Accessibility Statement

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.

 

Efforts to support accessibility

We aim to make our websites accessible to the widest possible audience. This means, for example, that you should be able to:

• Change colours, contrast levels and fonts.
• Zoom up to 200% and 400% without problems.
• Navigate most of our websites using a keyboard.
• Listen to most of our websites using a screen reader.
• Easily understand the text on our website, as we have made it as simple as possible to understand.
• Use the ‘skip to content’ link, allowing you to progress straight to the main content on a page, skipping over items such as navigation elements. It can be accessed by pressing the tab button on first load of a page.
• Use the ‘back to top’ button, allowing you to quickly return to the top of the content on a page. It can be accessed within the footer of a page.
• Access text alternatives for multimedia content including infographics, images and videos. Videos typically contain either closed captions or transcripts.

How accessible this website is

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

• Some documents (such as PDFs) are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
• Some documents (such as PDFs) may have poor colour contrast.
• Some tables do not have row or column headers.
• Some heading elements are not consistent.
• Some link text is not descriptive to screen reader software.
• Some link text does not provide a hint that they are opening in a new browser window.
• Some content may be difficult to navigate using keyboard only.
• Some input fields with error messages aren’t read by screen readers.
• Some images do not have image descriptions.
• The cookie banner (when you first open the website) is not fully accessible.
• Some documents (such as PDFs) published before 23 September 2018 are not fully accessible to screen reader software but can be requested in an accessible format.

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or if you think we're not meeting the accessibility requirements, email us at custserv@royallondon.com to report this, including accessibility query in subject.

We will respond to your request within 10 working days.

 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The following provides more technical information relating to the compliance status and known issues.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA. We are continuously looking to improve the accessibility of this website. The issues preventing full compliance are listed within Non-accessible content.

Non-accessible content

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

1. Images on some pages don't always have suitable image descriptions. Users of assistive technologies may not have access to information conveyed these images. This fails the following WCAG 2.2 success criterion:

• 1.1.1 – Non-text Content

2. Some of the PDFs are in less accessible formats. For example, tables may not be properly structured, images may not have alternative text, the reading order of elements may not always be correct and document titles may not always be present. This may impact screen reader users who need to understand the documents. This fails the following WCAG 2.2 success criteria:

• 1.1.1 – Non-text Content
• 1.3.1 – Info and Relationships
• 2.4.2 – Page Titled
• 2.4.3 – Focus Order

3. The cookie banner doesn’t meet accessibility standards. For example, tab panels are read out twice by the screen readers. This may impact the screen reader users. This fails following WCAG 2.2 success criterion:

• 1.3.1 – Info and Relationships

4. Some error messages on input fields are not announced to screen reader users. This may impact screen reader users as they might not get information whether there is any error or not. This fails the following WCAG 2.2 success criterion:

• 1.3.1 – Info and Relationships

5. Some buttons look like links. This means it's difficult for some users to complete a transaction or onward journey. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion:

• 1.3.1 – Info and Relationships

6. Some ARIA attributes are used inappropriately. This impacts screen reader users which results in some content announcing incorrectly or not at all. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria:

• 1.3.1 – Info and Relationships
• 4.1.2 – Name, Role, Value

7. Some images use colour as the only way to convey meaning. This may impact users with partial sight who often experience limited colour vision. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion:

• 1.4.1 – Use of Colour

Some images include elements with poor colour contrast to the background. User with low vision may not be able to see the text properly. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion:

• 1.4.11 – Non-text Contrast

8. Keyboard navigation on the tabs for the “Privacy Preference Center” modal (i.e. cookie banner) is not consistent. Instead of navigation by way of the Tab key or Up/Down arrow key, the changing of tab is done with Left/Right arrow key. This may impact keyboard and screen reader users’ navigation because of the inconsistent behaviour. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion:

• 2.1.1 – Keyboard

9. Keyboard navigation on the tabs for the “Privacy Preference Center” modal (i.e. cookie banner) is not consistent. Instead of navigation by way of the Tab key or Up/Down arrow key, the changing of tab is done with Left/Right arrow key. This may impact keyboard and screen reader users’ navigation because of the inconsistent behaviour. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion:

• 2.1.1 – Keyboard

10. Some pages have duplicate titles. This may make it difficult for users to orient themselves and find the right content. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion:

• 2.4.2 – Page Title

11. Keyboard Focus order is not correct and isn’t visible for all elements. This may impact keyboard only users as they might not be able to access the content properly. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria:

• 2.4.3 – Focus Order
• 2.4.7 – Focus Visible

12. Links don’t meet accessibility standards. Some links are not descriptive to the screen readers and does not provide a hint of links opening in a new tab/window. This may impact screen reader users. This fails the following WCAG 2.2 success criteria:

• 2.4.4 – Link Purpose (In Context)
• 3.2.2 – On Input

13. Some features are inconsistently named, for example accordions, tables of contents and search boxes. This may impact users who have difficulty reading text or detecting text alternatives. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion:

• 3.2.4 – Consistent Identification

14. Some of the longer length videos on this website do not have transcripts or closed captions. This may impact users who have a hearing loss as they might not be able to access the auditory information without captions or alternatives. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria:

• 1.2.2 – Captions (Prerecorded)
• 1.2.3 – Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded).

 

Efforts to support future development

We will continuously improve areas of our site by adding new pages and functionality in line with our commitment to improve our digital services. Current and future testing will incorporate scenarios for accessibility alongside our scheduled accessibility audits. Our audits incorporate a testing strategy that covers a wide range of high-traffic pages and componentry. We will continue to ensure that any issues that are identified as part of future audits will be recorded on this statement.

 

Preparation of the accessibility statement

This statement was first prepared on 17 November 2018.  It was last reviewed on 11 December 2024.

This website was last tested on 7 October 2024 against WCAG 2.2 AA.