Accessibility statement

Last updated: 10th February 2026.

Food Standards Scotland is dedicated to fostering accessibility in all aspects of its work, including its website.

We're continually striving to enhance the accessibility and usability of the Food Standards Scotland website for all users. Our efforts include the implementation of:

• easier-to-read colours and sufficient contrast levels
• use of Plain English to make the website text as simple as possible to understand
• larger font and zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
• 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)

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

This accessibility statement applies to the website for Food Standards Scotland – foodstandards.gov.scot.

Learn more about the actions taken to enhance accessibility on this website by referring to our accessibility policy below:

Food Standards Scotland is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 and the British Standard for Web Accessibility (BS 8878).

Our site has been built using code compliant with W3C standards for HTML and CSS, ensuring compatibility with current browsers. This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, the non-compliances are listed below.

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. The content listed below is non-accessible content elements:

Captions (pre-recorded content)

Captions for pre-recorded video content (audio only) are not yet accessible or text alternatives such as a transcript. This also applies to our pre-recorded audio content. 

This fails WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria 1.2.1 and 1.2.2.

We plan to add captions and transcripts to all pre-recorded video content and audio content by 2026.

Audio description (pre-recorded content)

The way the content is presented affects its meaning, and a correct reading sequence is not programmatically determined. This fails WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria 1.2.3 and 1.2.5.

We plan to add audio description to all pre-recorded video content by 2026.

Non-text content

Some images on the website have alt text that is too long, which can cause assistive technologies to truncate the description. As a result, users with disabilities may not receive the full information conveyed by the image. This fails WCAG 2.2 AA success criterion 1.1.1.

We plan to review alt text description on images by the end of 2026.

PDFs and other documents

Some document formats such as PDF, MS Word and Excel may not be fully accessible. They are not accessible in a number of ways including missing text alternatives and missing document structure. 

We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages. 

Interactive games

Our interactive games are not accessible and fail the following success criteria:

• the page does not reflow when the viewport changes. This fails WCAG 2.2 AA success criterion 1.4.10.
• the VoiceOver and tab options are hidden from view. This fails success criterion 2.1.1.
• the games rely on visual cues, i.e. shapes, colours, and size, to complete. This fails WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria success criteria 1.1.1, 1.3.1 and 1.3.3.
• some elements of the games do not use correct semantic markup, such as external links/buttons, to indicate functionality. This fails s WCAG 2.2 AA success criterion 2.4.4.
• users must operate the games using only landscape desktops. This fails WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria success criterion 1.3.4.
• users must use the dragging movement to operate some games. This fails WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria success criterion 2.5.7. 

PDFs and other documents 

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services.

As part of our work to improve the accessibility of this website, we are reviewing our policy on PDFs and other methods of delivering information with a view to making them as accessible as possible. We have identified them and will look to review these in 2026.

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).

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format please email enquiries@fss.scot. 

In your message, include:

• the web address (URL) of the content
• your email address and name
• the format you need - for example, plain text, braille, BSL, large print or audio CD

This statement was prepared on 30th September 2025. It was last reviewed on 10th February 2026. 

The accessibility statement was last tested on 5th September by the Union. The Union conducted usability testing on the key user journeys of the Food Standards Scotland website, ensuring they were tailored to diverse audience segments with varying physical and cognitive needs. 

An additional test was carried out using automated testing tools: 

Testing was done against the WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria on a random sampling of pages, which were representative of all available content types on the website. 

Food Standards Scotland reserves the right to amend this policy periodically.