Accessibility statement for the Royal Navy Design System

This accessibility statement applies to the Royal Navy Design System website and NPM packages.

This website and NPM packages are maintained by the defence Digital Foundry. We want as many people as possible to be able to use the components. 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.

1How accessible is the Royal Navy Design System?

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

• the text will not reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window

• you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text

• you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader

Best practices have been applied to all components in the Design System which we aim to continually improved based on feedback.

2Feedback and contact information

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

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 7 days.

3Reporting accessibility problems with the Royal Navy Design System

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of the Design System. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements open a GitHub issue.

4Enforcement 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).

5Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

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

Find out how to contact us.

6Technical information about the Royal Navy Design System's accessibility

We are committed to making the Design System accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

The Design System component library is fully compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to changes being a disproportionate burden. The Design System Team are currently working on a complete replacement for the documentation site which full be fully compliant with accessibility guidelines.

7Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By September 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

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

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

8What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Our roadmap shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website.

9Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 4th September 2020. It was last reviewed on 4th September 2020.

The component library was last tested on 4th September 2020. The test was carried out by us. Each of our components have been checked by using Storybook a11y add on which validates with the Axe core library.

You can view the status of each component by browsing to the Accessibility tab of each of our components in our Storybook implementation.

10Using the Design System in your application

While the Royal Navy Design System team takes steps to ensure the Design System is as accessible as possible by default, you still need to carry out contextual research.

Using the component library does not mean your service automatically meets level AA of WCAG 2.1. You’ll still need to make sure your service as a whole meets accessibility requirements.

You must research styles, components and patterns as part of your service to ensure that they are accessible in context.