This accessibility statement applies to this website, www.iwm.org.uk, run by Imperial War Museums. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means 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
  • 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’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

For help customising your experience using accessibility features already on your computer, or by installing extra assistive technologies, try these sites:

How accessible this website is

We've tried to build in features to increase general accessibility including: 

  • Text content written in plain English to make it easier to understand
  • A logical layout using structural elements including headings
  • Supporting assistive technology users in better labelling images
  • Skip to content links to help keyboard users
  • Having transcripts on audio and video

We know that some parts of this website aren't fully accessible and are working to improve their accessibility, including the following issues:

  • Not all buttons and forms are labelled fully
  • Images with missing or unhelpful alternative text
  • Links with missing text
  • Missing headings
  • A lot of older content might not be accessible e.g. some PDF documents are not formatted to be accessible. 
  • Some audio content and collections media does not have transcriptions.
  • Our third party booking system may not be fully accessible.

Feedback and reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website and welcome your feedback. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact our Customer Services team via our online form. If you prefer to contact us by phone, please call 0207 416 5000 or 0207 091 3067 (Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm).

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 our website’s accessibility

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

Compliance status

Imperial War Museums websites are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 (Opens in new window) AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

Our access audit included a test of over 100 pages across the IWM website, and the following were the most common problems found across the site:

  • Missing form label
  • Empty button and empty form labels
  • Empty link, redundant links, redundant title text
  • Missing alternative text
  • Empty headings

We are currently working to address these issues.

We are currently working on re-designing many of our PDFs to make sure they are more accessible.

Disproportionate burden

There are some accessibility problems on the site that we think come under the category of 'disproportionate burden', as it would not be possible to fix them within the next 6 months without help, 

  • Third party content 
    We use a number of third-party services on www.iwm.org.uk, including our YouTube channel. The design and implementation of these are not under our control, and therefore they are exempt from the Accessibility Regulations. However, we make them accessible where we can and raise any other issues with the supplier. 
  • Objects within our collection, archives and libraries
    These are exempt under the Accessibility Regulations and there are no plans to update all historic content. However, where possible, and on request, we may be able to provide information in alternative formats. 

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

Some problems fall outside the scope of the accessibility regulations:

  • PDFs and other documents
    Many of our older PDF documents do not meet accessibility standards and may not be structured so they are accessible to a screen reader. The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services, however if they are still regularly used by our visitors then we will improve their accessibility.
  • Video and audio
    Some of the audio and video on this site do not have captions or a text equivalent.

What we're doing to improve accessibility

We are committed to providing websites that are accessible to all and we are working hard to achieve that, but the scale and complexity of the task provides a number of challenges. 

This website was tested in September 2018. We are working with Hassell Inclusion throughout August and September 2021 to audit the website and improve accessibility. 

We will review and update the accessibility statement regularly (every year from the publication of this statement). 

This statement was prepared on 25 August 2021.