is resized the text does not reflow to fit the new width. WCAG 2.1 reference: 1.4.10 (content can be presented without loss of information or functionality, and without requiring scrolling in two dimensions)

• Form labels are not explicitly connected do form input fields. WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content), Success Criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), Success Criterion 3.3.2 (Labels or Instructions), Success Criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value)

•  Markup does not pass W3C validation tests. WCAG 2.1 reference: 4.1.1 (validation).

• Text elements are marked up as a heading when they are not not headings. 1.3.1 Info and Relationships, 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (Level A), 2.4.6 Headings and Labels

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When we plan to fix these problems

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We are currently developing a new corporate website for the Scottish Parliament to which the Employee Handbook content will be transferred. This is expect to be complete by January 2021.

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Content that's not within the scope of the accessibility regulations PDFs and other documents

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PDFs and other documents

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• Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they're accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

• 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 September 2020, 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 2019 if they're not essential to providing our services.

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

• Live Video streams do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live).

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

 

How we tested this website

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This website was last tested on 16th September 2019. The test was carried out by Jim Byrne Accessible Website Design.

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Sampling and approach to testing

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10 pages of the Employee Handbook were tested. Pages were chosen to represent the features and functionality of the websites.

Where a problem was highlighted in the report this was interpreted as an example of an issue to be fixed across the site. The report was not a definitive list of every error or access issue to be found on the site.

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We tested:

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• Our main website platform, available at https://www.spstaffhandbook.com

• What we're doing to improve accessibility

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This statement was prepared on 16th September 2019. It was last updated on 25th August 2020.

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