Accessibility
We want all customers who visit schuh in person or online to feel confident, welcomed and valued.
If you’re visiting our stores, our retail staff have received training in accessible customer service. We aim to include all our customers and adapt our in-store experience by meeting customer requirements in other ways. If needed, just ask!
This Accessibility Statement applies to the schuh websites
including https://www.schuh.co.uk/, https://www.schuh.eu/en-eu/, https://www.schuh.ie/, https://www.schuh.eu/en-de/,https://www.schuh.eu/de-de/.
We strive for our websites and digital resources to be as inclusive as possible. That’s why we’ve tried to make the website’s aesthetic, function, accessibility and navigation as simple as possible.
This means you should be able to:
- Change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser functionality
- Zoom in up to 200% 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
- Interact with most of the website using a screen reader (including recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)
If you have a disability, AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use via https://mcmw.abilitynet.org.uk/
How accessible this website is:
We have worked with a range of disabled people via our EDI consultancy partner Goss Consultancy Ltd. to ensure our websites are accessible, and have resolved accessibility issues highlighted through this work.
Any issues we’re aware of are listed below.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
schuh is committed to making its website accessible in accordance with WCAG guidelines.
Compliance status: This website is compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 AA standard. The websites are being used successfully and consistently by a representative pan-disability group with lived experience of disability, including neurodiversity, visual impairment, long-term health and chronic conditions.
Less-accessible content currently being resolved includes:
- Keyboard Navigation
- Images
- Videos
The content listed had accessibility challenges for the following reasons:
- Some areas do have keyboard navigation, but with no visual indication of what’s been selected; schuh developers are continuing to progress with this challenge.
- Some page structures appear to be ‘broken’ because of the way areas are reused; schuh teams are working through these areas to resolve the issue.
- Greater care in the use of page templates is needed and is being undertaken by schuh developers, for example in the areas of consistency of headings.
- A common approach to alt text is being agreed upon, balancing retail and accessibility requirements.
- There are some places (principally Scalable Vector Graphics) that need to be marked as decorative, whereas most areas are more strategic. Consideration needs to be given as to when images are considered decorative, and where alt text is being repeated.
- There are a small number of videos that lack subtitles. A consistent website-wide approach is required with, ideally, closed captions.
- We make use of third-party resources such as audio and video players to embed content in our website as well as payment platforms. Wherever possible we will ensure these are conformant and undertake to highlight challenges to accessibility to them in our regular interactions.
Preparation of this Accessibility Statement
This statement was last reviewed in October 2022. This latest review is from March 2023. This website was last tested in January 2023. The test was carried out by Goss Consultancy Ltd (GCL) with input from a representative pan-disability group with lived experience of disability.
We tested a range of pages following a customer user journey and other aspects of the website. This followed a scoping discussion with schuh personnel and a user journey exercise which included an appraisal by a GCL digital accessibility specialist with lived experience of disability, using the following general terms as a focus:
- Aesthetic
- Function
- Accessibility
- Navigation
A parallel assessment was undertaken by a number of individuals who have a neurodiverse profile, a user of Assistive Technology who has a visual impairment, as well as a specialist provider of Assistive Technology for users who have a visual impairment. They undertook a survey test using Assistive Technology software, screen readers and text to speech software using a varied selection of browsers including Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. Users were running software on the most recent Microsoft operating platforms to mirror the experience of the majority of hardware and software that site visitors would utilise.
What we are doing to improve accessibility
Using the recommendations from the (January 2023) report provided by Goss Consultancy Ltd with input from a representative pan-disability group with lived experience of disability, we implemented all of the suggested changes to improve the accessibility of the website in the order of priority indicated by the pan-disability group. As we continue to advance our efforts to be a more accessible organisation, we’ll continue to carry out regular access reviews and do our best to incorporate accessibility into future developments. We’re committed to resolving any emerging issues as we’re reasonably able to do so and will be transparent about where we can’t resolve an issue.
Reporting accessibility problems:
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of our websites. If you find any issues that are not listed on this page, or you think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please email us at [email protected].