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This accessibility statement applies to all forestresearch.gov.uk domains.

Our websites are run by Forest Research. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website and other sites in our portfolio.

For example, that means you should be able to:

  • zoom in up to 200% without the text spilling off the screen
  • 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)
  • we’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible.

  • Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
  • Some images, maps and diagrams do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information.
  • Some links do not fully or adequately explain their purpose, and are not distinguishable beyond colour alone.

Some websites such as Right Trees For a Changing Climate and Forest Research Decision Support Tools Portal v2.0 (forestdss.org.uk) are legacy online databases and we are working on a plan to make their content and information fully accessible.

There may also be some data visualisation dashboards available on the website that do not meet current accessibility requirements. We are working on a plan to ensure these are improved, and that all further dashboards produced are accessible by default.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility our websites.

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please e-mail: researchinfo@forestresearch.gov.uk

We will consider your request and respond to you within 10 working days.

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please get in touch with our Communications team.

Enforcement procedure

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 ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, you should contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

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

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

  • Some images, maps and diagrams do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
  • With a larger font set it may not be possible to access dropdown menus of some navigation items. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4 (resize text).
  • With a larger font size set, some input elements are not wide enough to display the input value. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4 (resize text).
  • A limited number of pages scroll in two dimensions on smaller screen sizes. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.10 (reflow).
  • Some controls do not change appearance when selected. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 (focus visible).
  • Not all links explain their purpose fully. This fails WCAG 2.0 success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose in context).
  • Not all PDFs are appropriately tagged. This fails WCAG 2.0 success criterion 1.3.1 (information and relationships).
  • Not all links are distinguished by more than text colour alone. This fails the WCAG 2.0 success criterion 1.4.1 (use of colour).

When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images and diagrams meet accessibility standards and we will review current issues as we come across them.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs,  Word and open document format downloads are essential for us to provide our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents.

We constantly review how our website is used, and will prioritise making our most frequently downloaded documents available in fully accessible formats.  All new downloads will be accessible by default.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we do not plan to fix archive PDFs published prior to September 2018.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations, however we have included subtitles for all of our videos published after January 2024.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We’re now using a Web Governance tool to constantly monitor our website accessibility and we’re making adjustments to content and our user interface on a weekly basis to ensure our website is as accessible as it can be.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared in 2018. It was last reviewed on 3 July 2024.

This website was last tested for accessibility in June 2024. The test was carried out by the internal team at Forest Research using an industry-standard website governance and accessibility tool.

Accessibility statement
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Accessibility statement