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 aim for AAA where possible.
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. We are aiming for AAA compliance.
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 most of our websites are now AA compliant. We are continually improving our branding, for example improving the readability of text, and ensuring link text (or title attribute) is unambiguous.
Significant work has been undertaken to refine 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:
Main Website:
We launched our new website in October 2022. The site has been developed to WCAG 2.1 AAA standard.
There is one known issue:
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:
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.
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
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.
The sites listed below display search results which allow you to refine your search using filters; often referred to as “facets”.
These sites have known issues, ranging from WCAG Level A failures to “Best Practice” (advisory) notices. Our priority is to bring these busy sites up to WCAG AA standard. Our longer-term goal is to exceed AA criteria.
| Site | WCAG 2.1 Compliant | Serious Issues |
|---|---|---|
| Chwilio Archifau Cymru / Archives Wales Search | A (Partial); AA (Partial) | Some elements have insufficient colour contrast; Lack of accessible form names/labels; Incorrect/missing ARIA roles for forms |
| Y Bywgraffiadur Cymreig / Dictionary of Welsh Biography | A (Partial); AA (Partial) | Some elements have insufficient colour contrast; Lack of accessible form names/labels |
| Site | WCAG 2.1 Compliant | Serious Issues |
|---|---|---|
| Chwilio Archifau Cymru / Archives Wales Search | A (Partial); AA (Partial) | Some buttons lack discernible text; Some links lack discernible text; Insufficient colour contrast on filter values; Lack of accessible form names/labels |
| Y Bywgraffiadur Cymreig / Dictionary of Welsh Biography | A (Partial); AA (Partial) | Incorrect / missing ARIA roles for forms; IDs are not unique (“Display Options” menu); Some buttons lack discernible text; List item does not have a parent list element, or element role (“list”) |
The Library uses some third party systems to deliver functionality and services. We do our best to ensure our implementations are accessibility compliant. However we cannot at this time guarantee WCAG2.1 AA compliance as, in most cases, we are reliant on the third party achieving compliance. Not all third parties are obliged to publish their own statements.
The list below summarises third party systems.
| Name | Role | Link to Accessibility Statement/Plan | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| AtoM | Archive Catalogue | N/A | Largely compliant but with colour contrast issues. Work ongoing |
| Cookie Control | Tracking & Analytics (GDPR Compliance) | N/A | High compliance, ongoing work |
| PayPal | Online payments | High compliance, ongoing work | |
| Primo | Resource Catalogue | Accessiblity Statment | AA compliant with minor issues |
| Lib Answers | Support | High compliance, ongoing work | |
| Shopify | Online shop | High compliance, ongoing work | |
| TicketSource | Event booking | N/A | Issues with in-page navigation and colour-contrast |
| Tiki-Toki | Llafur100 embedded timeline | N/A | Major accessibility issues. Work ongoing to find an alternative solution. An accessible version of the content is available on request. |
| Transpay | Online payments | N/A | No documentation available |
| Universal Viewer | Digital resource display | Some issues using keyboard, in-page navigation, and motion animations | |
| Wordpress | Blogging | AA compliant with minor issues |
We are not responsible for functionality as we did not pay or develop this ourselves. However Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube all have ongoing accessibility compliance programs.
Websites which are not updated and are not needed for live services are exempt from accessibility regulations.
Maps are currently exempt from regulations unless they convey required information, in which case we can provide this information in an accessible format on request.
If you require an accessible version of content, have any suggestion or complaints, you're welcome to contact our Enquiries Service.
This statement was last updated on 12 September 2023.