Website accessibility statement

Accessibility statement 

We understand our website needs to be easy for everyone to use, including those with disabilities.  

This accessibility statement applies to www.southeasternrailway.co.uk and ticket.southeasternrailway.co.uk. 
These websites are run by Southeastern, and we want as many people as possible to be able to use them. 

Accessibility features include -

• headings are used in chronological order
• links are written to make sense when read out of context
• all informational images used in this site have appropriate alt text
• cascading stylesheets have been used for layout and presentation
• site has been constructed so that it can be read with styles turned off
• ability to adjust font sizes
• ability to change the background and font colours through the Recite Me toolbar 
• all forms follow a logical tab sequence
• labels are associated with fields in HTML forms 
• we have not used access keys on this site as they can override keyboard shortcuts for screen readers

We provide an accessibility toolbar called Recite Me, which allows you to customise our website in a way that suits you. 
Recite Me includes text to speech functionality, dyslexia software, an interactive dictionary, a translation tool with up to 52 languages and many other features. Recite Me is available in the footer of our website. 

AbilityNet also provides 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:

• Some older PDF documents are not tagged and do not include ALT text, and are therefore not fully accessible to screen reader software. We have committed to ensuring all new PDF content meets accessibility standards.
• Some videos are missing transcripts and captions. We have committed to ensuring all new video content meets accessibility standards. 
• Video content is provided by a third party and is labelled ambiguously, i.e. the 'Play' button. Unfortunately this is out of our control and we are unable to change it.  

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

Use our online Contact Us form to contact a member of our Customer Services team 

Call us – 0345 322 7021 (calls are charged at a local rate and may be recorded)

If you are a BSL user, you can request assistance or contact our customer services team through SignLive. Download the app on your smartphone, create a free account and search for Southeastern in the directory. You will then be connected to an interpreter who will then facilitate a call between yourself and our customer services team

Use our Text Relay number – 18001 0345 322 7021
Relay UK brings relay services for deaf, hard of hearing, and speech impaired people right up to date with the latest app technology. You don’t need any special kit – just download the app from the App Store or Google Play onto your smartphone, tablet or computer. 

Write to us at: 
Southeastern Customer Services 
PO Box 8625
Swadlincote 
DE11 1HZ

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact Customer Services who will pass the issue to our Digital team. 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Southeastern 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 fully compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, with exemptions listed below. 

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations 

• Some of our web forms are added to the website through iframes, however each iframe src has it's own iframe which wraps the form again. The first iframe is loading a third party page, to allow the form to be available on our site and provide a secure environment for an anonymous person, as such we are unable to remove it or add a title to it. 
• At the bottom of some of our web forms there is an empty iframe with no content or source. This is part of the Google recaptcha API so it isn’t possible to remove it. 
• Some of our web forms contain inputs with missing labels within an iframe.
• Some of our web forms are protected by Google recaptcha which generates and unlabelled field, this is purely for background purposes and shouldn't impact user experience.

Disproportionate burden 

• Some older PDF documents are not tagged and do not include ALT text, and are therefore not fully accessible to screen reader software. We have committed to ensuring all new PDF content meets accessibility standards.
• Some PDF timetables are secondary content and are available in HTML form which are fully accessible on the site. They have been included to have printable versions of timetables on the site.
• Some older videos are missing transcripts and captions. We have committed to ensuring all new video content meets accessibility standards.
• Some older tables on the website may include duplicate IDs for parent headers with more than one sub-coloumn. 
• Our Live Disruption Map is provided by a third party supplier. Whilst it has been built to be as accessible as possible, we have no direct control over this and cannot change any technical limitations it may have. This is a visual representation of data that is accessible elsewhere on the site, for example on the service disruption page.

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

• Our website contains third party content and functionality such as our Live Disruption Map and timetables. Whilst they have been built to be as accessible as possible, we cannot guarantee these features are fully accessibility. 
• Video content is provided by a third party and is labelled ambiguously, i.e. the 'Play' button. Unfortunately this is out of our control and we are unable to change it. 
• Our station information pages host content from a 3rd party feed which may include some non-descriptive link text. We have asked the 3rd party content provider to correct all issues we are aware of, but have no direct control over this content.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 25th November 2021. It was last reviewed on 1 February 2023.

An accessibility audit on the Southeastern websites was carried out by Shaw Trust Accessibility Services, 26 July 2021. Full accreditation was awarded on 1 February 2023.
The website was evaluated against the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 up to conformance level AA. Automated evaluation tools and manual testing by an experienced in-house pan-disabled testing team were utilised to complete a comprehensive accessibility audit. 

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the leading standards organisation for the World Wide Web who provides guidelines and specifications for many web technologies. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), a branch of the W3C, is responsible for developing the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The WCAG documents explain how to make Web content more accessible to people with disabilities including people with visual, hearing, cognitive and physical conditions. WCAG is recognised as the international standard for building accessible websites and measuring web accessibility. 

This website last had an automated test on 30 November 2021.