Accessibility Statement

Accessibility statement for www.rbge.org.uk

Updated 29 July 2025

Accessibility statement for the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

This accessibility statement applies to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh website.

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

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • 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.

How accessible this website is

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

  • modifying text sizes will cause page content to extend past the page boundaries
  • form fields lack or are missing sufficient labelling
  • autocomplete attributes are not implemented sufficiently for specific entry fields
  •  the home page contains multiple instances of the same heading under the same heading tag
  • speech recognition software users cannot interact with various different elements across the site

Feedback and contact information

Email us at webmaster@rbge.org.uk or call 0131 552 7171

If you need information on this website in a different format, such as an accessible PDF or large print, we will do our best to support you.

Please provide us with:

  • The web address (URL) of the content you need
  • The format you need it in
  • Your name and email address

If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, call 0131 248 2909 or email us at  visitorwelcome@rbge.org.uk for directions.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact:

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh 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 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Images within the ‘Annual Report and Accounts’ PDF documents do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 non-text content.

We plan to resolve this by: January 2026

Some form inputs lack sufficient labelling or contain an empty label, screen reader users will not be able to announce any incorrectly or empty labels about the form controls. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 non-text content.

We plan to resolve this by: April 2027

Autocomplete is not used correctly on many entry fields which may result in inconsistent behaviour. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.5 identify input purpose.

We plan to resolve this by: April 2027

Once custom text styling has been applied to increase readability, the hero image text is obscured and cut off by the page limits. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.12 text spacing.

We plan to resolve this by: March 2027

Within the home page it is noted that there are multiple duplicate headings under the same title. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.6 headings and labels.

We plan to resolve this by: March 2027

Speech recognition users are not able to access the slider controls, elements within the articles calendar, the upload file and sign-up checkbox on the contact us page. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 name, role, value.

We plan to resolve this by: April 2027

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are continually working to improve the accessibility of our website. We conduct regular accessibility audits and act on their findings. We learn from these audits and other accessibility information, and we apply our increased knowledge to all updates we make.

We are also:

  • ensuring that all new components are built to WCAG 2.1 AA standards at a minimum
  • continuing our commitment to user testing and listening to our digital users
  • raising general accessibility awareness and training across the organisation

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 3rd June 2025. It was last reviewed on 29 July 2025.

This website was last tested on 2nd June 2025. The test was carried out by Zoonou.

Zoonou used WCAG-EM to define a representative sample of pages and the test approach.