Visit Scotland | Alba

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We want as many people as possible to be able to use our website. To achieve this, we are striving towards the following:

  • assistive technology compatibility

We aim for the site to be functional with assistive technologies, including screen readers and screen magnification software.

  • colour contrast

We are in the process of reviewing our branding and colour palette to ensure elements have sufficient colour contrast between the foreground and background. This will make it easier for individuals with visual impairments or colour deficiencies to read and understand the content.

  • clear and consistent layout

We aim to improve the layout of our website with organised headings, sections, and navigation menus. This helps users with cognitive disabilities to comprehend the structure of the content and locate information more easily. 

In this article:

1. View visitscotland.org your way

We want as many people as possible to be able to use our website. That means you are able to:

  • change the colours, contrast levels, and font styles
  • magnify the page to 200% or more without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • navigate most of the website using assistive technologies

 

We implemented the following accessibility features on our website, particularly around accessible navigation.

  • We have a "skip to main content" feature to help keyboard and screen reader users skip repeated content.
  • Headings and interactive elements are identified correctly in the page markup. This makes them compatible with common screen reader shortcuts, allowing screen reader users to parse the site easier.
  • For keyboard navigation, users can tab to all and tab away from all elements, and tab order is logical.
  • A clear visible focus is present on the page while using keyboard navigation.
  • Our pages are well structured with hierarchical headings.

2. How accessible is this website?

Current known accessibility issues on the site are.

  • Some PDF documents within visitscotland.org are not accessible to screen reader software.
  • Colour contrast: occasionally, text on images and icons have low contrast ratio and might be difficult to see for visual impaired users.
  • Screen reader users are not given enough warning when opening an external page.
  • A small number of status or error messages, including data entry error messages, might not be automatically announced to screen reader users.
  • Occasionally links to articles or videos are not properly described on screen reader software.
  • Some images are missing alternative text and some videos are currently missing or use auto-generated captions.
  • The website includes comboboxes that are not currently accessible on mobile screen readers.
  • Mobile navigation on some pages within visitscotland.org is quite difficult: some pages are not optimised for tablet / mobile.
  • The status of some expandable elements are not currently announced to screen reader users. 

 

  • The dropdown menu on the search page cannot be used by assistive technology users on mobile devices.
  • Form validation needs improvements to be perfectly accessible.
  • Search forms have poor error tolerance, no suggestions to refine the query are provided.
  • On some browsers, screen readers may have difficulty operating the search button.
  • Keyboard navigation is available on most pages but still needs improvements:
  1. The sequential navigation via tabbing might occasionally be difficult due to unclear visual clues on focused elements.
  2. On Firefox, parts of the navigation menu cannot currently be accessed using keyboard alone.
  3. When a pop-up is open, users can occasionally interact with content on the page behind.
  • Our jobs and careers system is hosted by Oracle Recruiting and contains several of the aforementioned accessibility issues; in particular a poor screen reader experience. We are working with our supplier to improve this.
  • Further, our Events Funding Portal, hosted by govService, also contains several of the aforementioned accessibility issues; in particular those related to PDFs, colour contrast, form validation and keyboard navigation. Read more about govService on granicus.com. 

3. Other websites

The footer of this website presents several links to other VisitScotland websites:

Where a specific accessibility statement does not exist on each of these sites then the known aforementioned issues will likely apply.

4. Report problems

We welcome suggestions and feedback to improve accessibility on this website. If you are experiencing any difficulties accessing the information set out on our pages, please email us at visitscotland@visitscotland.org.

Similarly, if you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact us at visitscotland@visitscotland.org. Or visit our complaints and feedback page for further info.

We'll consider your request and get back to you in five working days.

5. 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 are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Read more about the Equality and Human Rights Commission on equalityhumanrights.com.

Contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service on equalityadvisoryservice.com.

6. Compliance status

The website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the following "non-compliances".

  • 1.3.1 info and relationships
  • 1.3.2 meaningful sequence
  • 1.4.1 use of colour
  • 1.4.3 contrast (minimum)
  • 1.4.5 images of text
  • 1.4.11 non-text contrast
  • 1.4.12 text spacing
  • 2.1.1 keyboard
  • 2.4.2 page titled
  • 2.4.3 focus order
  • 2.5.3 label in name
  • 4.1.2 name, role, value
  • 4.1.3 status messages

7. What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We're committed to making our services accessible and are reviewing how we deliver services to be accessible for all.

We are continually reviewing the accessibility of our websites and will continue to make improvements to bring us in line with the latest regulations.

As part of this, we are working towards transitioning our web estate to our new design system and adopting our shared component library, which will resolve many of the accessibility issues outlined on this page.

9. Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was last updated on 5 September 2025. This website was last tested in September 2024.

An independent audit of this website was conducted in March 2024 by User Vision. These tests were in accordance with The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) v2.2 to Level AA, published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

The testing was conducted on desktop, mobile, and tablet devices, utilising multiple browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.

User Vision also used multiple assistive technologies, including JAWS, NVDA, ZoomText, and Dragon Naturally Speaking on desktop, and VoiceOver on iOS, and TalkBack screen reader on Android devices.

In September 2024, a further test was carried out by VisitScotland. A sample of pages and website components were tested, using a combination of automated testing tools and manual testing by our website team. 

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Our acceptable use policy

This acceptable use policy sets out the terms between you and us under which you may access our website, visitscotland.org.

Privacy centre

Find information about how and why VisitScotland uses your personal data.