SWFRS Website Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to information on www.southwales-fire.gov.uk

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website, and have therefore embedded assistive technology (Recite Me) to improve its accessibility.

This means that you should be able to:

  • access the website in a variety of languages
  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in without the text spilling off the screen
  • 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

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

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

 

How accessible is this website?

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • some poor colour contrast between the background and foreground remains due to a cookie issue
  • some pages and attachments are not clearly written
  • some heading elements are not consistent
  • some page titles are not unique
  • some form labels are not unique
  • some images do not have good alternative text
  • some link text does not describe the purpose of the link
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams and meeting recordings, such as our Fire Authority videos, do not have captions

 

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, please email us at: swfs@southwales-fire.gov.uk

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.

 

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, please use our contact us form to get in touch.

It’s possible that you will find an occasional PDF that has not yet been fixed. If that’s the case please let us know so we can take action.

 

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).

 

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to contact us.

 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

South Wales Fire and Rescue Service is committed to making its website 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 listed below.

 

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

There is no function when pressing the enter button on a keyboard to accept the cookies. This fails WCAG 2.1 A 2.1.1. We plan to procure and install Civic Cookie to resolve this issue.

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 A F30. We plan to add text alternatives for all images. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Some Office documents and PDFs have a blank document title, and some figures and images in PDFs do not contain ALT text. This fails WCAG 2.1 A F25 and WCAG 2.1 A F65. Documents will be titled and figures and images will contain ALT text.

PDFs must be tagged to be accessible by screen readers. This fails WCAG 2.1 A 1.3.1. PDFs will be tagged.

PDFs do not all have the lang attribute to identify the language of the page.  This fails WCAG 2.1 A 3.1.1. The language will be set using Document Properties in Acrobat. This allows screen readers to pronounce words correctly.

iframe and frame elements must have a title attribute. This fails WCAG 2.1 A 2.4.1. A title attribute or ARIA label will be added to each iframe and frame element (e.g. title=’This is the title or purpose of the iframe’).

Form field labels should be unique on a page or enclosed in a fieldset with a legend that makes the label unique. This relates to the two site search forms. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA 2.4.6. A fieldset or labels to be added. Adding a fieldset with a legend differentiates the controls, because the legend text is announced along with the label text.

We are currently reviewing this website in its entirety, in order to address the non-accessible elements highlighted above.

 

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

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

 

What are we doing to improve accessibility?

In order to continue to improve our compliance with the accessibility regulations, we are now using a number of online tools to monitor our performance, including:

  • Accessibility Checker
  • Google Lighthouse
  • SiteImprove
  • SortSite
  • WAVE

We also use Silktide Index on a monthly basis to monitor any issues, with a consideration to use Silktide in the future to provide more real-time information.

We are actively considering publishing future documents in HTML format rather than in PDF, where possible.

We aim to fix all identified accessibility issues as soon as possible.

 

Preparation of this Accessibility Statement

This statement was prepared on 15 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 6 January 2023.

This website was last tested on 6 January 2023.