Accessibility Statement for The Law Relating to Social Security in Northern Ireland (Blue Volumes) Application

This statement applies to content published on the http://iaccess.communities-ni.gov.uk/sspldbluevolumesinternet/users/internetsearchpage.aspx website.

This website is run by the Department for Communities. It is designed to be used by as many people as possible. The text should be clear and simple to understand. For example you should be able to:

• zoom in up to 300% without problems
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• use most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

How accessible this website is

Parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:

• some tables do not have row or column headers
• some pages and elements have poor colour contrast
• some heading elements are not consistent
• some elements of pages would be difficult for keyboard or assistive technology to read
• behaviour of some page elements may be unpredictable due to duplicated attribute IDs
• deprecated HTML attributes are present, for example the align, width and height attributes in tables
• many documents are in PDF format and are not accessible

How to request content in an accessible forma

If you need information in a different format contact us by using the feedback form and tell us:

• the web address (URL) of the content
• your name and email address
• the format you need, for example, audio CD, braille, BSL or large print, accessible PDF

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

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, contact us by using the feedback form and our Communications & Engagement Unit will investigate the issue.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’) in Northern Ireland. If you are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI)

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Department for Communities is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This website is not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

A basic audit check was completed on the website, using a range of tools. Examples of non-accessible content are outlined below, with details of:

• the accessibility problem(s)
• where it fails the success criteria, and
• when we plan to fix it

Developer issues

The website was not developed by the Department for Communities and was inherited for support purposes after the NICS departmental restructuring in November 2016.

There is a lack of technical documentation.

Our IT team currently has a lack of available resources and skills in web accessibility.

The web application is old and is deemed out of support.

Examples of content that does not meet WCAG 2.1 design principles:

Principle 1 (Perceivable) - Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.

Each page has several examples of colour contrast issues where the contrast between the colour of text and its background makes it difficult to read and not easily distinguishable. The contrast between the colour of text and its background element should be in the ratio of 4.5:1 for standard text, or 3:1 for larger text.

Principle 2 (Operable) - User interface components and navigation must be operable

There is no heading on the main page.

Principle 3 (Understandable) - Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable

There are some instances where a duplicate attribute ID has been used on a page. This may result in the application behaving unexpectedly.

Principle 4 (Robust) - Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.

There are several examples throughout the application where deprecated HTML attributes are used. They are mostly contained within the table on internetsearchpage.aspx. Attributes such as align, width and height should not be used within a table, and they should be included in a stylesheet instead. The continued use of deprecated tags may result in content being displayed incorrectly, which could make the application unusable in future releases of common web browsers.

When we plan to do to fix the issues

A full web accessibility audit is to be conducted by 30 November 2020. When the extent of the accessibility issues are reviewed, a plan of action will be produced and a statement update published.

Disproportionate burden

Not applicable

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

As a website published before 23 September 2018, we are required to comply with the web accessibility regulations from 23 September 2020.

However, some of our content is exempt from the accessibility regulations:

• pre-recorded audio and video published before 23 September 2020
• heritage collections
• PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 - unless required for the use of a service, for example a form
• maps
• third party content that is not within our control, for example, embedded video players like Vimeo or YouTube, and embedded Google Maps.

If you have any problems using this website, tell us using the feedback form and our Communications & Engagement Unit will investigate the issue and/or provide you with the information you need in an alternative format.

How we tested this website

A basic audit test was carried out internally for this website for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 level A and level AA.

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

Ranges of tools were:

• AChecker
• ASLint
• Code Sniffer
• Wave

The results of tests can be requested by using the feedback form.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We plan to conduct a full web accessibility audit by 30 November 2020 to identify all of the accessibility issues, followed by a course of action to either plan remediation work or to replace the website in order to meet the accessibility regulations. This statement will be updated once the results of the full audit have been reviewed.

This statement was prepared on 22 September 2020. It was last updated on 22 September 2020.