Who is responsible for accessibility at Current UK?
Current UK, owned and operated by Sliema Media Limited (registered in Malta, company number C 84217), places editorial responsibility for accessibility with Editor-in-Chief William Ashby. He oversees all standards, including digital inclusion, and can be reached at william.ashby@currentuk.co.uk or +44 20 4587 9486.
Our commitment to accessibility is part of the broader editorial mission set by the company: trustworthy journalism that serves every reader. While day-to-day implementation involves the whole team, William Ashby and Managing Editor Sarah Mills (sarah.mills@currentuk.co.uk) are the designated points for accessibility oversight. The site is built and maintained with the aim of meeting the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at Level AA, as recommended for UK public sector bodies and increasingly adopted as a benchmark for private news publishers.
What accessibility standards do we follow?
We follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA as our target standard, consistent with the UK Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (No. 852). This is a voluntary commitment for a private publication, but we treat it as a core editorial obligation.
Our fact‑checking and editorial teams, led by Diane Forbes (diane.forbes@currentuk.co.uk), review all content for clarity, structure and plain language. We use semantic HTML headings, alt text for images (where meaningful), and descriptive link text. Our templates are designed to support screen readers, text resizing and keyboard‑only navigation. We test against common assistive technologies including NVDA, JAWS and VoiceOver, and we run automated scans using tools such as WAVE and axe DevTools.
How do we support keyboard navigation and focus visibility?
All interactive elements on Current UK – links, buttons, form fields and media controls – are operable by keyboard alone. We ensure a visible focus indicator (a clear outline or highlight) appears as you tab through the page, meeting WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.11 (Focus Appearance).
Our development team builds with standard HTML elements (anchor tags, buttons) that inherit native keyboard behaviour. Skip navigation links are present at the top of every page, allowing users to jump directly to main content. We have tested tab order to be logical and consistent across article pages, category listings and the /about-us/contact/ page. If you experience any focus issues, please report them to accessibility@currentuk.co.uk.
Do we support reduced motion and contrast preferences?
Yes. Current UK respects the prefers-reduced-motion media query, disabling unnecessary animations, parallax effects and auto‑playing carousels for users who request it. We also honour prefers-contrast settings to improve text legibility.
Colour contrast ratios on all text and interactive elements meet or exceed the WCAG 2.2 Level AA threshold of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text and UI components. We avoid using colour alone to convey information – for example, link underlines are always present. Our default font family is chosen for readability, and we allow full browser‑based text resizing without loss of content or functionality.
What are the known limitations of our accessibility?
Some third‑party services we use – such as embedded social media feeds, programmatic display‑advertising networks and interactive multimedia players – may not fully meet WCAG 2.2 Level AA. We are actively working with our partners to improve these areas.
Older articles published before February 2024 may contain PDF attachments that are not fully tagged or images missing alternative text. We audit these on a rolling basis and correct any flagged issues within five working days. If you encounter a specific barrier, please contact us at accessibility@currentuk.co.uk and we will prioritise a fix or provide an accessible alternative. Our editorial policy, detailed at /editorial-policy/, requires all new content to pass our internal accessibility checks before publication.
How can you report an accessibility issue or request an alternative format?
Email accessibility@currentuk.co.uk directly. We aim to acknowledge all reports within two business days and to resolve issues or provide an accessible equivalent within ten business days. You can also use our general contact page at /about-us/contact/.
If you are dissatisfied with our response, you may use our formal complaints procedure at /complaints-procedure/, which is overseen by Editor-in-Chief William Ashby. For matters relating to the accuracy or clarity of our content, our editorial policy at /editorial-policy/ sets out the standards we apply. We treat accessibility complaints with the same seriousness as any editorial complaint.
Our commitments
- Maintain current compliance with WCAG 2.2 Level AA across all newly published editorial content.
- Respond to all accessibility reports within two business days and resolve or provide an alternative within ten business days.
- Conduct quarterly manual and automated audits of the site, publishing a summary of findings on our /about-us/ page.
- Ensure that all staff editors and content contributors receive annual training on accessible writing, markup and media production.
- Work with third‑party vendors – including advertisers, analytics providers and media hosts – to improve the accessibility of embedded external components.