Accessibility Statement 

This statement applies to content published on https://www.cypcs.org.uk/.  

As the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, we have a legal duty to promote and protect children’s human rights. Those rights – as laid out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and many other international laws – make clear that: 

• access to information is a right all children and young people have, 
• people with disabilities have the same right to access information as everyone else,  and that 
• everyone has the right to be free from discrimination of any kind. 

This website is run by the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland. It is designed to be used by as many people as possible. The text should be clear and simple to understand. You should be able to: 

• zoom in up to 300% without problems 
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard 
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software 
• use most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver) 

Guidelines which we have to follow 

There are accessibility guidelines used around the world called the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1. 

The guidelines have goals that are split into three levels based on how vital they are to make a website that works for everyone and how challenging they are for the people who build the websites to meet: 

• Goals at Level A 
• Goals at Level AA 
• Goals at Level AAA 

Regulations in force across the UK mean our website has to meet these guidelines to at least AA standard. 

How accessible this website is 

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

• Some images contain text and full sentences that are not readable by a screen reader.  
• Some PDFs are not tagged or titled correctly. 
• Some PDFs fail to use a clear hierarchical heading structure which makes it easier for assistive technologies to navigate. 
• Many PDFs do not have HTML alternatives.   
• Some pages link to anchors that do not exist, this is a bug that sometimes appears with the footnotes system that we use.

Feedback and contact information 

Please tell us if you need information in a different format by emailing web@cypcs.org.uk.

In your message, it would be helpful to include: 

• the web address (URL) of the content 
• your email address and name 
• the format you need – for example, plain text, Braille, BSL, large print or audio  

Reporting accessibility problems with this website 

If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or you think we’re not meeting the accessibility requirements, please email web@cypcs.org.uk.

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 or query,please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS). 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility 

The Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland 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 due to the following ‘non-compliances’.  

Non-accessible content 

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

• Some images have lengthy quotes of text or sentences not accessible to a screen reader. This fails success criterion WCAG 1.4.5.
• Some PDF documents don’t have titles that describe the topic or purpose of the page. This fails success criterion WCAG 2.4.2.
• Some PDF documents have not been tagged in a way that allows assistive technologies like screen readers to understand and show the correct information to a user. This fails success criterion WCAG 1.3.1.
• Some PDFs do not have tags nested properly. E.g. Some headings use the <p> tag instead of the appropriate <h> tag. This makes it difficult for assistive technologies to navigate documents. This fails success criterion WCAG 2.4.6.
• Some pages link to anchors that do not exist, this is a bug that sometimes appears with the footnotes system that we use. This fails sucess criterion WCAG 2.0 A 2.4.1
• Some documents are in less accessible formats, for example PDF. Non-HTML documents published on or after 23 September 2018 must have an accessible format. 
  

How we plan to fix these issues 

•  WCAG 1.4.5 (Images of Text). Our website houses numerous historical images, many of which include text. Since November 2023, we have changed our approach to ensure that images on our website either have no text or text is kept to a minimum. For example, the title of a report or text within a logo.  
• WCAG 2.4.2 (Page titled). Key staff across the office have completed ‘Creating Accessible Documents’ training. This will ensure titles are included correctly in all documents going forward. We are also now looking at historical documents and updating these accordingly.
• WCAG 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships). Key staff across the organisation have completed ‘Creating Accessible Documents’ training session.  This will ensure tags are applied correctly in all documents going forward. We endevour to fix historical PDF’s as well.
• WCAG section: 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels).  Key staff across the office have completed ‘Creating Accessible Documents’ training. This will ensure we understand the correct document structure and nesting of elements. We will also be updating guidance to external partners who sometimes create documents on our behalf to ensure these partners produce documents with hierarchical structures that assistive technologies can navigate. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. 
• WCAG 2.0 A 2.4.1 (Avoid linking to anchors that do not exist). We will be looking at developing a more robust footnotes system.
• Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. However, due to the large volume of PDFs published on our website, fixing historical documents is being undertook but progress is slow due to volume.

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

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.  

How we tested this website 

We use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.2 level A, AA, AAA to test how accessible https://www.cypcs.org.uk/ is.  

We carry out regular full-site accessibility audits using Silktide and act on the findings. The site currently achieves a 95% accessibility score in Silktide; when benchmarked against central government organisations, this places us in the top 10%. We also provide ongoing in-house training for staff on accessible online communications and creating accessible documents.

Preparation of this accessibility statement 

This statement was prepared on 29 September 2025.