Overview
British Business Bank is committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability. We are working to increase the accessibility and usability of our website and in doing so follow many of the available standards and guidelines.
We also routinely check web pages, when updates are made to existing pages and when new pages are published – to ensure that they meet accessibility requirements.
Whilst we work to the accepted guidelines and standards for accessibility and usability, there are always enhancements that we can make and we are constantly looking at how we can provide an accessible experience for everyone. We are always happy to listen to suggestions and open to improvements. Please use [email protected] to talk about accessibility with one of our team.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
British Business Bank is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
This website is being measured against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard.
In February 2025, the website british-business-bank.co.uk was reviewed independently by the RNIB to test for accessibility defects. The result of that review is detailed below:
Missing accessible alternative for on-screen text in videos
- Start Up Loans are committed to reviewing its video content and putting remedial action in place to ensure an accessible alternative for on-screen text in videos is available.
Low/missing focus highlighting
- Start Up Loans have identified that some FAQ components are using an old, inaccessible version of the design. We are committed to ensuring that the relevant development work takes place to resolve this issue.
Use of placeholder text
- It has been identified that the search functionality on our website still displays placeholder text once a search has been completed. We've been advised that this should be removed and we are committed to ensuring that this recommendation is carried out.
Menu incorrectly marked up for keyboard and screen reader users
The following items have been identified with the main navigation which we are committed to ensuring are remediated as part of our continuous improvement programme.
- Links in the first level of menus are incorrectly identified as collapsible sections. This will be confusing for screen reader users as they will expect new content to be available instead of navigating to a new page.
- All menus can only be expanded using the spacebar key instead of the enter key, which is the expected behaviour.
- Menu items can be navigated using the arrow keys, but keyboard users cannot move to the next sub menu until they have navigated through all the links in the current sub menu.
Role and state of disclosure component not conveyed to assistive technology
- The disclosure component is the term that RNIB have used for the search dropdown across the British Business Bank website. The recommendation states that users of assistive technology need to be reliably informed as to when this dropdown has been opened and when it has been closed. We are committed to ensuring that this is remediated as part of our continuous improvement programme.
Interactive elements with incorrect semantics
- This issue refers specifically to how our filter boxes across the British Business Bank website have been programmed. We are committed to reviewing our current implementation and ensuring that these components are remediated and work well for users of assistive technology.
Currently selected state is not announced by the screen reader
- We are currently not providing users of assistive technology details as to what menu items are currently selected. We are committed to ensuring that this is remediated as part of our continuous improvement programme.
Missing form fieldset
- There are instances on the British Business Bank website where grouped controls are not enclosed within a fieldset. This is a markup enhancement that we are committed to remediate as part of our continuous improvement programme.
Linked image missing alternative text
- The logo in the header of the British Business Bank website still has the accessible label of "Home Page", which isn't particularly useful and doesn't provide users of assistive technology sufficient contextual information. We are committed to ensuring that this is remediated as part of our continuous improvement programme.
Foreign language country name(s) missing ‘lang’ attribute
- We are currently displaying some content in the Welsh language across our website which isn't correctly highlighted to users of assistive technology. We are working with our technical partner to determine how we might be able to remediate this.
Generic link name
- There is an instance on our success stories template where accessible labels have been incorrectly written and as a result may not be unique. We are committed to ensuring that this is remediated as part of our continuous improvement programme.
Decorative images have unnecessary alt text on mobile
- There are instances on mobile devices where we are serving images which have unnecessary alt text. We are working with our technical partner to determine how we might be able to remediate this.
Full details of the report and copies on request can be made to [email protected].
Disproportionate burden
Dot Digital - embedded forms
The website is currently using Dot Digital to capture information from customers via its contact us form, which isn't fully accessible. Our aim is to replace this technology with an accessible equivalent.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We are working continuously to ensure that the number of non-compliant issues remains minimal on our sites and we are committed to fixing any new issues as they arise.
This includes weekly or more frequent reviews to identify accessibility issues, correct source code errors and manually edit website elements to adhere to WCAG2 standards.
We are also committed to continuously educating all staff to be aware of website accessibility guidelines to ensure maximum compliance when new content is added to our websites.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
Issues with PDFs and other documents
Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be marked up so that they’re accessible to a screen reader. The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. However, should you require an accessible version of any of our content, please contact us at [email protected].
How to request content in an accessible format
If you need information in a different format contact us and tell us:
- the web address (URL) of the content
- your name and email address and the format you need
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or you think we’re not meeting the accessibility requirements, you may contact us on [email protected]
Enforcement procedure
The Equality and Human Rights Commission 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).
How we tested this website
This website was and is currently being tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level A and level AA, and these tests are being carried out weekly using a Digital Quality Management platform. We also run on request audits with our third party accessibilty partner, RNIB.
This statement was prepared on 19th August 2020. It was last updated on 18th February 2025.