Accessibility statement

Our commitment

CTI intends this website to be usable by as many people as possible, including people using a screen reader, a magnifier, speech recognition, a keyboard alone or a switch device, and people who need larger text, reduced motion or high contrast.

That commitment is met by building accessibility into the site rather than by auditing it afterwards. Content is static HTML, structure is semantic, and the interactive elements are native browser controls wherever a native control will do the job. A page on this site is readable and navigable with JavaScript switched off entirely.

If something here is difficult or impossible to use, CTI treats that as a defect in the site, not as a limitation on you.

The standard CTI works to

CTI works to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2, Level AA, published by the World Wide Web Consortium. WCAG is organised around four principles, and they are a useful way to read what follows.

Perceivable

Information and interface components must be presentable in ways people can perceive. On this site that means text alternatives for images, a data table beneath every chart, and contrast that holds on both the light and dark surfaces.

Operable

Interface components and navigation must be operable. Everything here works from the keyboard, focus is always visible, nothing is available only on hover, and motion is removed entirely when a visitor asks for that.

Understandable

Information and operation must be understandable. Headings describe what they introduce, the page language is declared, form fields are labelled, and an error says what to do about it.

Robust

Content must work with current and future user agents, including assistive technologies. The site is valid, semantic HTML that does not depend on client-side rendering to be understood.

The legal position

CTI is a private organisation. It is not a public sector body, and the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 do not apply to it. This statement is therefore voluntary, and WCAG 2.2 Level AA is a standard CTI has chosen rather than one imposed on it.

Disability and equality duties on a service provider are not set by one statute across the United Kingdom, and a statement that named only one would be wrong for part of its audience. In Northern Ireland they come from the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 as it applies there, amended by the Disability Discrimination (Northern Ireland) Order 2006. In Great Britain they come from the Equality Act 2010, which does not extend to Northern Ireland. Which framework applies to a given service depends on where it is provided.

Both require a service provider to make reasonable adjustments so that a disabled person is not put at a substantial disadvantage, and in both the duty is anticipatory: it is about thinking of disabled people in general when a service is designed, not waiting for a request. CTI treats accessibility that way, and the request routes at the end of this statement are part of how it meets that duty.

CTI adopts WCAG 2.2 Level AA as its technical accessibility target across this website regardless of which statutory framework applies to a particular reader, because a single published standard is more useful to you than a jurisdictional answer.

How far the site conforms

This is a deliberately narrower claim than the one most accessibility statements make, and it is the one the evidence supports. The position stated here is the position as at the review date on this page.

What is built into the site

• Semantic structure throughout, with one page heading, a heading order that does not skip a level, and named landmarks on every page.
• A skip link as the first focusable element on every page, moving focus to the main content.
• Full keyboard operation. The navigation menu, every disclosure and every interactive element opens, operates and closes from the keyboard, and the menu returns focus to the control that opened it when it closes.
• A visible focus indicator on every interactive element, at high contrast, never removed.
• Text and interface contrast meeting Level AA on both the light and dark surfaces, asserted from the design tokens themselves so a colour change that broke it would fail the build.
• Reduced motion honoured globally. With the operating system preference set, no animation runs anywhere on the site.
• No control available only on hover. Anything reachable with a pointer is reachable with a keyboard.
• Text alternatives on images, and accessible descriptions on diagrams and charts. A data table accompanies every chart, so a figure can be read without interpreting a graphic.
• The navigation menu is a native disclosure element rather than a scripted one, so it works before any script has run and continues to work if none does.
• Layout that reflows to a single column without horizontal scrolling, down to a 320 pixel viewport width, which is the width WCAG's reflow criterion is measured at.
• Form fields with visible, programmatically associated labels; required fields marked in text rather than by colour alone; errors reported in text, associated with the field they concern, and announced through a polite live region rather than appearing silently.
• Critical content present in the HTML. Every page is readable and navigable with JavaScript disabled.

What has actually been tested

The distinction between these methods matters, because they establish different things. All of them run automatically and a failure in any of them stops a change from being released.

Automated rule checks

An accessibility rule engine runs against every built page on every build, covering the WCAG 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 Level A and AA rules it is able to evaluate, plus a set of best-practice rules. It detects a defined subset of failures, which is why it appears here as one method among several rather than as a conformance result.

Colour contrast

Contrast ratios are computed directly from the design system's colour values and asserted against the Level AA thresholds for text and for interface components. This tests the system rather than a sample of pages, so a token change that broke contrast anywhere fails immediately.

Keyboard operation and focus visibility

Exercised in a real browser: tab order through the page and through the enquiry form, the skip link, opening and closing the navigation from the keyboard, Escape behaviour, focus returning to the control that opened a menu, and a visible focus indicator on each interactive element in turn.

