Accessibility Statement

Accessibility statement for gchq.gov.uk

This accessibility statement applies to gchq.gov.uk.

This website is run by the Government Communications Headquarters. GCHQ is committed to providing facilities and resources suitable for people with disabilities.

How you should be able to use this website

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. You should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings
• 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.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

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

• some of our more complex puzzle images do not have alt text. Where possible we've included descriptive text under those images
• some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
• some videos do not have optimised captions
• some pages and document attachments are not written in plain English
• some list elements are not contained within an ordered or unordered list
• some tables do not have row or column headers

Feedback and contact information

Tell us if you need information in a different format.
In your message, include:

• the web address (URL) of the content
• your email address and name
• 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 accessibility requirements, contact us.

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 this website’s accessibility

Government Communications Headquarters is committed to making its website 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 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below:

1. Some of the images on the site do not have appropriate text alternatives. In some cases, decorative images have descriptive text alternatives where these should be empty, and in other cases images that aren’t decorative do not have descriptive text alternatives. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text content)
2. Some tables do not have table row or column headers. This means assistive technologies will not read the tables correctly. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
3. Some PDFs do not use bookmarks to aid navigation. This fails WCAG 2.2 succession criterion 2.4.5 (Multiple Ways).
4. Existing pre-recorded audio and video on this site may not include captions. We do not plan to add captions to these recordings, because these are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

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

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.
Existing pre-recorded audio and video on this site may not include captions, and we do not plan to add captions to them. This is because these are also exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are working alongside agencies to fix content which fails to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This Accessibility statement was prepared on March 13^th, 2019. It was last reviewed on February 23^rd, 2026.