We are committed to making National Library of Scotland websites as easy to use for as many people as possible.
This is the accessibility statement for the main Library website at www.nls.uk and for subdomains at auth.nls.uk and digital.nls.uk/gallery/.
On these sites you should be able to:
- Change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- Zoom in up to 300% without the text or images spilling off the screen
- Navigate most of the website using only a keyboard
- Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
- Listen to most of the website using a screen reader.
Customising the websites
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability:
AbilityNet - My computer my way.
How accessible the websites are
We know that some parts of the websites are not yet fully accessible:
- Not all content is colour contrast compliant
- Some text spacing may not match the minimum requirements for text spacing
- Most videos do not have captions or subtitles
- Some videos and audio recordings do not have a transcript
- Some documents available in portable document format (PDF) are not compliant with assistive technologies
- When navigating with a keyboard, the focus is not clear in some cases
- Some parts of our forms are provided by a third party and are not compatible with assistive technologies.
Find out more in the section of this statement entitled 'Technical information about this website's accessibility'.
What to do if you cannot access parts of these websites
If you need information on these websites in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, audio recording or braille please contact us through our online enquiry service.
Reporting accessibility problems with these websites
We are always looking to improve the accessibility of these websites. If you find any problems not listed on this page, or if you think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please let us know using our online enquiry service.
Technical information about the websites' accessibility
We are committed to making National Library of Scotland websites accessible in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
The main Library website is partially compliant with the AA standard.
Not compliant with the accessibility regulations
While we work hard to make our platforms and content reach this standard, some content does not comply with the WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria:
Main website: www.nls.uk
- It is not possible to use a keyboard to access all the content
- There may not be sufficient colour contrast between font and background colours especially where the text size is very small
- Not all prerecorded audio-only or video-only media will have alternative media that presents equivalent information – for example, audio track with description of the action in a video with no sound
- Not all video will have subtitles or subtitles that identify all speakers as well as noting other significant sounds – for example laughter
- Not all our PDFs meet accessibility standards
Unless specified otherwise, we will provide a complete solution or significant improvement by March 2023 at the latest.
'Join' / 'eResources' at auth.nls.uk
- There may not be sufficient colour contrast between font and background colours especially where the text size is very small.
Unless specified otherwise, we will provide a complete solution or significant improvement by March 2023 at the latest.
Digital gallery landing page at digital.nls.uk/gallery/
This statement applies only to the landing page for the National Library of Scotland Digital Gallery.
- There may not be sufficient colour contrast between font and background colours especially where the text size is very small
Unless specified otherwise, we will provide a complete solution or significant improvement by March 2023 at the latest.
Also at digital.nls.uk are sub-domains (microsites) that may be wholly or in part incompatible with the website accessibility regulations: we are conducting an audit of these sites, with a view to improving accessibility for those sites which are not exempt from the regulations (that is, archived sites).
Content not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs
Many of our older PDFs do not meet accessibility standards — for example, they may not be structured to make them accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).
We are reviewing the accessibility of our PDFs with a view to fixing those that do not meet accessibility standards or providing HTML pages as an alternative. We will also try to ensure any new PDFs we publish will meet the standards.
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.
Regulations for PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018
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 are not happy with how we respond to your complaint please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) direct.
This statement was prepared on 19 December 2019. Updated on 23 December 2022.