Accessibility Statement

View the site your way

There are a number of customisation options for your browser and device that could help you use this website and other websites more effectively.

AbilityNet provide advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

Using the site

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

We are always working to make our website as accessible and usable as possible.

For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change fonts
  • zoom in 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)

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

Feedback and contact information

Please contact us if you have an accessibility query including:

  • if you are experiencing issues with accessing information or using the website
  • if you find an accessibility problem not listed on this statement
  • if you have positive feedback on the accessibility considerations made.

When you contact us there is a process in place that will acknowledge your contact and give you a timescale by which you can expect a reply.

Alternative formats

If you need information in an alternative format, such as braille or a language other than English:

An English-speaker will take details of what you need and arrange a translation or interpreting service for you. You may need an English-speaking friend or a family member to help you with this.

We may not be able to meet your requirements immediately, but we will try to provide an interpreter (or translation service) to help you as quickly as possible.

Complaints process

If you have reported a problem with our website or asked for an alternative format, but you are not happy with our response, you can use our complaints process to register your difficulty. This helps us improve our processes.

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

This office is committed to making this website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version  2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content – non compliance with regulations

We formally test the accessibility of key user journeys that represent the breadth of content across our website on a regular basis against WCAG 2.1 AA standards.

Some parts of the website may not work for everyone. Below are known issues that we either need to fix, cannot fix, or do not need to fix right now.

If you find something that does not work that we missed, remember to contact us.

Website wide issues

Insufficient alt text

All images on the website should contain alt text. There may be some older images within this website where alt text was not set when the image was uploaded. We fix these issues as we spot them. Please contact the office if you spot any images that require updating.

WCAG 1.4.3 Image backgrounds

Images with text may be hard to see or understand, due to the colour contrast being affected when CSS is disabled.
All images on this website should be compliant. There may be some older images with insufficient colour contrast within this website. We update these as we spot them. Please contact the office if you spot any images that require updating.

Clarity of links:

Some links may not clearly state where they go, for example saying ‘click here’ or ‘read more’ which is not compliant and means the link purpose is unclear.
We do continually review our content to fix these issues. Please contact the office if you spot any links that require updating.

Content specific issues

Videos

Some videos may not feature subtitles, audio description or offer a written transcript.

Videos uploaded will include subtitles and we will update video content that has been uploaded since regulations came into force as we continue to review pages.

We use Youtube to embed videos onto the website. We are not responsible for the accessibility of the Youtube or other video platforms.

  • We aim to fix this issue by May 2024

PDFs or other documents 

Any new PDFs or documents created after 23 September 2018 should meet accessibility standards. We are aware that some documents published after 23 September 2018 do not meet accessibility standards. If you identify a document that is not accessible, or you need information in an alternative format such as braille or a language other than English, please contact our office.

  • We aim to fix this issue by May 2024

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and documents

Some of our PDFs that are not essential to providing our services were published before 23 September 2018. Any new PDFs or documents we publish should meet accessibility standards.

If you identify a document that is not accessible, or you need information in an alternative format such as braille or a language other than English, please contact our office.

Third party content

Our website contains third-party content. We do not have control over and are not responsible for the accessibility of this content, but we endeavour to work with the third party to improve its accessibility. This may include:

  • Links to other websites
  • Content/functionality on our website
  • Content hosted on other websites such as social media sites

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 17 September 2020.

This statement was last reviewed on 20 November 2023 and will be reviewed again in May 2024.

This website was last reviewed in November 2023. The test was carried out by our web developer who was tasked with testing the site against current accessibility guidelines and legislation. Our web developer uses both automated software and manual checks to carry out the audit. The service used by our web developer to assess compliance is called AccessiBe.

The next audit is scheduled for May 2023.

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