Accessibility

We're committed to making our website equally accessible to all users, to help in this we aim to make our website compliant with W3C's web content accessibility guidelines to AA level.

Our site is coded so you can easily change the appearance of text, fonts or background colours.

For information about customising your browser, see the W3C Guideline pages.

If you have any questions about our website, feel free to get in touch using our contact form and send your comments to the digital team.

Design - how we've tried to help

• Page layouts are clear and used consistently
• Colours chosen to be contrasting and not disadvantage those with colour blindness
• The site responds to the device you are using to give you the best user experience
• Text is encoded so it can easily be resized
• Images include an alternative text description
• Links to external websites and downloadable files will open in a new browser window or tab, allowing you to switch between content easily
• All downloads are in PDF format - these are designed to be accessible.

These just highlight some of the considerations we take when designing our sites. The site is tested using WAVE web accessibility tool, WebAIM colour contrast tools, and MS Edge accessibility tools to test for Protanopia. Deuteranopia, Tritanopia and  Achromatopsia.

Known Issues

1. Main Navigation:  Currently uses an number of empty links which only display when in a hover state.  This will be addressed in a new navigation design, ETA Q4 2023
2. Main Navigation:  Elements inaccessible by keyboard and/or screen reader. Fix due Q4 2023
3. Main Navigation:  Empty form label - review in progress.  Fix due Q4 2023
4. Main Navigation:  No option to skip navigation when using an alternative browser or screen reader. Fix due Q4 2023
5. Low Contrast Text:  Instances on low contrast on the home page and job search pages.  Home page update - Fixed Aug 2023.  Job search moving to a new platform in Q4 2023.
6. Tab Order Error:  On some pages, hidden elements are present when using a keyboard or screen reader to "tab" through content. Fix due Q4 2023
7. Footer:  Image links to social media platforms have incorrect alt text.  All state "Link".  These to be updated to say which platform they are linking to.  ETA End of Oct 2023
8. Hidden Links: These are created with a third part plug in tool that manages our cookie policy and settings.  Reviewing the code provided to see if we can change this.  ETA Q1 2024

Job search, Job listing & Job application pages

These issues will no longer effect this website as these pages will be moving to a new accessible platform ETA Q4 2023

• Elements inaccessible by keyboard and/or screen reader
• Text and graphics with low colour contrast ratio
• Visually styled headings are not marked up for screen readers
• Multiple Heading Level 1
• Missing form labels
• "Fieldsets" missing legend
• Interaction with components missing warning of a change of context
• Hidden elements receive screen reader and keyboard focus
• Non-interactive elements in tab order
• Missing skip link

Full guidelines can be found on the w3.org website - follow this link to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines