Are you planning a visit and need to know about the facilities at our museums? Visit our Facilities and Access page instead.

We believe that accessibility should be regarded as a continual work in progress and we will work with an advisory group to review and improve our digital communications on an ongoing basis. We also follow best practices to meet a minimum level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.

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

  • zoom in up to 300% 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 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:

  • There are elements with low colour contrast.
  • The heading structure is incorrect on some pages.
  • There are some text rendering and reflowing issues at 200%+ zoom.
  • Some content in languages other than English is not declared.

There are also new WCAG 2.2 recommendations that haven't been manually tested.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: webcontent@rmg.co.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

Please visit our Facilities and Access page for details on planning an accessible visit to the Cutty Sark, National Maritime Museum, Queen’s House or Royal Observatory Greenwich. Visitors can also contact RMGEnquiries@rmg.co.uk with specific questions.

Find out how to contact us on our Contact Us page.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Royal Museums Greenwich 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.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Heading Structure Incorrect. This does not comply with WCAG Level A: 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks.
  • Language of Parts – Multiple Languages Are Not Defined. This does not comply with WCAG Level A: 3.1.2 Language of Parts.
  • Copy Has Insufficient Contrast Against Background. This does not comply with WCAG Level AA: 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum).
  • Rendering Issue Observed Zooming Text Only. This does not comply with WCAG Level AA: 1.4.4 Resize Text.
  • Content Disappears or is Not Available When Content has Reflowed. This does not comply with WCAG Level AA: 1.4.10 Reflow.
  • Image has non-empty accessible name. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 1.1.1: Non-text Content, 4.1.2: Name, Role, Value.
  • Element with aria-hidden has no content in sequential focus navigation. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 4.1.2: Name, Role, Value.
  • Heading has non-empty accessible name.
  • ARIA state or property is permitted. 
  • Each input element has only one associated label.

Disproportionate burden

Third-party content

Some of the embedded content on our pages is provided by third parties. We are unable to influence or change this content. This includes:

  • Google Maps
  • Wistia media players
  • Instagram posts

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards. For example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

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

Live video streams do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live).

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

How we tested this website

This website was manually tested in September 2023. The testing was carried out by a software testing and quality assurance company.

The website was manually tested for compliance against international standards including WCAG 2.1. The manual testing was supplemented by automated scanning to increase speed and coverage.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are working through the findings of the September 2023 tests in batches.

The first batch passed retesting in December 2023. The changes went live on the website on 4 January 2024.

The second batch passed retesting in March 2023. The changes went live on the website on 10 April 2024.

A final batch is due to go live later in 2024.

In January 2024 we implemented an automated scanning tool that produces regular accessibility reports based on the draft WCAG 2.2 recommendations. In April 2024 we will use this tool to confirm if further work is required to meet the new WCAG 2.2 success criteria.

Revision notes

This statement was prepared on 14 September 2020.

It was last updated on 11 April 2024.