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Accessibility Statement

Last updated: 3 May 2026

We want Pension Plain to work well for everyone — including readers using screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, screen magnifiers, voice control, or any other assistive technology. This statement describes what we’ve done so far, what we know we still need to do, and how to tell us if you’ve hit a barrier.

Our target

Pension Plain aims to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2, Level AA (WCAG 2.2 AA). This is the same standard UK public sector websites are required to meet, and we treat it as the minimum.

What we’ve intentionally built in

  • Semantic HTML. Headings, landmarks (header, nav, main, footer), lists, and tables are marked up properly so screen readers announce them as the right kind of content. Screen reader users can jump between landmarks using their built-in shortcuts
  • Skip-to-content link. A “Skip to main content” link is the first focusable element on every page. It’s hidden visually but appears when you tab to it, letting keyboard users bypass the header and jump straight to the article
  • High colour contrast. Body text on backgrounds (charcoal on warm-white, warm-white on slate) exceeds WCAG’s AAA contrast ratio of 7:1 for normal text. Headings and muted-grey secondary text both pass AA
  • Keyboard navigation. Every interactive element — links, buttons, form fields, the cookie banner, the cookie preferences modal — is reachable and operable from a keyboard. Focus rings show where you are
  • Visible focus indicators. Keyboard users can always see which element is focused. Tab order follows visual reading order
  • Form labels. Every form input is properly labelled, including the newsletter signup. Hidden visual labels are still announced to screen readers
  • Alt text on images. Photos and illustrative images carry alt text. Decorative images are marked as such so screen readers don’t read them out
  • Resizeable text. The site uses fluid typography that scales smoothly. Browser zoom up to 200% works without breaking the layout
  • Cookie banner accessibility. The banner and preferences modal use ARIA roles and properties (role="dialog", aria-modal="true", aria-labelledby) so they’re announced correctly. ESC closes the modal; focus moves into the modal when it opens
  • No autoplay or motion-heavy effects. We don’t use auto-playing video, parallax, or animations that could trigger vestibular disorders
  • Plain English. Pension topics can be technical, but we work hard to explain them without jargon — including for readers with cognitive differences who find dense legalese hard to parse

Known limitations

We’re being honest: we haven’t yet done a full third-party accessibility audit of the site, and there are likely things to fix. Specifically, as of the last review date:

  • We haven’t formally tested with NVDA, JAWS, or VoiceOver yet — we plan to before the site has substantial article content
  • Some tables don’t yet use <caption> and may need scope attributes added on header cells
  • We haven’t audited mobile touch-target sizes against the WCAG 2.2 minimum (24×24 CSS pixels)
  • Future interactive elements (calculators, comparison tools) will need their own accessibility review before launch

When we identify issues — including those reported by readers — we add them to a list and fix them in priority order. Anything that blocks core content or core navigation gets fixed first.

What we’ve tested with

The site has been informally tested in current versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge on desktop and mobile. We use the built-in accessibility checks in Chrome DevTools and the axe DevTools extension on every template change.

How to report a problem

If you’ve found something on Pension Plain that doesn’t work for you — a missing alt description, a focus trap, a contrast issue, a confusing tab order, anything at all — please tell us. We treat accessibility issues as bugs, not nice-to-haves, and we fix them.

Email info@pensionplain.co.uk with the subject “Accessibility”.

We aim to acknowledge accessibility reports within five working days. If the fix is straightforward we’ll just do it; if it’s bigger we’ll tell you the plan and timeframe.

Enforcement

Pension Plain isn’t a public sector body, so the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 don’t strictly apply to us. We’ve chosen to align with WCAG 2.2 AA voluntarily because it’s the right standard.

If you’ve reported an accessibility issue and we haven’t responded properly, the Equality and Human Rights Commission is the body that takes complaints about accessibility under the Equality Act 2010.

Review

This statement was prepared on 3 May 2026 and reflects the current state of the site. We’ll review it whenever we make significant changes, and at minimum once a year.