Accessibility

Accessibility Statement for Discount Bookshop

Website: www.paperthistle.co.uk
Statement last reviewed: 03 October 2025

Commitment to accessibility

Paper Thistle is committed to making our website accessible to as many people as possible, including those with disabilities. We aim to follow best practices in web design and development, and to meet relevant accessibility standards.

Standards and guidelines

We endeavour to align our website with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 / 2.2 at Level AA where feasible. (Some newer or legacy content may not fully comply yet.)

What we’ve done so far

To improve accessibility, we have implemented or are working on:

  • Providing meaningful and descriptive alternative text (alt text) for images and icons

  • Ensuring keyboard navigability (tab order, focus states)

  • Using sufficient colour contrast between text and background

  • Resizable text (zoom up to 200-400%) without breaking layout

  • Semantic HTML markup (proper headings, labels, landmarks)

  • Clear link text (avoiding “click here”)

  • Accessible forms with label associations, error messaging, and instructions

  • Ensuring our content is compatible with common screen readers and assistive technologies

Known limitations & exemptions

Despite our efforts, some areas of the site may not yet be fully accessible. Below is a non-exhaustive list of known issues:

Issue Description Workaround / status
Some PDF downloads Older PDFs may not be fully compatible with screen readers We are gradually replacing or remediating PDFs; if you need a particular document in accessible format, contact us (see below)
Multimedia content Some videos or audio may lack captions, transcripts, or audio descriptions We plan to add captions or transcripts over time
Third-party content Some embedded third-party content (widgets, banners, external forms) may not fully comply We monitor such content and work with providers to improve accessibility
Complex page layouts On rare pages, zoom or text resizing may cause layout overlap or truncation We will refine the layout over time

If you encounter a part of the site that you cannot use, please contact us (see below) and we will provide the content in an alternative format where possible.

Feedback & contact

We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of our site. If you encounter any accessibility barriers, or need content in a different format (for example, large print, Braille, easier read, audio, accessible PDF), please get in touch:

  • Email: hello@paperthistle.co.uk

  • Address: Paper Thistle, Third Floor, 3 Hill Street, Edinburgh, Scotland, EH2 3JP

When contacting us, please include:

  1. The web address (URL) of the page you were on

  2. A description of the issue you experienced

  3. The format in which you would like the content

  4. Your contact details so we can respond

We aim to respond to all accessibility requests or reports within 5 working days.

Enforcement

While Paper Thistle is a private business and not subject to the same legal requirements as public sector bodies, we align with the equality and non-discrimination principles under the Equality Act 2010, and we take accessibility seriously as part of our customer service commitment.

Ongoing efforts

We continuously monitor, test, and improve the accessibility of our site. We plan to:

  • Conduct regular accessibility audits (automated + manual testing)

  • Include accessibility in our design & content workflows

  • Train our team on accessible practices

  • Review and update this accessibility statement annually or when major changes are made