Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to pharmacopoeia.com, the domain used to publish the British Pharmacopoeia online.

The website is run by The Stationery Office (TSO) on behalf of the British Pharmacopoeia which is part of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard: navigation by keyboard works for most of the site and follows a left to right order. There is also a ‘skip to main content’ keyboard shortcut added to every web page
  • Listen to most of the website using a screen reader
  • Access a text alternative to images by using a screen reader
  • View search results with text to highlight different publications and not the use of colour alone to indicate, for example, BP or Ph. Eur. monographs
  • Zoom to 200% on all pages
  • Access content with colours which meet colour contrast Accessibility Regulations such as in ‘Show Changes’ functionality

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand. As would be expected, this website uses specialist scientific terms and language.

HOW ACCESSIBLE THIS WEBSITE IS

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

  • The line height or spacing of text cannot be modified
  • Some pages do not allow text reflow at up to 400% zoom
  • Some PDF documents are not accessible to screen reader software
  • Some images within the publication do not have alternative text
  • The 'Section' and 'Volume' advance search feature on the monograph page may not read properly by some screen readers. We provide an alternative version of the form that uses basic HTML and checkboxes rather than select lists

FEEDBACK AND CONTACT INFORMATION

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read or an audio recording please email esupport@tso.co.uk

We will consider your request and get back to you within 10 working days.

REPORTING ACCESSIBILITY PROBLEMS WITH THIS WEBSITE

We are continually looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact esupport@tso.co.uk

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, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

TECHNICAL INFORMATION ABOUT THIS WEBSITE’S ACCESSIBILITY

The MHRA 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 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions:

NON-COMPLIANCES

  • It is not possible to change colours, contrasts or fonts in the website at will
  • The line height or spacing of text cannot be modified
  • Some pages do not allow text reflow at up to 400% zoom
  • Some PDF documents are not accessible
  • Some images within the publication do not have alternative text

EXEMPTIONS

  • Some PDF documents published prior to September 2018 are not accessible

NON-ACCESSIBLE CONTENT

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

NON-COMPLIANCE WITH THE ACCESSIBILITY REGULATIONS

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

Some PDF documents are not accessible.

It is not possible to change colours, contrasts or fonts in the website at will. The line height or spacing of text cannot be modified. Some pages do not allow text reflow at up to 400% zoom.

DISPROPORTIONATE BURDEN

NAVIGATION AND ACCESSING INFORMATION

  • Some images do not have a text alternative
  • Some PDF documents are not accessible - we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages
  • It is not possible to change colours, contrasts or fonts in the website
  • The line height or spacing of text cannot be modified

We have assessed the cost of fixing these issues and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

CONTENT THAT’S NOT WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THE ACCESSIBILITY REGULATIONS

PDFS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

WHAT WE’RE DOING TO IMPROVE ACCESSIBILITY

Our site is not optimised for mobile use, this is something we plan to fix in the future.

PREPARATION OF THIS ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT

This statement was prepared on 21 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 15 November 2023. This website was last tested on 19 October 2023 by Sitemorse.

HOW WE TEST THIS WEBSITE

We test this website using automated and manual accessibility tests. Both types of testing are run against the W3C WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1. Test failures are reported to our development team and the issues are worked through on a priority basis.

We do manual testing by selecting a representative sample of web pages (typically between 10 and 20 pages) and check that they are compliant with the guidelines. Our testers use the WAVE Chrome browser extension, which applies a range of checks to the web page under test. We also use the NVDA screenreader. Our testers also manually navigate around the pages and check that content is presented in a logical order. The last manual test took place on 15 November 2023.