Accessibility

This website is run by the Financial Ombudsman Service and is designed to be compatible with a range of assistive software, including screen readers like JAWS and NVDA, and speech recognition software. We want our website to be accessible to as many people as possible. For example, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• 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 aim to make our website text as straightforward and simple as possible. To help support our commitment to clear communications, we're a member of the Plain Language Commission and our website has been accredited the Clear English Standard.

Get help changing your computer settings 

There are lots of things you can do on your computer to make web pages more accessible. For example, you can:

• magnify your screen
• change text size and colours
• make your mouse easier to use
• use screen readers and talking browsers

If you need help doing these things, you’ll find clear and helpful guidance on AbilityNet.

This accessibility statement covers the following sites and sub-domains:

• https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk 
• https://sme.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
• https://cmc.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
• https://help.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of these websites are not fully accessible:

PDFs in our online decisions database:

• The PDF documents published within our decisions database are not fully accessible to screen reader software.

Our online complaint forms:

• The calendar pop up used to select dates in certain fields has structural issues that make it difficult to navigate for users of screen reader software.
• The calendar popup and ReCAPTCHA box both have borders with contrast ratios lower than the requirement.

Compliance status

These websites are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the exemptions that are listed below. 

Our non-accessible content

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

PDFs in our online decisions database – disproportionate burden

We use a series of systems in order to publish the PDF versions of the final decision letters that are contained in the decisions database on our website. We are currently unable to fully edit the documents prior to publication to aid users of assistive technology. As a result, the PDF documents published in the database are not fully accessible to screen reader software. Specifically:

• Our logo isn’t marked as an image in these documents and has no alt text. Users are not made aware of the presence of the image or the meaning of the image - 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A).
• There are no heading tags on these PDFs meaning that some users may struggle to navigate the contents of the page and understand the relationship between the text and headings - 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A), 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (Level AA).
• There are no list tags added to these PDF documents. Screen reader users may have difficulty understanding the relationship between the list data - 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A).
• The language of these documents is set to Dutch, while the documents are in English. It is possible that some screen reader users may have some words mispronounced, which could cause confusion for them - 2.1.1 Keyboard (Level A).

The decisions database is a key source of information for all website users. It shows all the final decisions we’ve issued since 1 April 2013. Publishing final decisions allows businesses and consumers to learn from previous decisions we’ve made and provides transparency around our work. There are therefore clear benefits of the system being accessible to people using assistive software.

Despite these benefits, we believe that complying with the accessibility requirement in the Regulations to deal with the issues listed above would impose a disproportionate burden on the Financial Ombudsman. 

The changes needed to make the decision PDFs compliant with the accessibility requirement are significant, since they will involve development work across several systems, as opposed to being changes that can be made quickly and discretely. We’re currently undergoing a significant re-tender of our technology support partner, which is due to be completed in Summer 2022. After that, there will be a roadmap of work to on-board the supplier, as well as other enhancements for them to work on. The work required to remedy the identified issues will be completed at an appropriate time in that programme of work.

While we could complete this work outside of this plan, we are satisfied that doing so in isolation would involve disproportionate cost and would be likely to be time consuming.  We are however continuing to look at options to consider whether there may be a more proportionate alternative.

Although that is the case, specific/decision documents can be made available in alternative formats on request. Please contact our stakeholder team.

Our online complaint forms – disproportionate burden

• The calendar pop up used to select dates in certain fields has structural issues that make it difficult to navigate for users of screen reader software - 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A).
• The calendar popup and ReCAPTCHA box both have borders with contrast ratios lower than the requirement of 3:1 - 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (Level AA)

Our online complaint forms provide a key way for people to submit complaints to us in a structured format. The forms are structured in a way which ensures we receive the information we need from a customer to be able to decide if it’s a complaint we can help with. There are clear benefits of the form being fully accessible to people using assistive software, though we do provide a range of alternative ways in which customers can complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

There are two remaining accessibility issues with the online complaint forms – we believe these issues are covered by the disproportionate burden exemption.  

The forms are provided and hosted by a third party, Egress. We have been working with Egress to improve the accessibility of our forms – and they have made product improvements to ensure people using assistive software can use the forms as intended. The outstanding issues require a wider product upgrade to resolve; Egress have confirmed this is scheduled for the first quarter of financial year 2022/23.

Due to the nature of the fixes, it is not possible for them to happen outside of this scheduled release, or for custom work to be carried out to resolve these issues. The alternative would be to find a different provider for our online complaint forms. This would take a number of months, require a contract change – and would likely come with its own accessibility challenges. It would be both costly and time consuming in circumstances where a fix for these issues is already scheduled, and where we already provide alternative ways of making a complaint. We are therefore satisfied that addressing these issues now would be a disproportionate burden.

Alternative channels to make a complaint include an accessible PDF version of the form, which is available to download on our site and can be sent to us by email, or we can take details on the phone. More information about how to contact us to make a complaint is available on the contact us page on our website.

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

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. 

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, such as an audio recording, large print or braille, please email our accessibility team or call our helpline on 0800 023 4567 – we’ll do our best to meet your needs.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, please contact our stakeholder team.

Technical information about the website's accessibility 

The Financial Ombudsman Service is is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared in September 2020. It was last reviewed in December 2021.

This website was last tested in July 2021. The test was carried out by DIG Inclusion. They conducted usability testing with a team of disabled users, and tested our website using technical auditing tools. All aspects of our website were tested by checking a sample of pages covering all of our available page templates and blocks.

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, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

ReciteMe is available to use on our website. It allows you to customise our site in a way that works for you. It offers a choice of accessibility tools such as a screen reader, translations and display options.

Open Recite Me

Our service is for everyone who needs our help resolving financial disputes.

When you contact us or use our service, we can provide information in different formats and adapt the way we communicate with you – depending on your needs. For example, we can use Braille, large print, coloured paper or background, audio CDs and media files, and we can make and receive calls using Text Relay or our British Sign Language relay service.

If you need information from us, or from this website, in a different format, such as an audio recording, large print or braille, please email us or call our helpline on 0800 023 4567 with details of your case reference number – we’ll do our best to meet your needs. 

Find out more about how we can adapt our service to meet your needs in the information below.