Accessibility statement

VisitScotland is committed to making the information and resources that it provides via the web accessible to all users.

You can find a range of information and details of the different accessibility options we provide below.

We welcome suggestions and feedback to improve accessibility on this website. If you are experiencing any difficulties accessing the information on our pages, please email us at info@visitscotland.com.

This accessibility statement applies to https://www.visitscotland.com and https://businessevents.visitscotland.com.

How you should be able to use these websites

These websites are run by VisitScotland. We want as many people as possible to be able to use our websites. For example, you should be able to:

change colours, contrast levels and fonts
zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
navigate most of the website using just a keyboard or speech recognition software
listen to the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We also make 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 are these websites

Parts of these websites are not fully accessible. For example:

A correctly formed heading structure is not present to facilitate navigation
Some videos on the site lack an audio alternative
Where present, multiple languages are not defined
Multiple parsing errors are present
Some pages have poor keyboard navigation

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, please email info@visitscotland.com.

We will consider your request and get back to you within five working days.

If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or you think we’re not meeting the accessibility requirements, contact us.

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).

Technical information about the accessibility of these websites

VisitScotland is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Videos on some pages do not provide an alternative for time-based media or an audio track. Users with hearing or visual impairments will be unable to access the information within the videos. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.1 (Audio-Only and Video-Only (pre-recorded).
A correctly formed heading structure is not present to facilitate navigation across the site, with empty heading levels present. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.1 (Bypass blocks).
The order of tabbing and screen reader announcements may appear inaccurate on pages that contain a Google Map. This is documented in Google's issue tracker and although is expected behaviour, technically fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.3 (Focus Order).
Google Map pin labels will be generically named and read as “Map pin” to screen readers. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)) & 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels)
Multiple languages are present on certain pages that have not been programmatically determined. Both assistive technologies and conventional user agents can render text more accurately if the language of each passage of text is identified. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.1.2 (Language of parts).
Some documents are in PDF format. They are not accessible in a number of ways, including missing text alternatives and missing document structure. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and relationships).
The order of tabbing and screen reader announcements may be interrupted on pages that contain specific marketing campaigns, presented in the form of a Weblayer or Pop-up. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.3 (Focus Order).

Disproportionate burden

Content delivered by older applications, such as our tours listings and tours search widget, contain accessibility issues. For example:

Missing form input labels
Related form fields not properly grouped
Some custom controls lack defined roles that would allow them to be controlled by assistive technologies
“Skip to content” links not properly configured
Some child elements are focusable but are not voiced by screen readers
Zoom in and out does not work on some pages

This non-accessible content is delivered through applications which we are transitioning to our design system and shared component library, which will resolve the accessibility issues outlined above. We believe that fixing the accessibility problems caused by these older applications would be disproportionate.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

We are committed to continually improving the accessibility of our website. We achieve this by:

Performing regular accessibility audits
Incorporating feedback from users to improve our services
Providing audio described videos

We are also working towards transitioning our web estate to our new Design System and adopting our shared component library, which will resolve many of the accessibility issues outlined on this page.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 15/02/2023. It was last reviewed on 18/02/2026.

Accessibility testing on this site is routinely carried out by VisitScotland. A sample of pages and website components are tested using a combination of automated testing tools and manual testing techniques by our website team.

This website was last externally audited on 23/02/2023 by Zoonou. Zoonou used WCAG-EM to define the pages tested and test approach.