Reduced motion

Tested with the reduced-motion preference emulated in a real browser, with the suite asserting that the emulation actually took effect before testing anything, so a test that silently ran without the preference cannot pass.

Responsive layout and reflow

Pages are checked at desktop, tablet and phone sizes, and at a 320 pixel viewport width, for horizontal overflow and for content escaping its container.

Structure without JavaScript

Pages are loaded with JavaScript disabled and checked to confirm that the content, navigation and structure are all present.

Manual review during development

Heading structure, link purpose, alternative text and error wording are reviewed by hand as content is written. This is a working practice rather than a formal audit, and it is recorded here as such.

The consent interface, revealed

The cookies and measurement banner and panel are hidden in the served page so a returning visitor never sees them flash. Automated checks correctly skip hidden content, so the suite reveals them deliberately, opens the panel and runs the same rules against it. A privacy control that passed only because nothing looked at it would be the worst kind of false assurance.

Not yet carried out

Structured testing with screen readers and other assistive technologies, testing with disabled users, and an independent third-party accessibility audit. None of these has been done, and nothing on this page should be read as implying otherwise.

Known limitations

These are the things CTI knows are not fully covered. Publishing them is part of the commitment above: a limitation a reader can see is one they can work around or report.

• No assistive-technology testing has been completed. The site is built to work with screen readers and is structured for it, but that has not been verified with real assistive technology across browsers and platforms, so problems specific to a particular combination may exist and be unknown to CTI.
• No independent audit. Everything on this page is CTI's own assessment of its own site.
• Complex diagrams and system visuals. Some CTI visuals express relationships between parts of a commercial system. Each carries a text description and, where it presents figures, a data table. A relationship diagram is harder to convey in text than a bar chart, and CTI does not claim that the text description conveys everything the diagram does.
• The enquiry form requires JavaScript to submit. The form renders and every field works without it, but the security check that the submission has to pass runs in the browser, so the submit control stays disabled when JavaScript is unavailable. The published email addresses are printed directly beneath the form for that reason, and an email is a complete alternative to the form rather than a lesser one.
• The assessment environment is separate. CTI assessments run in a different environment, whose accessibility is governed separately from this statement.

Third-party content and services

Some components of this site are provided by third parties. They fall into two categories, and CTI's responsibility differs between them.

Components a visitor interacts with

Principally the security check on the enquiry form, which is what stops the form being used by automated scripts. CTI chooses the configuration that presents the least interaction to a visitor and requires keyboard operability, but it does not control the provider's interface, and the accessibility of that interface is ultimately the provider's. Where such a component blocks you, the alternative route below reaches the same place.

The cookies and measurement panel

Built by CTI rather than by a provider, so its accessibility is CTI's responsibility and not somebody else's. It is a privacy choice, which makes it one of the most consequential controls on the site to get right. It is tested on its own terms, because it is hidden until it is needed and an automated check run over the page as served would otherwise pass it without ever evaluating a single rule against it.

Components a visitor does not interact with

Measurement and delivery services that present no interface. These create no accessibility barrier of their own. They run only where consent allows them to, and refusing them changes nothing about what you can read or do here.

If that check prevents you from sending an enquiry, use one of the published email addresses on the Contact page instead. Your enquiry reaches exactly the same place.

Pages on this site link to external sources. CTI does not control the accessibility of an external site.

Information in another format

If something published here is not accessible to you, ask for it in another format and CTI will provide it. That includes a text or plain-document version of a page or report, the data behind a chart or diagram, larger print, or a description of a visual by another route.

Say which page or publication you need, what format would work for you, and how to send it to you. CTI does not charge for this.

Reporting a problem

If you cannot use part of this site, tell CTI. A report is treated as a defect and investigated on the same basis as any other fault, and it is the fastest route to a fix.

Email contact@ctindex.org, or use the form on the Contact page. It helps to include the page address, what you were trying to do, what happened instead, and the browser and any assistive technology you were using, but a report without those is still worth sending.

That address is the route for accessibility reports. Reports sent to it are recognised as accessibility reports and routed to the people who can act on them.

If you are not satisfied with how CTI responds, say so in reply and it will be escalated. Independent advice on disability discrimination rights is available from the body for your jurisdiction: in Northern Ireland the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, at equalityni.org, and in Great Britain the Equality Advisory and Support Service, at equalityadvisoryservice.com.

How this statement is kept current

This statement is dated, and it is reviewed when the site changes materially, when testing finds something that belongs in the limitations above, and at least once a year.

The accessibility checks described above run as part of the gate every change to this site has to pass before it is released, so the claims on this page are re-tested continuously rather than only at review time. A claim that cannot be supported is removed from this page rather than left standing.

The rest of how CTI works is set out in the privacy notice, the terms of use and on the Commercial Transformation Index pages.