Accessibility statement for www.fscs.org.uk

This accessibility statement applies to fscs.org.uk

This website is run by Financial Services Compensation Scheme. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings
  • zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using a keyboard or 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. The Plain English Campaign has accredited our website with its Crystal Mark. This is a yearly accreditation.

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

How accessible this website is

We know some aspects of this website are not fully accessible:

  • you may lose functionality when re-sizing text.
  • some parts of the website do not meet AA contrast standards, for example the 'Chat' pop-out input boxes and the ‘Contact Us’ input boxes not having sufficient colour contrast.
  • you cannot dismiss the additional content on hover over the navigation bar dropdown menu.
  • the CAPTCHA image on our Contact Us page cannot be adjusted, for example it may become blurry when magnified.
  • you may not be able to access our third-party content such as cookiebot, webchat and FAQs, particularly when magnifying the website.

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting website accessibility requirements, contact the Customer Services Team on 0800 678 1100 or by email enquiries@fscs.org.uk and the Website Team will be dealing with these reports.

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

Financial Services Compensation Scheme 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.

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

  1. Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
  2. Disproportionate burden
  3. The content is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

We have identified that we are non-compliant with the accessibility regulations and we plan to review and make changes within 3-9 months:

  1. The carousel controls below the carousel on some of our pages cannot be accessed using the keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.1.1. Keyboard criteria, where users should be able to use a keyboard to access all content and functionality of a web page.
  2. The changeable CAPTCHA image on the Contact Us page fails WCAG 1.4.5 Images of Text where the image quality becomes blurry as the image is magnified.
  3. There is not sufficient colour contrast in the placeholder text in the 'Your full name' and 'How can we help?' input boxes in the 'Chat' pop-out. This is available when the 'Need help?' button is shown on the page instead of the 'FAQs' button and does not have sufficient colour contrast. This fails WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum) and makes it difficult for someone with sight loss to see the content properly.

Disproportionate burden

Some of the content on the website is provided by third parties in the form of plug-ins, such as our Webchat and cookies consents. Where there are accessibility issues with these third-party plug-ins, we have raised those with our suppliers, and we are working to find solutions to the extent possible. Accessibility will be considered as part of any future renewal processes with our suppliers of website content. 

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

PDFs and other documents

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. For example, we do not plan to fix old PDFs that have contrast issues due to the colours used in those documents.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 20 September 2024.

There are plans underway to commission an independent audit in Autumn 2024 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

User testing will be taking place with the results expected in December 2024.  

We have used the findings of a review of a representative sample of pages that was carried out by the Government Digital Service that was shared with us in July 2024.

We also used findings from our own testing when preparing this accessibility statement.

The statement was last reviewed on 20 November 2024.