Accessibility statement for SQA

This accessibility statement applies to content published on the www.sqa.org.uk domain. It does not apply to content on other Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) domains (for example www.understandingstandards.org.uk)

This website is run by SQA. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

Plain english - it is important what we write is clear, concise and relevant. This ensures all our audiences understand us.

We aim to use plain and accessible language in all our written communications and we are working on making the website text as simple as possible to understand.

How accessible this website is

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

We are currently working on the following fixes to ensure our past papers (published from 2019) are fully accessible:

We are investigating fixes for our Urdu past papers and Mathtype usage as these are currently not accessible to screen readers.

Our modern languages and Gàidhlig past papers may not be accessible to screen readers in native language.

Technical information about this website's accessibility

SQA 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 2.1 AA standard.

Non-accessible content

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

Interactive tools and transactions/ 3rd party applications

Flair website 
Keyboard Functionality - when using the 'tab key' to navigate through the galleries. Once you have reached the gallery section you must use the left and right arrow keys to select between the different gallery thumbnails on the page. 

Screen reader functionality -. If using Read Aloud, it will read out the whole gallery in full, even if you have filtered for a specific school or qualification level. We are working with our technical teams to come to a resolution on this issue as quickly as possible and we apologise for any inconvenience caused. 

Recruitment application

Our recruitment sections are built and hosted through third party software and 'skinned' to look like our website. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (information and relationships).

PDFs and non-HTML documents

The accessibility regulations don't require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they're not essential to providing our services.

Some documents published on our websites are created by other organisations and may not meet SQA's accessibility requirements.

Live video

Live video streams don't have captions. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live).

We don't plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This website (all pages) was last reviewed on 11/10/23. The test was carried out by the digital team

We tested: our main website available at https://www.sqa.org.uk/

We used: Commercially available product: https://www.powermapper.com/

This statement was prepared on 20/09/19. It was last reviewed on 7/12/23.

What we're doing to improve accessibility

We test the website every six months and fix any accesibility errors we find.

We are training staff in accessibility awareness and clear and confident writing.

Feedback and contact information

If you have problems accessing pages or documents published on this website, please contact our Customer Support Team who will supply the page or document in an accessible format. Many of our publications can be produced in alternative formats, including large type, braille and community languages.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you find any problems that aren't listed on this page or think we're not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: the digital team

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).

Screen reader setting recommendations

Users of screen readers should note that this site makes use of Title and Acronym, and so will gain more from the site if they configure their screen reader to pick up these attributes.

For users of JAWS we recommend the following sort order 'title|text|alt|href' as the best combination to set.

Access keys

Access keys provide a quick way to navigate round the site without using a mouse, and on this site they are based on the UK Government Access Keys system.

The keys are used in conjunction with Alt or Ctrl and Enter keys which vary depending on your browser.

Windows users can navigate with the accesskey feature by typing ALT+Accesskey. On the Mac, you would use CTRL+Accesskey. Internet Explorer users may also need to hit the “enter” key to activate a link.

Detailed instructions

  1. Hold down
    • 'Alt' key if using Internet Explorer for Windows
    • 'Alt' and 'Shift' key if using Mozilla/Firefox on Windows
    • 'Ctrl' on Mac, or if using Safari on a Mac 'Alt' on Windows for Opera on Windows ('Alt' and 'Shift' are required in some circumstances)
  2. and simultaneously select a key from the list below
    • 3. you may need to also press 'Enter' if using Internet Explorer for Windows on a PC - other browsers go to the page immediately.
    • 0 - Accessibility and Access Key details
    • 1 - Navigate back to Home Page
    • 9 - Feedback to the SQA
    • S - Skip to Section Navigation links

These keys have been selected so as not to conflict with those in use by Browsers, Word, Acrobat Reader and assistive technologies such as JAWS, Supernova and HomePageReader.

Get help

AbilityNet provides guidance about how to: