The National Library of Wales (also referred to in this document as ’us’, ‘we’, ‘our’, ‘the Library’) is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for all.
This statement covers all our websites.
The National Library of Wales is committed to improving accessibility across all our websites, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) describe how to make our websites as accessible as possible. The guidelines have 3 levels of accessibility (A, AA and AAA).
We're working towards meeting and maintaining Level AA standards for all our websites.
We have tested each of our websites, identifying issues to resolve.
We used 2 tools, usage dependent on type of site:
Most of our sites are at least partially AA compliant, however some sites have significant issues, including Level A issues.
Significant technical consolidation work now offers a consistent experience to users across some of our most popular websites (eg Welsh Newspapers, Welsh Journals etc).
The headers and footers of these websites will be AA compliant from the week ending 2 October 2020.
Significant work has been undertaken over the last 6 months on the content of the Library's main website (www.library.wales) and our Library blog (blog.library.wales). This work includes ensuring alt text for images, ensuring link text is instructive, clear formatting of content etc)
There are parts of our websites that are not fully accessible.
Parts of our sites that are not fully accessible include:
Over the coming weeks we will be turning our attention to resolving issues with our main website, blog and Welsh Newspapers website.
Work undertaken for the Welsh Newspapers website will be applied to our other core sites based on the same core functionality, see list of sites below for further details.
In addition to the general themes discussed in ‘How accessible are our websites?’, the following is a list of issues we need to improve upon as a priority:
*Many sites will have these resolved week ending 25th September 2020.
Work has not been started on the compliance of the following websites due to the fact that they are being considered for archiving. We will be contacting all relevant stakeholders before any of the websites are switched off.
All relevant websites will be archived and switched off by 23 September 2021.
An outside specialist firm will be retained to assist with ongoing work, and to run final compliance testing using the following:
We will update our internal guidelines to ensure electronically published content meets Level AA standards.
When our ongoing work is completed, you should expect to be able to do things such as:
This list explains what we don’t currently plan to fix.
Disproportionate burden:
Many of our sites have downloadable files, PDFs for example. Updating outdated documents is a disproportionate burden. Any documents that are replaced will be compliant
Outside of the scope of accessibility regulations:
We welcome feedback or comments which help us improve the accessibility of our websites.
The list of issues in this statement is not exhaustive, so you're welcome to conatct our Enquiries Service to discuss any specific problems or requirements.
Likewise, if you'd like to make a complaint, you're welcome to contact our Enquiries Service.
If you are unhappy with how we’ve responded to your complaint, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
This statement was last updated 25 September 2020.
