Accessibility Known Issues
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Issues with video, audio and images
Video
Not all video content has audio descriptions of important visual information that doesn’t have audio, making this inaccessible to people who can’t see. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.5.
All video content will have audio description by March 2021.
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 September 2021, 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 September 2021, all images containing text will have a suitable text alternative to include the image text.
Issues with navigation, structure, links and keyboard operability
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 issues will be reviewed and fixed by September 2021
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.
All headings will be reviewed and updated where necessary by September 2021
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 September 2021
Keyboard operability
Carousels do not have obvious controls for users to stop the auto-rotate, which can cause people with 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.
Some menus, links, buttons, and other controls cannot be operated using the keyboard alone, which can cause problems for people who are blind, have low vision and/or hand tremors. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1.
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
Some elements have low contrast levels (eg breadcrumb text and links in the footer), 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.
Issues with language and 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.
We are working with our developers to implement fixes for these issues over the coming months.
Issues with documents, including Word files, PowerPoints, PDFs
The site has a very few documents (Word and PDF) that 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 September 2021.
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. 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 September 2021
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
Video and audio content
This site has one example of pre-recorded audio and video content, published before 23 September 2020, which is exempt from the accessibility regulations.