Accessibility Statement - EThOS

Scope

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

The British Library operates a number of websites, subsites, and online services (“Sites”).

This accessibility statement supplements our main Accessibility Statement, and applies to the following Site:

How accessible this website is

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

  • Some images are missing alternate text
  • Lists are not properly structured
  • Text and links do not have sufficient contrast against background.
  • Some links and buttons are empty or unnamed
  • No language is specified
  • Some form elements are missing labels

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018, due to 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 images do not have alternate text, meaning that users of assistive technologies or with visual impairment may not be able to understand the content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content). 

  • Lists are not properly structured, meaning that users of assistive technologies may not receive the content in logical order. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.2 (Meaningful Sequence).

  • The colour of both text and links does not provide sufficient contrast against the background colour, meaning that users with moderate visual impairment who do not use assistive technologies may not be able to discern the content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast Minimum).

  • Some links and buttons are 'empty' or unnamed, meaning that users of assistive technologies will not be able to understand the destination of the links, or be able to navigate them easily. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose in Context). 

  • No language is programmatically specified for the site, meaning that users of assistive technologies may not be able to render the pages into human speech. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.1.1 (Language of Page).

  • Some form labels are missing, meaning that users of assistive technologies or with cognitive impairments may not be able to discern the functionality of the fields. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.2 (Labels or Instructions).

     

We plan to resolve these issues by upgrading the site by April 2026.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested on 10 August 2020. A full review of the site was carried out by the British Library using Lighthouse.