Accessibility Known Issues

Issues with Video, Audio and Images

Video

Not all video only content has a transcript, making the content inaccessible to users who cannot see. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.1.

• All video only content will have a transcript that describes the video by January 2022

Not all video with audio content has captions that are synchronised to the audio content of the video, making them inaccessible to people who cannot hear. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2.

• All video with audio content will have captions that are synchronised with the audio content of the video by January 2022

The audio description on some videos does not describe important information communicated visually in the video. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.3.

• All video with audio content will have audio description that describes the visual content of the video by January 2022

Not all video with audio content has an audio description that describes the visual content of the video, making this inaccessible to people who can't see. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.5.

• All video with audio content will have audio description that describes the visual content of the video by January 2022

Some video or animation content may contain content that flashes more than three times a second. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.3.1.

• All video and animation content containing content that flashes more than three times a second will be removed or replaced with compliant content by January 2022

Audio

Not all audio only files have a transcript, making the content inaccessible to website users who cannot hear. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.1.

• All audio only files will have transcripts by January 2022

Images

Some images do not have a meaningful text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1.

• By January 2022, all images will have meaningful text alternative. Purely decorative images will have blank alt text and infographics and charts will have a link to a full description of the content

Some images include text as part of the image, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.5.

• By January 2022, all images containing text will have a suitable text alternative to include the image text

Issues with Navigation, Structure, Links and Keyboard Operability

Navigation

Not all pages have skip links that operate properly, which can result in people with cognitive disabilities being unable to quickly orientate themselves within the site and identify the main content of the page without interpreting its entire contents. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1.

• All page titles will be unique, clear and descriptive by January 2022

Not all page titles are unique or indicate the page's topic or purpose, which can result in people with cognitive disabilities being unable to quickly orientate themselves within the site and identify the purpose of the page without interpreting its entire contents. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2.

• All page titles will be unique, clear and descriptive by January 2022

Some pages use tables without header rows to structure content, making them less accessible to people using assistive technology. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1.

• Pages containing this issue will be reviewed and fixed by January 2022

Structure

Not all headings are hierarchical, making the site more difficult for users of assistive technology such as screen readers to access. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1.

• Pages containing this issue will be reviewed and fixed by January 2022

Headings have on occasion been used to highlight information rather than for headings, making the site more difficult for users of assistive technology to use. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.3.1 and 2.4.6.

• Pages containing this issue will be reviewed and fixed by January 2022

The content of some pages is not in logical order if the styling is removed through use of assistive technologies. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.2.

• Pages containing this issue will be reviewed and fixed by January 2022

Heading have on occasion been used to highlight information rather than for headings, making the site more difficult for users of assistive technology to use. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.3.1 and 2.4.6.

• Pages containing this issue will be reviewed and fixed by January 2022

Links

Some links do not use text that is meaningful out of context, which can result in users of screen readers not being able to understand the link without reading the surrounding text and users of speech recognition software being less able to target links accurately using voice commands. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4.

• All links will be reviewed and fixed by January 2022

Some links to external sites open in a new browser window and some open in the same browser window making the site behaviour unpredictable, which can result in the site being less accessible for people with some cognitive disabilities and people who use screen readers. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.2.2.

• All links to external websites will be reviewed and will open in a new browser window by January 2022

Keyboard Operability

Carousels do not have obvious controls for users to stop the auto-rotate, which can cause people with a cognitive disability that affect focus and concentration to be distracted making the site less accessible. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.2.2.

• We are working with our developers to implement fixes for these keyboard operability issues over the coming months

Issues with Contrast, use of Colour and Visual Characteristics

Contrast

Some elements have low contrast levels (e.g. image copyright), which can result in text being difficult to read, especially for people with low vision, poor eyesight or colour blindness. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.4.3.

• We are working with our developers to implement a fix for this issue over the coming months

Colour

Some pages use colour as the sole way to convey important information, which means that users who cannot see colour are unable to perceive the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1 and 1.4.11.

• All pages with be reviewed and fixed by January 2022

Visual Characteristics

Some pages use visual characteristics (shape, size, colour or location) to communicate instructions, which means that users who are unable to see or recognise information communicated using sensory characteristics are unable to perceive that information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.3.

• All pages with be reviewed and fixed by January 2022

Issues with Content, Documents and Content Management System

Content

The line height, spacing between paragraphs and letter and word spacing cannot be changed without loss of content or functionality. This means that people with low vision, dyslexia or cognitive disabilities may struggle to read the text, or lose content or functionality. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.12.

When using mobile or tablet devices, it may not be possible to dismiss or interact with some extra content (i.e. pop-up images) without moving focus or it disappearing. This may cause problems for disabled or sight impaired users as pop-up content may be accidentally triggered or pop-up content may not stay on the screen. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.13.

• We are working with our developers to implement fixes for these issues over the coming months

Documents

Many of the documents (including Word, PowerPoints and PDFs) on this site do not meet accessibility standards, which could result in them not being fully accessible to users of screen readers.

• Documents that are essential to the service we provide will be either converted to HTML pages or replaced with accessible versions by January 2022

Issues with Content Management System (CMS)

The CMS code is being checked to ensure that it meets the robust accessibility criteria 4.1.1, 4.1.2 & 4.1.3 and the understandable criteria 3.3.2.

• This will be done as part of an accessibility upgrade of the Haiku Content Management System to be completed in Autumn 2020

Disproportionate Burden

We do not consider any of the accessibility issues to be a disproportionate burden and aim to make the site fully compliant by January 2022.

Content that's not within the scope of the Accessibility Regulations

Third-Party Content

Our site includes third party content and functionality. This may direct you to a related service, link to another site or supporting documentation. We are not responsible for the accessibility of third-party content or to other sites we link to.

This includes:

• YouTube videos
• Google maps

We will provide an accessible alternative to any third-party content that isn’t compliant.

Third-party Platforms

We often create content which is hosted on third party platforms. This includes:

• content we create for social media
• video which we host on YouTube
• data we supply to national databases

We are responsible for ensuring the content we supply meets accessibility requirements; however, we are not responsible for the accessibility of the platform itself.

Archived Content

This site contains archived content, which is exempt from the accessibility regulations. The archived content is all internal announcements and external news stories published prior to 23 September 2018, but which have not since been updated.