Accessibility

SQA continuously works towards creating accessible websites. The structure of the website, and how it displays information is designed to be accessible, and all new content is checked to ensure compliance.

If you have difficulties using sections of SQA's website please report this to us at: web.team@sqa.org.uk. We will try to amend the content immediately.

Problems accessing the content of this website

If you have problems accessing pages or documents published on this website, please contact SQA's Customer Support Team and we will supply you with 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.

Accessibility statement

Website

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

We are working towards making the website text as simple as possible to understand.

How accessible this website is

Past papers

We have a Digital Question Paper section

We provide requested past papers in Braille

Alternative assessment arrangements can be arranged for candidates who need additional support during exams.

If you have a question about assessment arrangement contact the team:

We are currently working on the following fixes to ensure our past papers (published from 2018) 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.

We know some parts of this website aren't fully accessible:

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We're always looking to improve the accessibility of 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 (web.team@sqa.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, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

How to contact us

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.

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.

Navigation and accessing information

It's not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.4 (orientation).

Interactive tools and transactions

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).

We've assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when the supplier contract is up for renewal, likely to be in two years. We are procuring a new website platform and will ensure our new site is fully compliant.

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents may not meet accessibility standards.

Problems are:

  1. PDF graphics with missing ALT attributes
  2. The metadata stream in the Catalog dictionary does not include the PDF/UA identifier

Our six-monthly check gives us a list of files which are not compliant, which we work through on a regular basis to fix.

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.

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

Please note our documents always provide a logical reading order, although headings may not always be hierarchical.

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.

How we test this website

This website (all pages) was last tested on 07/02/22. 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/

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.

This statement was prepared on 20/09/19. It was last updated on 29/03/22.

Web and mobile apps

Reporting accessibility problems with mobile/web applications

We're always looking to improve the accessibility of our mobile/web applications. If you find any problems that aren't listed on this page or think we're not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: the web team (web.team@sqa.org.uk)

Non-accessible content

Our mobile applications are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

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

Dark mode

Dark mode currently fails accessibility. When a device is set to dark mode, there are no visual changes to the app.

What we are doing to fix:

Increased text size

On iOS settings you can enable larger text sizes, however most of the content does not increase in size accordingly. However, there is a ‘Zoom’ feature which is native for iOS, this allows the user to zoom in and navigate any elements within a page.

On Android there is no native feature to increase text size, therefore this fails accessibility. Android has a ‘Zoom’ feature within the ‘Magnification’ section of accessibility page in the settings.

What we are doing to fix:

Screen reader

iOS and Android have native screen readers in the accessibility section. These can be toggled on, and an element can be double tapped, this will read the text out to the user. These tools do not work successfully across all pages where buttons exist.

What we are doing to fix:

Image/button alternative text

There is no alternative text on any images or buttons this fails accessibility.

What we are doing to fix:

Keyboard/switch access

Some areas of the app enter a ‘keyboard trap’ when tabbing through a form.

What we are doing to fix:

How we tested our mobile applications

  1. Manual checks/testing: to identify issues from a usability point of view.
  2. Testing with analysis tools: use of tools to discover opportunities to improve the mobile applications accessibility.
  3. Axe Accessibility checker’ for Android
  4. User testing: feedback from users who interact with the mobile applications
  5. Used mobile applications native screen readers. For iOS - ‘VoiceOver’. For Android, ‘TalkBack’

This mobile applications statement was prepared on 05/08/21. It was last updated on 06/08/21.

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:

The Adobe site offers:

More information on accessibility: