Website Accessibility Statement

This is our Website Accessibility page. To check the Museum accessibility page, follow the link here. 

This statement explains what we know about the accessibility of the websites we operate, what we are doing to address the accessibility of our websites and how to contact us about web accessibility.

This accessibility statement applies to The Bowes Museum website.  We are committed to making our website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

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 via browser or plug in
• zoom in up to [400%] 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.]

HOW ACCESSIBLE THIS WEBSITE IS

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible but we are working to improve the accessibility of our websites.
In particular, we know that you may encounter:

• Images with missing or unhelpful alternative text
• HTML and ARIA markup errors that may make using a screen reader difficult
• Older PDF and Microsoft Office documents that are not properly formatted to be accessible

 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 or you would like to ask anything or tell us anything about the accessibility of our websites:

• Email hello@thebowesmuseum.org.uk

We want to improve our web accessibility and we welcome your feedback. We will respond in no more than 21 days in line with our policy but hope to do it more quickly than that in most cases.

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 hello@thebowesmuseum.org.uk

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 ABOUT PHYSICAL VISITS

If you need any assistance or information to help you plan a visit, please use the following contact details:
Email access@thebowesmuseum.org.uk

More information about access to the building is available on our visit pages here. 

TECHNICAL INFORMATION ABOUT THIS WEBSITE’S ACCESSIBILITY

The Bowes Museum  is committed to making its websites 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.

In this section, you will find more detailed information about the accessibility of our websites and their conformity to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 level AA. The known issues are not an exhaustive list, but an attempt to summarise the main problems we have found and our plans to address them.

There are no plans to update all historic content but where possible, and on request, we may be able to provide information in alternative formats. 

NON-ACCESSIBILE CONTENT

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

 Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

• Some videos lack captions and some audio lacks transcriptions, so the information in them isn’t available to people using a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non- text content). When we publish new audio content we’ll make sure our use of audio meets accessibility standards.
• There’s no alt text on some of the images on the site. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non- text Content). When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

For detailed information about the Accessibility of our websites please see Appendix 1

Disproportionate Burden

Some of our exhibition interactives may be difficult to navigate using a keyboard. Some of our image viewers and forms are built and hosted through third party software and ‘skinned’ to look like our website. Our Audio Guides, Research and Archive Pages are not being actively developed and there are no plans to update all historic content but where possible, and on request, we may be able to provide information in alternative formats. We’ve assessed the cost and resources needed to fix the issues detailed in Appendix 1. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

When choosing new suppliers and agencies we will ensure all new tools will be compliant.

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

PDFs AND OTHER DOCUMENTS

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t 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. We hope to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

The accessibility regulations don’t 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.

WHAT WE’RE DOING TO IMPROVE ACCESSIBILITY

The website consists of different areas that were developed at different times using different technologies. We are committed to providing websites that are accessible to all and we are working hard to achieve that, but it will take some time due to the scale and complexity of the task.

In the ‘Detailed information about the accessibility of our websites’ in Appendix 1, we list the accessibility plan for individual websites as follows:

• ‘Mitigation in progress’ which means that our web editors and developers are currently working on fixing the accessibility problems found during testing. We have added information on when this work would be completed where available.
• ‘Being redeveloped’ which means that the redevelopment of the website is in progress.
• ‘In discussion’ which means that a decision has not yet been reached about the website. Some areas of the website will be retired, and the content or services consolidated.
• ‘Disproportionate burden’ We’ve assessed the cost and resources needed to fix these issues detailed in Appendix 1. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

We are committed to Inclusive Design. This means that each new component that we make will be built to the highest WCAG standards we can testing regularly with tools such as pa11y. We also continue our commitment to testing our new designs and product features with a broad and diverse range of audiences.

PREPARATION OF THIS ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT

This statement was prepared in March 2022 which this tested. The test was carried out independently by the Digital Accessibility Centre.

APPENDIX 1

Detailed information about the Accessibility of our websites

In this section, you will find more detailed information about the accessibility of our websites and their conformity to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 level AA.

The known issues are not an exhaustive list, but an attempt to summarise the main problems we have found and our plans to address them.

Disproportionate burden

The accessibility regulations say that we do not need to make a website accessible if doing so would impose a disproportionate burden on us. Claiming disproportionate burden must be accompanied by an assessment of the burden on the organisation.