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Accessibility statement for ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone

This accessibility statement applies to ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone/

This website is run by Ordnance Survey. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

For example, that means you should be able to:

  • Increase the browser font size to its largest setting without the text spilling off the screen.
  • Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard.
  • 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:

  • Some page elements have insufficient text contrast.
  • Some pages have empty links or values which may confuse people using assistive technology.
  • The purpose of some graphical elements may be unclear.
  • The focus order on all pages is not logical.
  • Some features on the site are not fully keyboard accessible.
  • Videos contain issues with audio control and accessible text.
  • Some text becomes obscured when the page is enlarged.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, then please contact us.

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, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Ordnance Survey 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 listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Images (including those in PDFs) do not have appropriate alternative attributes. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-Text Content.
  • Embedded multimedia for video players on the ‘Map skills’ and ‘Geography’ pages lack accessible text. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-Text Content.
  • Links within the ‘Resources & Links’ overlay do not contain any additional styling other than colour to identify that a link is present. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1 Use of Colour. (Fixed)
  • All pages contain automatically playing audio that may be distracting. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.2 Audio Control.
  • Some textual content such as the navigation copy does not meet the minimum recommended contrast ratio of 4.5:1. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum). (Fixed)
  • Textual content becomes cut off when zooming text only to 200%. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4 Resize Text.
  • Across most of the pages of the website images of text are present that will not scale when increasing the zoom of the page. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.5 Images of Text.
  • The user is unable to play the ‘Map dash’ and ‘Word Search’ games using a keyboard. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard
  • Across all pages there is moving content present with no way of being able to pause, stop, or hide the movement. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide.
  • A ‘Skip to main content’ link or similar is not present on the site. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks.
  • A skipped heading level is present on the ‘Wordsearch’ page, this may impact navigation for some users. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks.
  • Across all pages of the website, the focus order of the page is not logical. This includes the navigation menu not following a logical order and the cookie notice being the last element in the focus order. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order. (Fixed)
  • Interactions when playing both the ‘Wordsearch’ and ‘Map dash’ are triggered on the down event and are unable to be cancelled using simple gestures. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.5.2 Pointer Cancellation.
  • Games across the site are inaccessible to any users who navigate using assistive technologies. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.
  • Empty links are present on the homepage which are focusable by assistive technologies. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.
  • The ‘Next’ button present on the ‘Glaciation’ page is unable to be swiped to when navigating using iOS VoiceOver. This is a failure of WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Departments and agencies are urgently fixing content which fails to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. We will update this page when issues are fixed.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 08/10/2021. It was last reviewed on 12/09/2023.

This website was last tested on 02/08/2021. The test was carried out by Zoonou.

We used this approach on a sample of pages to test WCAG-EM