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Accessibility

This website is designed to be accessible to as many users as possible, and to meet or exceed current UK accessibility legislation and internationally accepted guidelines.

Accessibility statement

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to: 
  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts 
  • zoom in up to 200%  
  • navigate the website using just a keyboard 
  • listen to the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver and TalkBack) 
  • discern the structure and order of web pages and content  

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

Most of our site is accessible and conforms with WCAG2.1 AA standard. We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible: 
  • Not all relevant images have descriptive text alternatives, and many decorative images have unnecessary alt texts 
  • Videos do not have audio description or a text alternative 
  • Colour contrast is insufficient in places

We are establishing a plan for bringing accessibility best practices into business as usual, so that we continue to uphold the standards we have set for the website.  

Technical information

We are committed to making its websites 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 version 2.1 AA standard, due to ‘the non-compliances and exemptions’ listed below. 

Non-accessible content 

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons. 

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations 

Images 

Not all images have sufficiently descriptive text alternatives, and many decorative images have unnecessary text alternatives. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.1.1 (Text alternatives) 

We plan to add suitably descriptive alternative text that will be accessible to screen reader users by 30 April 2021. 

Colour contrast 

The colour contrast of some text elements is insufficient and does not comply with the minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for small text and 3:1 for large text. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)). 

We plan to resolve these contrast issues by 30 April 2021. 

The colour contrast on the focus indicator does not comply with the minimum contrast ration of 3:1 in all places. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.4.11 (Non-text contrast). 

We plan to resolve these contrast issues by 30 April 2021. 

Disproportionate burden 

Reflow 

When viewed at high levels of browser magnification on desktop, the main menu is not easy to use. This fails WCAG 1.4.10 (Reflow) and may cause issues for users with visual impairment. This issue is not a problem, however, when using magnification software, such as ZoomText or SuperNova, and after weighing up the impact of this change against the cost of fixing it we have made the decision that fixing it as this stage would be classed as a disproportionate burden.

Parsing 

When our website is run through the W3C HTML Validator it identifies a number of errors and warnings, which may impact how well assistive technology interacts with our website. 

Following comprehensive assessment of the website with a range of assistive technologies we are confident that, in spite of the errors, the website is fully navigable by keyboard and with a screen reader.  

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing all these validation issues on every page of our website and believe doing so would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.  

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

PDFs and other documents 

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.  

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. 

Video audio description 

The accessibility regulations do not require us to add audio description to videos published before 23 September 2020. 

Any new videos will be developed to meet the accessibility standards.  

Feedback and contact information 

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille: 

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible. 

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements: 

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)

Preparation of this accessibility statement 

This statement was prepared on 30 March 2021. It was last reviewed on 30 March 2021. 

This website was last tested on 2nd March 2021. This website was tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level A and level AA, and the test was carried out by Web Usability Partnership Ltd. 

We used the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) approach to select a sample of pages to test.