Accessibility statement for the Companies House Direct service
- About this service
- How accessible this service is
- What to do if you cannot access parts of this service
- Enforcement procedure
- Technical information about this service’s accessibility
- Non-accessible content
- What we’re doing to improve accessibility
- How we tested this service
About this service
The Companies House Direct service is run by Companies House. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this service. For example, that means you should be able to:
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- zoom in up to 300% without the text disappearing 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)
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
How accessible this service is
We know some parts of this service are not fully accessible. We know that:
- background and foreground colours do not have a sufficient contrast ratio
- form elements do not have associated labels
- form elements have multiple form labels
- elements have a [tabindex] value greater than 0
- pages have empty (page) headers
- pages have empty table headers
- pages contain very small text
- pages contain table layouts
- there are no skip links present
- most PDF documents are not accessible in a number of ways including missing text alternatives and missing document structure
- the service times out without warning users or giving users the opportunity to extend
- there is expandable content which does not announce its state correctly, which may cause problems for users of assistive technology
- there are elements which are not visible on screen which may cause problems for users of assistive technology
What to do if you cannot access parts of this service
To get information on this service in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, contact us by:
- email at enquiries@companieshouse.gov.uk
- telephone: +44 (0)303 1234 500
(Monday to Friday 8.30am to 6pm, national call rate) - telephone (Welsh language) 029 2038 0065
- minicom: 02920 381245
- writing to us at:
Companies House
Crown Way
Cardiff
CF14 3UZDX 33050
We’ll discuss what assistance we can provide to help you meet your responsibilities. With your permission, we’ll place a note on our internal system.
For example, if you have impaired vision and would prefer us to contact you by phone, we can call to remind you when your confirmation statement or accounts are due.
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 service’s accessibility
Companies House is committed to making its website accessible in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
This service is not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. The non-compliances are listed in the next section.
Non-accessible content
Some of the content in this service is non-accessible.
Disproportionate burden
Navigation and accessing information
This content is non-accessible because:
- there’s no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option)
- it’s not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping
Interactive tools and transactions
This content is non-accessible because:
- some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard (for example, because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag)
We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigating and accessing information, and the interactive tools and transactions. At the same time, we have taken into account that:
- the service will be decommissioned in early 2021
- most of its functionality and information is already available on the Companies House service, all of it in an accessible form
We believe that fixing the issues now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. As we continue to develop and enhance the functionality available on the Companies House service our aim is to ensure that it can be used by as many people as possible.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
To improve the accessibility of our services, we:
- work with real users who have accessibility issues to make sure that our services meet their needs
- carry out internal tests for compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level A and level AA
- work with external agencies in major UK cities to perform usability research with users
- recruit customers through our user panel to take part in sessions at our usability lab in Cardiff
- build and test our services to meet government accessibility requirements
- are developing an assistive technology lab in our Cardiff office to improve the testing of our services and raise awareness of accessibility
How we tested this service
This service was audited on 8 July 2020. The audit was carried out internally where we tested a sample of pages using a variety of manual and browser-based testing tools.
This statement was prepared on 22 July 2020. It was last updated on 9 September 2020.