Guidance

Accessibility statement: SmartSurvey forms

Updated 4 March 2025

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dft-accessible-online-form-and-survey-statement/accessibility-statement-smartsurvey-forms

Department for Transport (DfT) uses third-party software, built by SmartSurvey, for its online forms and surveys.

This includes forms for consultation responses, calls for evidence, questionnaires and other documents.

How accessible SmartSurvey forms are

SmartSurvey forms and surveys are partially compliant with the WCAG 2.2 Level AA standard.

For information on how accessible SmartSurvey forms and surveys are, see the SmartSurvey accessibility statement.

Reporting accessibility problems with SmartSurvey forms

Contact us if you have any difficulties using this service, or if you think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements.

Please let us know how you would like us to send you messages and documents. For example, audio recording or large print.

Email webmasterdft@dft.gov.uk

Digital Publishing Team
Department for Transport
Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road
London
SW1P 4DR
United Kingdom

We’ll consider the request and get back to you within 7 working days.

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.

If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about SmartSurvey form accessibility

DfT is committed to making its online forms and surveys accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

SmartSurvey forms are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed in the non-accessible content section.

Non-accessible content

Some content in SmartSurvey forms is not accessible. As the SmartSurvey is third-party software, we are unable to directly fix the issues.

DfT is reporting accessibility issues to SmartSurvey, and they are working on rectifying this in each new release of the software.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some content and question types in SmartSurvey surveys and forms do not fully comply with the accessibility regulations.

See SmartSurvey’s accessibility statement for detailed information.

Where possible, DfT will work with SmartSurvey to limit these issues.

How we tested SmartSurvey forms

The service was tested for WCAG version 2.2 AA compliance by SmartSurvey in September 2024.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

DfT is using SmartSurvey’s accessible survey theme for all new surveys, ensuring that inaccessible question types are not used. We are also reviewing the accessibility of our existing surveys.

We are identifying accessibility issues and informing SmartSurvey.

SmartSurvey are working to improve accessibility features in each new release of the software.

This includes:

  • making the next major release of the codebase fully WCAG 2.2 AA compliant

  • removing layout tables when SmartSurvey’s codebase is updated

  • improving the accessibility of date, slider scale, ranking and searchable dropdown question types

  • improving the accessibility of standard survey themes

  • conducting testing, including further testing with expert users and speech recognition testing

  • making continuous improvements and inviting feedback from users with access needs

Until SmartSurvey completes these accessibility improvements, we’ll also provide consultation response forms in an alternative format.

SmartSurvey has published advice for screen reader users on completing its surveys on its website.

This accessibility statement will be kept up to date, to reflect any issues identified or changes made to the SmartSurvey software.

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