Accessibility statement

This is Wales (wales.com) aims to serve the largest possible audience and has been developed by addressing the needs of all users.

Cymru Wales Brand is committed to making its websites, as accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This accessibility statement applies to This is Wales.

Using this website

This website is run by Welsh Government. We want everyone who uses This is Wales to feel welcome and have a positive experience. For example, that means you should be able to adjust the following through your browser:

  • 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)

Additional development work planned will further improve the above items, bringing in additional control over animation and video elements. The changing colours, contrast levels and fonts is also in our development roadmap, as well as the ability to zoom in on text.

We’ve also made the website text as easy as possible to understand.

The development has taken a fully responsive approach ensuring content is accessible from viewing on mobile phones through to large desktop displays. It has been important to the development that we would not only ensure text is made accessible, but also that the viewing experience is equal across screen sizes, ensuring photographs focus on the relevant areas when being resized and that our commissioned video has transcripts available through the embedded YouTube or Vimeo links.

We have made every effort to make the This is Wales website easy to use and accessible to everyone. We have aimed to make this site adhere to the following guidelines:-

  • HTML4/5
  • CSS 2/3.0
  • WCAG Version 2.2 (AA)

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use.

Internet browser compatibility

The This is Wales website has been tested on most of today's leading browsers.

The This is Wales website has been tested in the following browsers:

  • Chrome 
  • Firefox 
  • Edge 
  • Safari

 

Fonts

To support the sense of place and cultural experience of Wales we have a bespoke typeface collection that takes cues from the Welsh typographical heritage.

The font acts as a unifying cornerstone of the visual brand identity, representing Wales to the world in an authentic and creative way. The font includes a number of Welsh language characters, these are only used in words that are not translated from the Welsh language such as place names or when a Welsh translation is provided to support the cultural experience.

We’ve built in a series of glyphs and diagraphs that support sense of place and character as is required.

  • Cymru / Wales Sans is typically used as a headline font and in Welsh language place names or words
  • Georgia Serif is used across body copy

Our bespoke fonts have been developed in conjunction with an accessibility organisations to review and adjust the font where required.

Photography, illustration, and video

We aim to have all of our owned media assets accessible, this includes descriptive alt text and captions where appropriate. Our videos are often hosted on YouTube or Vimeo where captions are made available. 

When embedding third party content in to our website we are unable to guarantee that all external parties have followed the same approach.

What to do if you can’t access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 30 days.

Feedback and contact information

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, contact:  enquiries.wales@gov.wales

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the accessibility regulations. If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Welsh Government is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard.

How we tested this website

This Cymru Wales brand platform were last tested in April 2024. The test was carried out by the UK Government Cabinet Office's Accessibility Monitoring Team, and maintained by our current development partners Box UK Ltd.

We tested:

  • Our main Cymru Wales brand website platforms

Non-accessible content

Making our website fully accessible is an ongoing process and we are committed to offering a AA standard compliant user friendly experience. Our planned approach is to use a combination of both technology and focus groups that include disabled users or people who use assistive technologies to identify and address any barriers.

Ongoing developments are completed with AA accessibility as a core aim carried out by our development partners Box UK Ltd.

An external review was completed by the UK Cabinet Office in April 2024 and identified issues are outstanding and will be addressed by 31 March 2025:

 

This statement was prepared on 17 September 2020. It was last updated on11 November 2024.

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