Accessibility Policy
Good information is only good for those who can reach it. This page describes our goal of making the site usable for people of all abilities and circumstances, and where we honestly stand on that road.
Our target: WCAG 2.1 AA
We aim for conformance level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, the international benchmark for web accessibility. We treat this as an engineering and publishing goal, not a marketing badge: every new page and tool is built with these criteria in mind, and existing pages are improved against the same standard. We are aware that full conformance is a process of continuous upkeep rather than a finish line.
What we pay attention to
In practice, our priorities are:
- Sufficient colour contrast between text and background
- Full keyboard navigation of the site
- Alternative text for images that carry meaning
- A correct heading hierarchy and meaningful link text for screen readers
- Flexible layouts that hold together when text is enlarged
- Clear, plain language, with technical terms explained rather than assumed
We count plain language as an accessibility matter in its own right: a convoluted sentence is a barrier for everyone.
Our known limitations
To be honest: we cannot guarantee today that every corner of the site works flawlessly with every assistive technology. Interactive tools and visualisations are the hardest components to make fully accessible, and improving them is permanently on our agenda. If you hit an accessibility problem on a page, that is not this policy failing; it is this policy starting to work: every reported barrier goes on the list to be removed.
An invitation for feedback
Accessibility problems are usually noticed only by the people who live with them. If you use a screen reader, keyboard navigation, high-contrast mode or any other assistive technology and run into difficulty on this site, please tell us what happened and what technology you were using. Reports are handled through our Corrections Policy, with accessibility issues assessed as a priority.
A working version
This policy is a working version. As our accessibility improves, we will update this page, including the section on known limitations. The target stays fixed; the statement of where we stand must stay honest.