Accessibility Statement – Royal Museums Greenwich Shop

Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Statement for Royal Museums Greenwich Shop

This website is run by Royal Museums Greenwich. 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
  • 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.

How accessible this website is

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

  • Selected elements across all pages when tabbed to do not have a visible focus indicator.
  • The user is unable to expand the sub menus found within the navigation header when tabbing through the page.
  • Non-decorative images found on the homepage lack alt attribute values and selected decorative images found across the site were found to have an alt value that was not set to null.
  • Several lines of text were found to lack contrast with the background page.
  • During testing of form elements found across the site, it was found that several UI components were not labelled such as drop downs and ‘Checkout’ CTAs.
  • Multiple buttons do not have an accessible name which is announced to users of screen readers.
  • When completing key journeys such as adding items to the basket the user was not notified of additional content being displayed.
  • Furthermore, upon successfully submitting the contact form the user is not notified that the form was successfully submitted either by announcement or through focus.
  • A total of 35 instances have been raised for fixing.

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

Please visit our Facilities and Access page for details on how to plan an accessible visit to the Cutty Sark, National Maritime Museum, Queen’s House or Royal Observatory Greenwich.

Find out how to contact us visit our Contact Us page.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Royal Museums Greenwich is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This website is 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

The majority of adjacent image and text links are combined. Several issues have been observed, the linked header logo lacks an alternative attribute. Across a select few web pages, linked imagery lacks expected alt attributes and decorative imagery is observed to contain inappropriate alternative text.
This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion A: 1.1.1 Non-Text Content.
We plan to make frames, images, multimedia, etc. accessible through the use of alternative text, values, labels and titles by October 2020.


Semantic markup is used appropriately for headings and emphasised text, and variations are used in presentation of text to convey information. Further to this, observed tables do not have a caption that duplicates summary text. The pre html element is not used for tabular data, the nav bar elements are correctly linked in a nav group and the ordering of the page is correct. No page instructions rely on shape, sound , size or visual location. None of the pages under test are restricted to orientation and all regions on tested webpages are identified with semantic landmarks. Most form elements have an associated text label. However, the quantity field within the basket overlay does not have an associated label. Also the majority of form elements are grouped with a fieldset. However, on the ‘Contact us’ page this is not the case, with both fieldset and the autocomplete attributes not present.
This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion A: 1.3.1 Info and Relationships; A: 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence; A: 1.3.3 Sensory Characteristics; AA: 1.3.4 Orientation; AA: 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose.
We plan to ensure markup is used semantically and promotes accessibility, content is ordered logically with stylesheets disabled and instructional content on the page does not rely upon shape, size, visual location or sound by October 2020.


It has been observed that no information is solely communicated by colour. For example, links within text have additional styling. No audio is present on any of the webpages observed. Content can also be presented without two dimensional scrolling, and text is displayed without loss of functionality or content when a custom CSS text styling is applied. Furthermore, the user can access additional content without the content disappearing. Issues observed include, copy lacking contrast in several areas against the page background. Content is being cut off on the Homepage and Collections Page when text is zoomed to 200%. Further issues include images of text being observed on the Blogs and Blog Post pages, and user interface components lacking contrast against the background in several areas. Likewise, the user interface components lack contrast when in selected or focused state across all site pages. The user is also unable to dismiss content that appears on hover.
This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion AA: 1.3.4 Orientation; AA: 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose.
We plan to ensure information - including clickable links - are not solely conveyed by colour. Mechanisms are provided to stop, pause, mute or adjust the volume for audio that automatically plays on a page for more than 3 seconds, and contrast between elements is of an acceptable standard as defined by the W3C. Additionally, the size of the text on the page can be resized to 400% without loss of content or functionality and images of text are avoided, or accessible if necessary by October 2020.


No single character keyboard shortcuts, access keys or shortcut keys are defined and pages do not require specific timings for individual keystrokes. The user does not become trapped when tabbing the page content, it was however noted that on all pages which display the header navigation, the user cannot tab to and expand the main navigation drop down menus.
This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion A: 2.1.1 Keyboard; A: 2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap; A: 2.1.4 Character Key Shortcuts.
We plan to ensure the website is accessible as a keyboard-only user, not requiring the use of a mouse unless the functionality cannot be accomplished in any known way using only the keyboard (e.g. freehand drawing). Shortcut and accesskeys do not conflict with existing browser and screen reader shortcuts and focus is never locked or trapped at one particular element on navigating the website using the keyboard by October 2020.


