Accessibility

Accessibility statement for cadw.gov.wales and cadwmembership.gov.wales

This accessibility statement applies to cadw.gov.wales and cadwmembership.gov.wales run by Cadw, Welsh Government.

We have made every effort to ensure this site is accessible to all. We have aimed to make this site adhere to the WCAG 2.2 AA guidelines.

This site is also built using the latest CSS properties and HTML5 semantic mark-up available in modern web browsers to optimise accessibility.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

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’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.

This website’s accessibility

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

the website does not allow users to change colours, contrast levels and fonts
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.

Feedback and contact information

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

email: Cadw@gov.wales
telephone: 0300 0256000
address: Cadw, Welsh Government, Rhydycar Business Park, Merthyr Tydfil, CF48 1UZ

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 15 days.

If you can’t view the map on our find a place to visit page, call us on 0300 0256000 or email us Cadw@gov.wales for directions.

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, please contact us by:

email: Cadw@gov.wales
telephone: 0300 0256000
address: Cadw, Welsh Government, Rhydycar Business Park, Merthyr Tydfil, CF48 1UZ

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the accessibility regulations. If you’re 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

Our visitor centres have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Use our find a place to visit map to visit us at a site near to you.

How to contact us:

email: Cadw@gov.wales
telephone: 0300 0256000
address: Cadw, Welsh Government, Rhydycar Business Park, Merthyr Tydfil, CF48 1UZ

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Cadw 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 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Images on some pages do not always have suitable image descriptions and/or alt text. Users of assistive technologies may not have access to information conveyed in images. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content).
Some video content does not include transcripts of the audio information including names and locations. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.5 (Audio Description) (prerecorded).
Some headings do not display correctly. They may look like normal text or a different type of heading. The tab component on the Membership page has a role of ‘tablist’. This should only have ‘tab’ child elements, but it contains ‘tabpanel’ elements. The “tabpanel” elements should be programmatically associated with each “tab” and not set as direct child elements of the “tablist”. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
On the Membership, MyCadw page, there is an input field which requires members’ email addresses, the autocomplete is set to ‘off’. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.5 (Identify input purpose).
The in-page navigation menu on the site monument pages does not reflow when zoomed to 400%. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.10 (Reflow)
On the membership website, when accessing MyCadw, the borders around ‘email address’ and ‘password’ do not have sufficient contrast against the background. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.11 (Non-text contrast).
Some images include text with poor colour contrast to its background. On the membership website, when selecting membership packages and adding items to the online basket, there is insufficient contrast of text on background. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum).
On some pages, skip to main content links don’t skip straight to the main content. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.1 (Bypass Blocks).
The title of MyCadw is not fully descriptive of the page content and is labelled only as Cadw. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.2 (Page titled).
Some headings don’t accurately describe the content underneath. The text on some buttons fail to adequately describe what the button does. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels).
Some Welsh text information is not marked as being Welsh. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.1.2 (Language of parts).
Some links that reveal more content can cause some screen reader users to lose their position on the page. Tabbing through the membership pages can cause focus to disappear in the header when pages are zoomed to 200% or more, focus moves into the hamburger menu when collapsed. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).

Third party software

Some forms and surveys are built and hosted through third-party software (SmartSurvey), and ‘skinned’ to look like the Cadw website.

These forms are difficult to navigate with screen reader software. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and relationships).
Some of our forms ask users to upload a file attachment; the generic button label means it’s not programmatically associated to the relevant question. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and relationships).
Fields are missing autocomplete attributes when entering text. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.5 (Identify input purpose).
When forms are zoomed to 400% date and time fields overlap and are partially cut off making it difficult to enter the required information. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.10 (Reflow).
When entering incorrect field information there is insufficient contrast of text on error styling. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast minimum).
When entering data in required fields, arrow indicators do not have sufficient colour contrast to background. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.11 (Non-text contrast).
When fields are in error state, they do not have a visible focus indicator. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.7 (Focus visible).
The bilingual landing pages contain Welsh text but is not marked as so. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.1.2 (Language of parts).
When completing forms, the progress bar changes are not announced when using assistive technology. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.3 (Status messages).

Problems with PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDF documents don’t meet accessibility standards; for example, they may not be marked up so they’re accessible to a screen reader.

Some of our PDF documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services. We are working to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

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

The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

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

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.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are working alongside other departments to fix content which fails to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23 August 2020. The statement was last reviewed on 28 August 2024.

The websites were last tested on 09 January 2024. The tests were carried out by S8080 and Spindogs Digital Agencies.

We used SortSite to run an automated scan for all WGAG 2.2 AA errors.

We tested:

our main website platforms, available at https://cadw.gov.wales / https://www.cadwmembership.service.gov.wales

You can request information regarding our full validity test report by contacting us:

email: Cadw@gov.wales
telephone: 0300 0256000
address: Cadw, Welsh Government, Rhydycar Business Park, Merthyr Tydfil, CF48 1UZ