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Accessibility

Accessibility statement for LearningLegacy.HS2.org.uk

This accessibility statement applies to LearningLegacy.HS2.org.uk.

This website is run by High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd. 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 this website is

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

  • some resources contain complex annotated image diagrams, and we have not been able to provide an accessible version of these for screen reader users yet
  • not all embedded videos have captions, or an audio description, when first published
  • PDF documents lack structure and work poorly with screen readers

Feedback and contact information

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

Email: [email protected]
Freephone: 08081 434 434
Minicom: 08081 456 472

Alternatively, you can write to us at:

HS2 Community Hub
High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd
Two Snowhill
Snow Hill Queensway
Birmingham
B4 6GA

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 our Helpdesk using the details provided in the previous section.

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).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

We provide a text relay service for people who are deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment:

Minicom: 08081 456 472

Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit, we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd 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, the non-compliances listed below.

Non accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some videos do not have an alternative audio description, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content).

Disproportionate burden

Offering alternatives to complex image diagrams in documents

Some of our resources contain complicated diagrams and images, where captions (and sometimes mathematical formulae) are embedded directly within the image and are therefore not accessible to screen readers (or other assistive technology).

We’ve assessed the cost of providing equivalent non-image alternatives to these diagrams and images, and unfortunately, we believe that providing alternatives for all of them would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. This is because each individual diagram/image is likely to be relatively unique, and as such, there is no easy way for us to create a standardised process of completely converting these into an understandable non-image format.

However, we are working to improve the figure captions for each of these images, so that screen reader users will be better able to understand what information they are conveying. We are also working on updated guidance for authors, to try and mitigate this going forward. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content).

Alternative audio for videos

Whilst all our videos now contain captions, our videos do not contain an alternative, descriptive audio track. For example, an audio track describing what’s happening in the video rather than captions of the script.

Our videos are hosted on YouTube which does not yet support more than one audio track. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content).

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

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.

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.

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 review and monitor our website and its content to ensure it meets the latest accessibility standards.

We test our website annually with the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) to check for areas of improvement or non-compliance. They produce a detailed report for us.

Our website agency has a dedicated accessibility expert who then reviews this report and makes recommendations accordingly.

For example, we have recently made a number of improvements, including:

  • ensuring form inputs are labelled correctly
  • managing focus when our website search form is active
  • providing more details for screen reader users when linking to files such as PDFs
  • improving tab order

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 30 September 2021. It was last reviewed on 31 March 2023.

This website was last tested on 9 November 2022. The test was carried out by Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC).

Read the full accessibility test report.