Accessibility statement for bfi.org.uk

The BFI is committed to making this website useful for everyone.

We use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 to improve the accessibility of our pages. There are 3 levels of accessibility: A, AA and AAA.

We work towards being AA compliant. At present we have partially met these criteria and continue to work towards achieving full AA across the site.

This website is run by the British Film Institute (BFI). 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 via browser or plugin
• zoom in up to 500% without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• 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 more information about how to make your computer, laptop, tablet or mobile easier to use.

We have worked with Zoonou, a software and Quality Assurance testing agency who specialise in accessibility testing, to carry out testing across a representative range of pages and components. 

The website was tested with the following:

This accessibility statement does not cover the following BFI services:

• BFI Player
• BFI Southbank and festivals ticketing site
• BFI Distribution catalogue
• BFI Collections Information Database
• BFI Shop
• BFI Cultural Handbook
• BFI Southbank programme notes
• BFI Mediatheque
• BFI Print store
• ScreenOnline
• Colonial Film
• Sight & Sound digital editions
• Sight & Sound Greatest documentaries of all time poll
• We Are UK Film 
• BFI Jobs and opportunities
• BFI Electronic tendering process
• Webpages from the old BFI website which still exist in some circumstances. 

As part of our longer term road map we will continue auditing and improving these services or to retire these services and pull the content into this accessible bfi.org.uk platform.

If you have issues with using parts of our website or identify accessibility issues that we’ve not stated, please do get in touch with us so that we can look to address them via email or the feedback form at the bottom of each webpage:

Email: customerfeedback@bfi.org.uk

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).

The BFI 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 and exemptions listed below. 

• Some of our imagery may not contain an appropriate alternative attribute. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 1.1.1 Non-Text Content.
• Some of our pre-recorded videos lack synchronised captions. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 1.2.2 Captions (Pre-Recorded).
• Our pre-recorded video content lacks audio description or media alternatives. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Pre-Recorded).
• Our pre-recorded video content lacks audio description. This does not comply with WCAG Level AA 2.1: 1.2.5 Audio Description (Pre-Recorded).

• Some of our PDFs and Word documents do not meet standards by lacking alternative text. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 1.1.1 Non-Text Content
• Some page content is not always contained within an ARIA Landmark region. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.
• Some page content is not always marked up correctly, which may cause some screen readers to announce content incorrectly or without the proper semantics. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.
• Some pages may feature skipped heading levels which may result in some content being skipped by screen readers. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks.
• The cookie notice is the last element in the focus order when navigating with iOS VoiceOver. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 2.4.3 Focus Order.

• We do not have a search function or available site map. This does not comply with WCAG Level AA 2.1: 2.4.5 Multiple Ways to Navigate.
• Some HTML validation errors are present across the website, this may cause some content to announce incorrectly for screen readers. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 4.1.1 Parsing. 

   

• When navigating pages with Dragon Naturally Speaking, a user is unable to expand the navigation menu dropdowns with any known voice commands. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.
• The label for our ‘Sign up’ newsletter form announces more than once by screen readers. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By December 2023, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages. 

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. 

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

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

We’re continuing to work with our accessibility partner Zoonou, running regular accessibility testing of our website and routinely addressing issues that occur.

This statement was prepared on 18 May 2023. It was last reviewed on 18 May 2023. 

This website was last tested on 17 May 2023. The test was carried out by Zoonou. We tested with pages that featured new functionality that had been developed in recent months.  

An annual accessibility audit of the website will be carried out in May 2024.