Accessibility Statement

Our commitment to ensuring the British Maritime History archive is open, navigable, and usable for everyone.

Last updated: 15 March 2025 | Version 3.1

Our Commitment

British Maritime History is dedicated to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability. We are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our site—adhering to many of the available standards and guidelines.

This website endeavours to conform to level AA of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1. These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities. Conformance with these guidelines will help make the web more user-friendly for all people.

Our Accessibility Champion

Since 2015, our founder has personally driven our accessibility policy, ensuring it's embedded in every project—not an afterthought. We believe access to history is a right, not a privilege.

A stack of historical maritime books and documents, symbolising accessible knowledge

Accessibility Features

We've implemented numerous features to improve your experience.

🔍

Visual Design & Navigation

Clear, consistent layout with high colour contrast (minimum 4.5:1). Resizable text up to 200% without loss of content. Logical heading structure and skip-to-content links.

⌨️

Keyboard & Assistive Tech

Full keyboard navigation support. Meaningful link text and ARIA landmarks. Compatible with major screen readers like JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver.

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Content & Alternatives

Descriptive alt text for all informative images. Transcripts for audio content. PDFs are provided in accessible HTML format where possible.

98.3%
of pages pass automated WCAG 2.1 AA tests
247
manual user journey tests conducted annually
24h
average response time for accessibility reports

1. Scope & Compliance Status

This statement applies to content on the primary domain BritishMaritimeHistory.com. It covers all publicly available HTML pages, document viewers, and interactive tools developed in-house.

Partial Compliance: We are in the process of bringing some older archival PDF documents (pre-2020) up to current accessibility standards. These are being remediated on a rolling basis—approximately 120 documents per quarter.

Third-Party Content: Some historical maps and scanned documents from external archives are presented in their original digital format. Where we do not have the rights to modify the source file, we provide an accessible text summary alongside the asset.

A person using a screen reader to navigate a computer, hands on a braille display

2. How We Test

Our approach is multi-layered:

  • Automated Testing: Weekly scans using Axe and WAVE tools integrated into our development pipeline.
  • Manual Audits: Quarterly expert reviews by a certified accessibility specialist, focusing on complex interactive elements.
  • User Testing: Biannual sessions with participants who use assistive technologies, including screen readers, magnification software, and voice recognition.
  • Continuous Monitoring: Real-user monitoring that tracks tab-order navigation and keyboard trap incidents.

3. Known Limitations & Alternatives

We are aware of the following areas where we are not fully compliant and are working to address them:

  • Interactive Timelines: Some complex, draggable maritime history timelines have limited keyboard operability. We provide a static, tabular alternative data view for all timeline content.
  • Historical Ship Blueprints: Highly detailed technical drawings may not have comprehensive long descriptions yet. We are building a dedicated descriptive catalogue for these assets (target completion Q4 2025).
  • Live Data Feeds: Real-time vessel tracking maps may update without sufficient screen reader announcement. A text-based log of updates is available as an alternative.

If you encounter an issue not listed here, please report it to us.

4. Feedback & Contact

Your experience matters. We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of British Maritime History. Please let us know if you encounter barriers:

  • Email: support@BritishMaritimeHistory.com (Subject: "Accessibility Feedback")
  • Phone: +44 20 839 659 65 (Monday–Friday, 9:00–17:00 GMT)
  • Postal Address: Correspondence for the Data Controller, British Maritime History.

We aim to acknowledge your contact within one working day and provide a substantive response within five working days. We may ask for additional details—such as the device, browser, and assistive technology you were using—to help us investigate.

5. Enforcement & Rights

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 in the UK. If you're not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

This statement was approved by the management of British Maritime History on 15 March 2025. It is reviewed and updated at least annually, or following a significant website update.

Close-up of a modern computer screen displaying lines of accessible HTML code

Encountered an Accessibility Barrier?

We are committed to fixing it. Your feedback directly shapes a more inclusive archive.

"The team responded to my feedback about image descriptions within 48 hours. It's clear they take this seriously."

— Dr. Eleanor Vance, Researcher & Screen Reader User