Accessibility

At Royal London, we’re firm believers that all users - regardless of disability, language level, age or other differences in personal circumstances - should be able to find what they're looking for on our website.

Our accessibility commitment also meets our obligations under the Equality Act.

Conformance status

We strive to ensure that this website meets the standards of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 as established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

• Current accessibility standard of the website: WCAG 2.0 level AA
• Current website conformance status: Partially conformant some parts of the website do not fully conform to the accessibility standard. We continue to work towards meeting the WCAG 2.1 Level AA standard in full.

Assessment methods

The accessibility of this website is assessed using the following methods:

• Self-evaluation: The website is tested internally throughout the design and development process before releasing new features.
• External evaluation: The website is regularly audited by external auditors. These audits are carried out by Accessibility Specialists Nexer Digital.

Efforts to support accessibility

We've designed this website with accessibility in mind to help you find the information you need and to understand it, regardless of any previous experience with online financial services.

The website includes the following features for the convenience of all users including those who access the website with screen readers, keyboard-only interactions and other assistive technologies.

Sitewide search

The sitewide header features a permanently accessible search field that can be used to find any indexed content on our website. This search field provides quick summary results as you type, paginated full results and spelling error suggestions for search terms.

Please beware that there are some pages (promotional content) which don’t contain the search field as the content on these pages is self-contained with all information being available to the user removing the need for search.

Content written in plain English

We avoid financial jargon and write in plain English. This ensures all content is easy to read, provides clear instructions for using the website and has been designed in a way that's easy for visitors to navigate.

Clear heading structure

Our content is structured using Heading 1 to Heading 6 to help separate the content into clear sections that are logical and intuitive. This generally means that the content follows the visual flow of the page - left to right, top to bottom.

Please beware there are some pages where there may be skipped heading levels. We are doing our best to review content and avoid this happening.

Keyboard navigation

For users who prefer to use the keyboard we have added support for default keyboard controls such as the Tab, Spacebar, Enter and Arrow keys to allow you to navigate throughout the content.

• The Tab key allows you to move to the next focusable element (links, input fields and buttons etc.). Using Shift + Tab allows users to move to the previous focusable element.
• Using the Arrow keys to scroll up/down the page, to move the cursor (for example in a text input) and to select a value when using a dropdown box
• The Enter key when on a focusable element will activate links & buttons, open/expand the main navigation, and send a form (except when you're typing in a text area).
• The Spacebar will scroll down the page if no item is currently focused. Using Shift + Spacebar scrolls up the page. If on a focusable element the Spacebar will allow users to activate links & button, to toggle checkboxes and to open/expand items such as a dropdown or combo box.

Skip to content / Return to top of page

If you've reached a page and wish to progress straight to the page content, you can use the 'skip to content' functionality to do so.

To use this, from the browser address bar, press the Tab key. The 'skip to content' navigation item should be immediately selected. Selecting this link will take you to the main content area of the page.

Like the ‘skip to content’ option there is a 'back to top' button contained within the footer of the website. This allows you to quickly return to the top of the content.

Detailed sitemap

We have provided a complete sitemap of all our publicly accessible pages. This is available from a link at the end of every page.

Accessible infographics

Some of the pages on our website contain infographics that display data in a visual way such as a chart. For each of these, we've provided all the copy and data in an alternative accessible text version which can be read by screen readers and on some pages will also be substituted for the infographics on smaller screens.

Accessible videos

Short videos will have a transcript while longer videos will have closed captions or are often available in other formats.

Limitations and alternatives

Despite our best efforts to ensure accessibility of the Royal London website, there may be some limitations.

The following section is a list of known limitations, and potential solutions. Please contact us if you observe an issue not listed below.

Known limitations for the Royal London website

1. Font size has been locked down and cannot be increased using your browser settings, which fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4 (Resize text). However, some assistive tools such as ‘Zoom Text’ can be used to increase the content on each page.
2. Images on some pages don't always have suitable image descriptions. Users of assistive technologies may not have access to information conveyed in images. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content).
3. Some pages have duplicate titles. This may make it difficult for users to orient themselves and find the right content. This fails WCAG 2.4.2 success criterion (Page Titled).
4. Some features are inconsistently named, for example accordions, tables of contents, search boxes and translation navigation. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.2.4 (Consistent Identification).
5. Some buttons look like links. This means it's difficult for some users to complete a transaction or onward journey. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships)
6. Some use of ARIA is inappropriate which may result in some content announcing incorrectly or not at all. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
7. Keyboard Focus is not correct order and visible for all elements (2.4.3 Focus Order/2.4.7 Focus Visible).
8. Some components do not meet the minimum contrast ratio of 3:1. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.11 (Non Text Content).
9. Some ARIA attributes are used inappropriately, which may result in a screen reader not reading out content or announcing content incorrectly. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).
10. Some pages have poor colour contrast. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1 (Use of Colour).
11. Many documents are in less accessible formats, for example PDFs. 
12. When using the Search Bar the auto-suggested results cannot be accessed with keyboard controls. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 (keyboard). Users can still access the full list of search results by pressing Enter which takes users to the Search Results page.
13. Some of the longer length videos on this website do not have transcripts or closed captions.
14. The known limitations for the Royal London website are being worked on and we aim to have most of these resolved in 2023.

Use of technology

We regularly monitor for new devices, technologies or user behaviour or expectations that would change the accessibility requirements of the website.

Compatibility with browsers and assistive technology

This website is designed and tested to be compatible with the following browsers:

• Chrome (version 109/108)
• Firefox (version 109/108)
• Edge (version 108)
• Safari (version 15)

This website is designed to be compatible with the following assistive technologies:

• Screen readers - such as JAWS for Windows, NVDA, or Voiceover for Mac
• Screen magnification software
• Text readers

This website relies on the following technologies to work:

• HTML
• CSS
• Javascript
• WAI-ARIA

Last update

This statement was created on 17 November 2018 and last updated on 19 January 2023. It is scheduled to be reviewed again in November 2023.