Accessibility statement for the Financial Ombudsman Service website

This accessibility statement applies to the following sites and sub-domains:

• https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk 
• https://sme.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
• https://cmc.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
• https://help.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/
• https://financialombudsman.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/
  FinancialOmbudsmanServiceLink

This website is run by the Financial Ombudsman Service and is designed to be compatible with a range of assistive software, including screen readers like JAWS and NVDA, and speech recognition software. We want our website to be accessible to as many people as possible. For example, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• zoom in up to 300% 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)
• use ReciteMe accessibility tool bar to customise our site in a way that works for you

We aim to make our website text as straightforward and simple as possible. To help support our commitment to clear communications, we’re a member of the Plain Language Commission and our website has been accredited the Clear English Standard.

Get help changing your computer settings 

There are lots of things you can do on your computer to make web pages more accessible. For example, you can:

• magnify your screen
• change text size and colours
• make your mouse easier to use
• use screen readers and talking browsers

If you need help doing these things, you’ll find clear and helpful guidance on AbilityNet.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of these websites are not fully accessible:

Our online complaint forms

• Some headings are missing or appear in an unexpected order
• Some error messages aren’t easy to understand and are given too often
• Some colour contrast ratios are below the minimum standard
• The calendar can’t be resized in all web browsers

Our job application portal

• There are missing labels, meaning some features aren’t announced for people using
  screen readers
• Some sections have keyboard focus even when it’s not needed

Embedded data visualisations

• The data charts are not accessible for people with visual impairments
• Some sections have keyboard focus even when it’s not needed

Our website

• Some headings are missing or appear in an unexpected order Some images have descriptions even when they’re not needed
• Some colour contrast ratios are below the minimum standard
• The reading order of some content can be confusing for people using screen readers
• Some sections have keyboard focus even when it’s not needed
• Some links don’t have an accurate description
• Some of our text can’t be visually changed by the user

PDFs in our online decisions database

The PDF documents published within our decisions database are not fully accessible.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, such as an audio recording, large print or braille, please email our accessibility team or call our helpline on 0800 023 4567 – we’ll do our best to meet your needs.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, please contact our Communications team.

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).

The Financial Ombudsman Service 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

These websites have been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 AA Standard.

These websites are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below. 

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

We’re working with our supplier to fix the following issue on our website by May 2025:

• Some decorative images contain alt attributes. This fails WACAG 2.2 success criteria 1.1 Non-text Content (Level A)
• Some heading orders are illogical and unexpected. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A) and 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (Level AA)
• Some empty heading elements are present. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A) and 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (Level AA)
• Search box placeholder text contrast ratio is insufficient for Firefox browser users. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA)
• Data visualisations are not keyboard accessible. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA)
• Reading order of our expanding profile boxes are unexpected and can cause confusion. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence (Level A)
• Non-interactive charts receive screen reader focus. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 2.4.3 Focus Order (Level A)
• Link text on our videos do not describe the action of loading a video. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (Level A)
• Progress information of our complaint checker only tracks a user’s previous step and it may be confusing. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A) and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A)
• Descriptive text of subsites is difficult to read when a user sets a custom text style. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.4.12 Text Spacing (Level AA)
• The accessible label of the page feedback buttons do not match the visual labels. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (Level AA) and 2.5.3 Label in Name (Level A)
• Axis of data visualisations do not change when a user sets custom text style properties. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.4.12 Text Spacing (Level AA)

The third-party supplier of our data charts, Visme, can’t fix the issues identified in our testing. Because of this, we’re looking to move to a new supplier by March 2026. 

Our online complaint forms

Our online complaint forms provide a key way for people to submit complaints to us in a structured format. The forms are structured in a way which ensures we receive the information we need from a professional representative to be able to decide if it’s a complaint we can help with.

We are currently working with our supplier, Egress, a KnowBe4 company, on a series of updates to fix these issues by March 2026.

• Some heading orders are illogical. This issue fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A) and 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (Level AA)
• Some heading elements are empty. This issue fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A) 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (Level AA)
• Some error suggestions are not clear. This issue fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 3.3.3 Error Suggestion (Level AA)
• Excessive status updates are provided. This issue fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 4.1.3 Status Messages (Level AA)
• Colour contrast of some text is below the minimum standard. This issue fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA) 

Other ways of bringing a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service include calling us on our helpline and we can take details over the phone or arrange to send a form in a different format. More information about how to contact us to make a complaint is available on our contact us page.

Our job application portal

Our job application portal provides a key way for people to view current job vacancies and to apply for employment with the organisation. Our end to end recruitment processes use third-party software and we are working with our supplier to scope and fix the accessibility issues highlighted by our most recent accessibility testing.

• There is no main landmark on the page. This issue fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A)
• Dynamic changes or status updates are not being conveyed to assistive technologies. This issue fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.3.3 Sensory Characteristics (Level A) and 4.1.3 Status Messages (Level AA)
• Non-interactive content receives focus without good reason. This issue fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 2.4.3 Focus Order (Level A) and 2.4.3 Focus Order (Level A) 

We are currently working with our supplier on a series of updates to fix these issues by March 2026. 

Disproportionate burden

We use a series of systems to publish PDF versions of the final decision letters that are contained in the decisions database on our website. The PDF documents published in the database that were created before November 2024 are not fully accessible to screen reader software. Specifically:

• our logo isn’t marked as an image in these documents and has no alt text. Users are not made aware of the presence of the image or the meaning of the image – this issue fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content)
• there are no tags on these PDFs meaning that screen reader users may struggle to navigate the contents of the page and understand the relationship between text, headings and list data – this issue fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships) and 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels)

The decisions database is a key source of information for all website users. It shows all the final decisions we’ve issued since 1 April 2013. Publishing final decisions allows businesses and consumers to learn from our previous decisions and provides transparency to our work. There are therefore clear benefits of the system being accessible to people using assistive software.

Despite these benefits, we believe that complying with the accessibility requirement in the accessibility regulations to deal with the issues listed above would impose a disproportionate burden on the Financial Ombudsman. To make all published decision PDFs that were created before November 2024 compliant with the accessibility requirement would mean significant changes to over 300,000 files the cost of which would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

We can make specific decision documents available in alternative formats on request. If you need information from us, or from this website, in a different format, such as an audio recording, large print or braille, please email us or call our helpline on 0800 023 4567.

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. 

This statement was prepared on 22 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 14 April 2025.

This website was last tested in February 2025 against the WCAG 2.2 AA Standard. The test was carried out by Dig Inclusion. All aspects of our website were tested by checking a sample of pages covering all of our available page templates and blocks.