Accessibility statement for Alzheimer’s Society

We strive to ensure our website is accessible to everyone. For example, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• zoom in up to 400% without the text disappearing 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).

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

A selection of our most popular publications are available in alternative formats. These include e-books, videos, large print PDFs and audio.

We also have Easy Read information about dementia designed with and for people with learning disabilities. And we provide dementia information in a range of languages, including British Sign Language (BSL).

Alongside this, we produce information about equipment and technology for people with dementia and anyone who cares for them. 

How accessible is the Alzheimer's Society website?

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

Keyboard accessibility

1. Some functionality of the website is not operable via keyboard alone.
2. In some areas links that are not visible receive focus.
3. Some focus interactions don’t follow the expected pattern.
4. Some modals (pop-over content) are difficult to use with a keyboard.
5. People who rely on a keyboard might find it difficult to understand where they currently are on the page.
6. A visible label does not match the accessible name.

Screen Magnification & Colour

1. People with some vision impairments might have trouble reading and interacting with some elements on our website because they currently don’t meet colour contrast guidelines.
2. People with some low vision won’t be able to enlarge the content by using “pinch to zoom” on a mobile device.
3. Some people who may override the current styling may not understand some content as it’s cut off.

Screen Readers

1. People using assistive technologies might have difficulty with some interactive controls that are missing labels which identify their purpose; and additional instructions aren’t read with their respective input fields.
2. People using assistive technologies might have difficulty operating some parts of the website because custom component (e.g. accordions, mega menu, tab panel, drop down menus, location input) does not behave as expected.
3. Some content that appears on mouse hover can’t be dismissed with keyboard alone.
4. People who rely on a screen reader may find it difficult to understand some images on the website and some content that is communicated visually is not conveyed to these users either.
5. People who rely on a screen reader are not made aware of some changes that occur on the page dynamically.

Deafness & Cognitive

1. People who may have a hearing impairment may find it difficult to understand some audio-only content as a transcript is not provided and some captions are inaccurate on some videos.
2. Form fields that are required to be filled in are not clearly or visually explained.
3. People who may struggle with memory may struggle to remember what information to input due to some text boxes relying on placeholders.
4. Some error messages aren’t described or indicated, and others only appear for a few seconds, making it difficult for someone who may take longer processing information.
5. People are required to explicitly input personal data, rather than being able to rely on autocomplete.

Getting in contact with us

Requesting alternative formats

If you need information on this website in a different format, like large print, Easy Read, audio or braille, we have a range of accessible content formats available. If you need something else or if you have any questions, email [email protected] or  call 0330 333 0804.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 7 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

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

Contacting us by phone

If you have speech or hearing difficulties and have a textphone or an adapted computer, you can use Text Relay to call our English-speaking Dementia support line on 18001 0300 222 1122.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

• We are establishing a list of continual accessibility improvements. Where possible, we include people with disabilities and lived experience of dementia throughout our design, development and content creation processes.
• We periodically use third party specialists to diagnose and fix accessibility issues within our website and associated platforms.
• Our roadmap includes a program to ensure our content is easier to read and navigate.
• A project is underway to replace our design framework with a more comprehensive design system. During this work, we plan to fix many of the current accessibility issues and improve upon our current level of accessibility.

How you can help us

Making our content accessible and usable is an ongoing collaboration with you. If you would like to be part of our user research activities, including paid research, let us know via our feedback form.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 13th June 2023

It was last reviewed on 13th June 2023.

This website was last tested on 5th April 2022. The test was carried out by Nomensa. All components and templates were audited, using a sample of 15 pages.

Core user-journeys were tested with the GOV.UK recommended list of assistive technologies.