Accessibility statement

This website is run by Business Wales. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. That means you should be able to:

change colours; contrast levels and fonts
zoom in up to 300% 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 have also made the website text as simple and clear as possible to understand.

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

This website's accessibility

We know some parts of this website aren't fully accessible:

the text won't reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window
you can't modify the line height or spacing of text
most older PDF documents aren't fully accessible to screen reader software
live video streams don't have captions
some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
you can't skip to the main content when using a screen reader

What to do if you can't access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

use the contact us form
call: 03000 6 03000

Rydym yn croesawu galwadau yn Gymraeg / We welcome calls in Welsh.

We will consider your request and get back to you in 7 days.

Reporting accessibility issues with this website

We're always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren't listed on this page or think we're not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, contact:

using the contact us form
call: 03000 6 03000

Rydym yn croesawu galwadau yn Gymraeg / We welcome calls in Welsh.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the accessibility regulations. If you are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website's accessibility

Business Wales 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 issues listed below.

Issues with technology

text does not reflow in single column when size of browser window is changed.
It is not possible for users to modify text spacing or line height.

Issues with text

The text that is not accessible is outlined below:

some pages have incorrectly used heading ordering
some pages have excessively long alt tags / missing alt text
some pages have link text missing
some pages have tables that require descriptive captioning
some pages have tables that require a name and/or description
some pages have tables that have empty column headers
some pages have tables are in some cases overly complex in structure
some pages have duplication of link text
some pages have complex tables that require explicitly associate data and header cells
some pages have adjacent links to same location
some link text needs to be more descriptive in parts
some links are aimed at pages that either no longer exist, have access restricted or aimed at anchor tags that don’t exist
some text has a low contrast ratio
some website elements have a low contrast ratio
some HTML tags nested within other HTML tags
some pages have duplicate HTML attributes on one HTML element
some pages have outdated HTML attributes on paragraph tags

Issues with PDFs and other documents

Some of our older PDFs and documents do not meet accessibility standards. Some of them:

are not marked up in a way that allows screen reader users to understand them
are not tagged up properly, for example they do not contain proper headings
are not written in plain English

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services. We do not currently have any plans to make these PDFs or other documents accessible.
Any new PDFs or documents we publish since 23 September 2018 should meet accessibility standards.
Some of our older PDFs and documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have:

PDFs with information on how users can access our services
forms published as Word documents.

From March 2022, we will start to either fix these essential PDFs and documents or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

Issues with images, video and audio

The images, video and audio that is not accessible is outlined below:

alt tags are missing on some images
alt tags need to be more descriptive on some existing images.
duplication of alt text on image
live video streams don't have captions,
we don't plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Issues with interactive elements and transactions

The interactive elements and transactions that is not accessible is outlined below:

There are issues when tabbing through certain pages, focus does not stick with / apply to correct link.
There is an issue with the contrast on the “More” dropdown of the Business Wales main header menu when using keyboard to navigate.
Some colour styles may not currently pass colour contrast to latest WCAG 2.1 AA standards.
Some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example:
because some form controls may be missing a 'label' tag.
other forms are built and hosted through third party software and ‘redesigned’ to look like our website.

We have assessed the cost of fixing the issue, navigating forms using a keyboard. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment on this in January 2022.

How we tested this website

The website has undergone accessibility testing over the last 2 years. These tests were carried out by S8080.

We did a full accessibility website check using TotalValidator on 25 September 2020.
We tested our site templates which makes up the different types of web pages used on Business Wales using Axe on 28 October 2021.
We are currently running a new full accessibility website check using SortSite which is expected to complete by mid-January.

During the TotalValidator check on 25 September 2020 and currently with the SortSite check which is expected to complete by mid-January. We run automated scans for all WGAG 2.1 AA errors.

We test our main website platform, available at businesswales.gov.wales and busnescymru.llyw.cymru and our sub sites, available at:

We are also currently reviewing all the sites listed above to ensure that they pass WCAG 2.1 guidelines visually as these were created before the WCAG 2.1 guidelines. This is an ongoing process with improvements continuously made.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

Our planned improvements to the issues highlighted in this statement will be addressed from January 2022. We work with our supplier to continuously monitor and address any accessibility issues introduced during the ongoing development and updating of the website.

This statement was prepared on 06 December 2021.