Accessibility Statement
Job hunting is stressful enough without a website getting in the way. This page explains what we’ve done to make this site usable for as many people as possible, including people using assistive technology, what standard we’re aiming for, where we know we still fall short, and how to tell us about any barrier you run into.
Our commitment
We want everyone — regardless of disability, the assistive technology they use, or the device they’re browsing on — to be able to search for jobs, read our content, and reach an employer’s application page without unnecessary friction. Accessibility isn’t a separate feature bolted onto this site; it’s treated as a basic requirement of the design and development process, on the same footing as making sure a page loads correctly at all.
The standard we’re working toward
We aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at Level AA, which is the standard most commonly referenced for public-facing websites in the UK, including by the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations that apply to government and many public sector sites. We’re not a public sector body and aren’t legally required to meet this specific standard, but we’ve adopted it voluntarily as a meaningful, well-established benchmark rather than inventing our own looser one.
What we’ve built in specifically
Keyboard navigation
Every interactive element on this site — search filters, the mobile navigation menu, job cards, buttons, form fields — is designed to be reachable and operable using a keyboard alone, without requiring a mouse or touchscreen. Focus states (the visible outline showing which element is currently selected) are deliberately kept visible rather than suppressed for aesthetic reasons, because an invisible focus indicator makes keyboard navigation practically unusable.
Screen reader support
We use semantic HTML structure throughout — proper heading hierarchies, labelled form fields, descriptive link text rather than generic “click here” links, and appropriate ARIA labelling on interactive components like the mobile navigation toggle and breadcrumb trail — so that screen reader users get an accurate, navigable picture of the page structure rather than a flat, confusing stream of content.
Colour contrast
Text and interface colours are chosen to meet WCAG AA contrast requirements against their backgrounds, so content remains legible for users with low vision or colour vision deficiencies. Status indicators (like the “Active” and “Expired” badges on job listings) are distinguished by more than colour alone — they carry distinct text labels, not just a colour difference that would be invisible to someone who can’t perceive that colour distinction.
Responsive, zoomable text
The site is built mobile-first and remains usable when browser zoom is increased significantly or when a user’s device font-size settings are scaled up, without content being clipped or overlapping.
Reduced motion
For visitors who’ve set a system-level preference for reduced motion, we honour that preference by minimising or removing non-essential animation and transition effects across the site.
Images and alternative text
Company logos, and any other meaningful images on the site, include descriptive alternative text so screen reader users understand what’s being shown. Purely decorative visual elements are marked so assistive technology can skip over them rather than reading out meaningless noise.
Form accessibility
Forms on the site — including our contact form and job search filters — use properly associated labels for every field, clear error messaging, and logical tab order, so they can be completed accurately using assistive technology.
Known limitations
We want to be honest rather than claim perfect compliance, because no website reasonably can. Areas where we know there’s more work to do include:
- Third-party embedded content — advertising units served through Google AdSense, for instance — is subject to the accessibility practices of the third party serving it, which we don’t fully control.
- Some older blog content, migrated or imported before our current accessibility standards were fully applied, may not yet meet every guideline (for example, images added without complete alternative text). We’re working through a backlog of reviewing and fixing this content over time rather than all at once.
- PDF or other downloadable document formats, if we ever introduce them (for example, a downloadable CV template), will be checked for accessibility before publication, but we flag this as an area requiring ongoing vigilance given how easy it is for document accessibility to regress during editing.
Compatibility
This site is built and tested to work with current versions of major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) on both desktop and mobile devices, and with commonly used screen readers (including VoiceOver on macOS/iOS and NVDA or JAWS on Windows). We can’t guarantee compatibility with every combination of browser, operating system, and assistive technology in use, particularly older or less common configurations, but significant compatibility problems are something we want to know about and fix.
How to report an accessibility problem
If you encounter a barrier using this site — something you can’t complete with a keyboard, content a screen reader can’t interpret correctly, text you can’t read due to insufficient contrast, or anything else that gets in the way of finding and applying for jobs — please tell us via our Contact page. To help us diagnose and fix it, it’s useful (though not required) to include:
- The specific page where you encountered the problem
- What you were trying to do
- What assistive technology, browser, and device you were using, if relevant
- What happened, versus what you expected to happen
We treat accessibility reports as genuine bugs, not feature requests to be deprioritised indefinitely — a barrier that stops someone applying for a job is a serious failure of the site’s basic purpose, and we aim to investigate and address reports promptly.
Ongoing review
Accessibility isn’t a one-time project we consider finished — new features and content get checked against our accessibility standards as they’re built, and we periodically review existing parts of the site to catch regressions or areas we’ve missed. This statement will be updated to reflect meaningful changes to our approach or known limitations.
Accessibility and the job application process specifically
Because we don’t operate our own application system, part of the accessibility experience for actually applying to a role depends on the employer’s own website, which sits outside what we can directly control or guarantee. We do apply one specific standard on our end regardless: every “Apply on Original Website” link is implemented as a genuine, properly labelled link — operable by keyboard, correctly announced by screen readers, and never dependent on a mouse-only interaction like a hover state to become visible or usable. If you reach an employer’s own site through one of our links and encounter an accessibility barrier there, that’s worth reporting to the employer directly, but we’re also glad to hear about it, since it can inform which employers we choose to work with more closely over time.
Assistive technology and our search and filter tools
Our job search and filter interface — the fields for keyword, location, category, region, job type, working arrangement, and salary — is built using standard, properly labelled HTML form controls rather than custom-built interactive elements that often behave unpredictably with assistive technology. Each filter field has an associated label that a screen reader will announce correctly, and the results update in a way that’s designed to remain understandable when navigating by keyboard or screen reader, not just visually for sighted mouse users. If you find a specific filter or search interaction that doesn’t behave as expected with your assistive technology, this is exactly the kind of report we’d want to receive and prioritise, since search and filtering are core to using the site at all.
Training and internal awareness
Accessibility standards only stay consistent if the people building and adding content to the site understand and apply them consistently, not just at the point the site was first designed. Our team treats accessibility guidelines as a standing part of how new pages, features, and blog content get built and reviewed, rather than a specification that was followed once during initial development and then forgotten. This includes practical habits like writing meaningful alternative text for images at the point they’re added, rather than retrofitting it later, and checking new interactive components for keyboard operability before they go live.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this site fully WCAG 2.1 AA compliant?
We aim to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA and have built the site’s core functionality with that standard in mind, but we’re honest that some areas — particularly older content and third-party embedded advertising — may not yet fully meet it. We treat reported gaps as priorities to fix.
Can I use this site with a screen reader?
Yes. The site uses semantic HTML, labelled form fields, and appropriate ARIA attributes specifically so it works with common screen readers like VoiceOver, NVDA, and JAWS. If you find a specific page or feature that doesn’t work well with your screen reader, please report it.
Can I navigate the entire site using only a keyboard?
Yes — search filters, navigation menus, job listings, and forms are all designed to be operable via keyboard alone, with visible focus indicators showing which element is currently selected.
What should I do if I find an accessibility problem?
Report it via our Contact page with as much detail as you can provide about the page, what you were trying to do, and what assistive technology or browser you were using. We treat these reports as priority issues.
Does this accessibility statement apply to advertisements shown on the site?
Not entirely — third-party advertising served through networks like Google AdSense is subject to that provider’s own accessibility practices, which we don’t directly control, though we do apply our own standards around ad placement and format described in our Advertising Policy.