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Accessibility

This website is run by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC). We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

The website is for Newly Qualified Social Workers and their employers in Scotland and the content will continue to be developed between 2021 and 2023.

We have included information about what we have done to try and make this website as accessible as possible.

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 please email nqswproject@sssc.uk.com. We’ll consider your request and get back to you within five working days.

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, please email nqswproject@sssc.uk.com.

How accessible is our website?

We have tried to design the site so that:

  • colour is not the only visual means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element
  • text can be resized beyond 200% without loss of content or functionality
  • the site is navigable using a keyboard, there are no keyboard traps present, and pages are in a logical order
  • web pages have titles, headings, and labels that describe their topic or purpose
  • the purposes of each link can be determined by the user
  • there is a consistent navigation throughout the site and there are multiple ways to navigate the site
  • components that have the same functionality within a set of webpages are identified consistently.

Most of the site can be listened to using a screen reader (this was tested using Pericles: Text to Speech Screen Reader, Read Aloud: A Text to Speech Voice Reader, Chrome Screen Reader (ChromeVox), and NVDA).

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

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

Currently we do not provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired, or have a speech impediment.

For your convenience our offices have both fixed and portable audio induction loops.

BSL users can contact us via contactSCOTLAND-BSL, the online British Sign Language interpreting service. If you are visiting our office and require British Sign Language interpreting, please email communications@sssc.uk.com to arrange this.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The SSSC 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 and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • the magnification allowed on the map on the contact page is controlled by Google Maps and not by the SSSC.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Some sections of the site have not been labelled in the source code in accordance to semantic HTML5 specifications, this means that some assistive technologies may struggle to find landmarks on some of the pages.
  • There is currently no mechanism to dismiss some menus without moving the mouse pointer, dismissing menus is often done using the escape key.
  • The keyboard focus indicator is not always visible when tabbing through pages, this varies between browser.
  • You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text.
  • Some page headings are not nested properly.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 19 July 2021. We will review this statement in January 2022 or earlier if any changes are made to the content.

The website was tested for accessibility by MTC using the WAVE browser extension and Google Lighthouse on 17.03.21, 17.06.21 and 15.06.21