What this statement covers

This accessibility statement covers content available on the National Audit Office main site and on our graduate recruitment site as required by the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

The statement is applicable to the National Audit Office websites www.nao.org.uk and naoaccountancyscheme.co.uk. These websites are run by the National Audit Office.

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

  • Zoom in and out 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 and NVDA)
  • We’ve also made the website text as simple as we can to understand (given the technical nature of the content).

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

How accessible are our websites

The websites are heavily text based and most content is fully accessible.

Some content is not fully accessible:

  • Some of our report PDFs are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Some interactive graphical data visualisations have options that rely on mouse clicks, and are not accessible using only the keyboard
  • Some interactive graphical data visualisations use colour in graphs and charts
  • Our vacancy notice and job application system are not fully accessible to assistive technologies

See the technical section below for a more comprehensive description and details of mitigations and adjustments we have made.

Feedback and contact information

If you need assistance with the information on this website (such as help with or more explanation of our interactive content), then either

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact us and we will put it right.

  • Use our contact form
  • Email enquiries@nao.org.uk
  • Call 020 7798 7000 (ask to be put through to Enquiries)
  • Please include a link to the page with the problem and a brief description of the issue

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).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

You can contact us using our contact form, by phone or email:

If you make an appointment to visit our buildings, we provide:

  • Wheelchair access to meeting rooms
  • Accessible toilets
  • Use of our car park for people with accessibility needs by appointment

For additional needs, we may be able to make special arrangements by appointment.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The National Audit Office is committed to making sure our online services are accessible to all users and comply with level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines – WCAG 2.1, in line with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

In order to help us achieve and maintain our objective we have commissioned Sitemorse to carry out automated testing and Blazie UK to carry out WCAG 2.1 AA level technical compliance audits, including testing by users with a range of disabilities.

We selected the sample of pages to test based on typical examples of our website templates and third-party services.

Our last audit was in August 2022.

Compliance status

Our websites are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

PDF documents

We currently publish our reports in PDF format. These are mostly accessible, but:

  • Some reports contain charts and graphs that lack alternative text (WCAG 2.1  1.1.1 Non-text Content) or have  inconsistent metadata tagging that makes it difficult for someone using a screen reader to navigate them (WCAG 2.1 1.3.1 Info & relationships)
  • Some charts and graphs use colour (WCAG 2.1  1.4.1 Use of Color)

Interactive graphics navigation

Some of our interactive data visualisations are based on third-party tools and are difficult to fully navigate using a keyboard (WCAG 2.1  2.11 Keyboard). The main navigation and options selection are fully keyboard accessible, but some visualisations allow you to interact with the graphs directly by clicking on different sections with a mouse to access more detailed data.

Search results, contact form and pages about people

Our search results, contact form and pages about people are accessible. However, our most recent accessibility audit identified the following areas for improvement:

  • Ellipses in search results look like buttons but provide no functionality on a mouse click
  • When a search result has been completed, the focus moves to the top of the page, which will force keyboard and screen reader users to navigate through the page to get to the results
  • Social media links on personal profiles are only labelled with the social media site and not the person, which may make it difficult for screen reader users to understand what link refers to what
  • The search field on the home page is long, and may be irritating to screen reader users

Interactive graphics colour

Some interactive graphical data visualisations use colour in graphs and charts (WCAG 2.1  1.4.1 Use of Color).

Vacancy notices and applications

A number of accessibility issues in our vacancy notices and application system make it difficult to use with assistive technologies. To mitigate any issues, applications can be emailed directly to our recruitment team, bypassing the application.

YouTube hosted videos

A small number of videos on our site are embedded from the YouTube platform. These are exempt from the Regulations as the embedding code is not under the control of the NAO.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

PDF documents

We are investigating using additional visual elements as well as colour to communicate information, such as patterns.

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of a PDF in a more accessible format, or any of the figures in a different format, please email enquiries@nao.org.uk or use our online contact form. Alternatively, you can phone the NAO Enquiries Point on +44(0)2077987264. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

We are currently investigating if it is feasible to produce HTML versions of our reports. We will update this statement when those investigations are complete.

Interactive data visualisations

To mitigate issues with the accessibility of interactive data visualisations, we:

  • Provide CSV files of the raw data behind our visualisations. These can be downloaded into an accessible technology of choice and analysed
  • Provide one-to-one remote assistance.  If you need help using our interactives, please use the contact details in this page to request help and we will provide someone to assist
  • We are working with third-party suppliers to understand their latest accessibility techniques and encourage them to develop their software to be more accessible

We will provide data in colour coded charts and graphs in an alternative tabular text format. We will also provide the data in an accessible format on request.

Search results, contact form and pages about people

We are currently investigating fixes for the issues outlined above, and aim to implement those we can by the end of 2024.

In case of difficulties, please contact us for help:

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was first prepared on 22 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 11 November 2023. You can read our most recent accessibility report.

Previous accessibility reports applied to a different version of this website.