A 'Skip to Main Content' CTA is present on all pages and the purpose of each link, form image button and image map hotspot can be determined. When tabbing the pages under test, the tab order is deemed to be logical however the user is unable to tab into any of the navigation dropdown menus. In addition to this, multiple elements lack a visible tab focus indicator. When inspecting the code, each web page currently has an incorrect heading structure and the iframe on the 'Blogs' page lacks a descriptive title.
This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion A: 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks; A: 2.4.2 Page Titled; A: 2.4.3 Focus Order; A: 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context); AA: 2.4.5 Multiple Ways; AA: 2.4.6 Headings and Labels; AA: 2.4.7 Focus Visible.
We plan to ensure the user is able to skip repeated elements on the page through the use of a CTA or appropriately structured heading hierarchy. Titles are used where appropriate and the purpose of links, buttons and map hotspots can be determined and are readily distinguishable. More than one way is available to locate a webpage within a set of pages (except where the webpage is a result of, or a step in a process) by October 2020.


All interactions can be completed through simple gestures, it was however noted that the down event of the pointer currently opens the dropdown menus on the 'Collections' and 'Blog' page. No functionality is operable by motion. The majority of user interface components are labelled correctly. However, on the ‘Blogs’ and ‘Cart’ webpages, the ‘Select’ CTA do not have labels.
This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion A: 2.5.1 Pointer Gestures; A: 2.5.2 Pointer Cancellation; A: 2.5.3 Label in Name; A: 2.5.4 Motion Actuation.
We plan to ensure all functionality that uses multipoint or path-based gestures for operation can be operated with a single pointer without a path-based gesture, unless a multipoint or path-based gesture is essential by October 2020.


Pages with legal or financial implications provide an opportunity to modify or delete user data. It was however noted that error suggestions are not currently provided to the user on the ‘Checkout’ and ‘Contact Us’ pages, and requirements are not communicated through the label.
This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion A: 3.3.1 Error Identification; A: 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions; AA: 3.3.3 Error Suggestion; AA: 3.3.4 Error Prevention (Legal, Financial, Data).
We plan to ensure the user is made aware of when an input has been entered incorrectly or left blank, and the user is able to reverse, check or confirm in a process that causes a legal or financial commitment by October 2020.


It was observed that when viewing the code behind the page, HTML validation errors are observed, for example, the element div is not allowed as a child element. When adding an item to the basket it is not verbally announced to the user via screen reader. In addition to this, the success message is not announced upon submitting the contact form.
This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion A: 4.1.1 Parsing; A: 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value; AA: 4.1.3 Status Messages.
We plan to ensure the code behind the page does not produce any errors when run against the W3C validator, and markup is written in a way that facilitates accessibility by October 2020.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested in April 2020. The test was carried out by Zoonou.

We tested a representative sample of the website, which included the following pages:

  • Homepage
  • Product page
  • Collection list
  • Collections page
  • Blogs
  • Blog post
  • Cart/Your basket
  • Checkout
  • 404 page
  • Information page
  • Contact us

Accessibility testing was conducted in accordance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards.

Outside of the standard Level A and Level AA test execution, 3 user journeys have been conducted using the following tools in accordance with GDS guidance.

Assistive Tool

Browser/OS/Device environment

Jaws (screen reader)

IE11 Windows 10

NVDA (screen reader)

Firefox (latest) Windows 10

ZoomText (magnification)

IE11 Windows 10

Dragon Naturally Speaking (speech recognition)

IE11 Windows 10

VoiceOver (Mac OS) (screen reader)

Safari (latest) Mac OS 10.13

VoiceOver (iOS) (screen reader)

iPhone – Safari (latest) – iOS 13

TalkBack for Android (screen reader)

Samsung Galaxy – Chrome - Android

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

This statement was prepared on 22nd September 2020. It was last updated on 22nd September 2020.