Accessibility statement for the Defra Consultation Hub

This accessibility statement applies to the Consultation Hub service on the consult.defra.gov.uk subdomain.

This website is run by Defra.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

• use browser settings or plugins to change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• use browser settings or other software to zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

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

How accessible this website is

We believe that most users will be able to use the website without problems.

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

• The main problem that you might find is that some related consultation documents - mainly PDFs - are not fully accessible and may not work as expected when using assistive technology. If you cannot use a document, contact us and we will send you an accessible alternative.
• If you need larger text size or to zoom in will find that when resizing text to 200% that some content is clipped, making it difficult to read.
• If you use voice control, you may encounter difficulty due to hidden text, meant to improve the experience for screen-reader users, obscuring the name of interactive controls. Some controls also have no visible name, such as the search button present throughout the site, which may make controlling the website using voice control software more difficult.
• If you use a screen reader, you will find that when sorting elements in the activities page, due to the way that content has been authored it is difficult to identify which sorting method is currently active. In addition, you may find it tricky to work out what to do if there is an error on a survey form.
• It might be tricky to work out from web link text what the link refers to.
• Page titles do not include the correct name used by Defra for the system and do not update to reflect search results.

Some of the problems listed above are not listed in the technical section below because they are do not fail a WCAG success criterion,

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 email consultation.coordinator@defra.gov.uk.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 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:

Email: consultation.coordinator@defra.gov.uk

Or send a letter to:
Consultation Coordinator, Defra
2nd Floor, Foss House
Kings Pool
1-2 Peasholme Green
York
YO1 7PX

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Defra 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-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Problems with text and documents used in consultations

When consultations are added to the system, errors are sometimes made in the way that the text is marked up and these cause accessibility problems. In addition, documents that we link to may not be accessible. Our audit found some of these problems but as new consultations are being added almost every week, it is likely that new problems will happen.

We are working with our consultation authors to improve their knowledge of how to create accessible consultations and improving how we check consultations to try to eliminate these problems. We are aiming to fix the problems with text and documents for new consultations by the end of December 2022.

Heading levels have been skipped on some surveys. (Issue S5). In addition, some text has been formatted as if it was a heading but is not correctly marked up as a heading. (Issue S6b/c/d.) These fail WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A). Screen reader users may not be able to work out how the page is organised.

Some links do not include meaningful text and just list the URL, such as: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/1154/contents/made. This does not provide the user with any context, nor will they be able to quickly ascertain where the link will direct them. (Issue S6b/c/d.) This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (A). All users, but in particular screen reader users, won't be able to work out where a link will go.

Several PDFs are not correctly marked up and are not accessible. (Issue PDF1/2/3.) PDF documents do not contain semantically marked headings. The PDFs are also missing page numbering meaning that the information and its position in the document is not programmatically determinable. These items all fail WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A). People using a screen reader may not be able to understand the context behind the information that they are accessing and may be unable to use the service. Some PDF documents do not contain a document title. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 Page Titled (A). People may not be able to quickly and easily identify information contained within documents.

Problems with the software system

When the "Basic Search" link on /consultation_finder/ is activated, focus is "lost", and pressing the Tab key moves focus to the first link below the form (the "[Sort By] Updated" link) rather than the top of the form. (Issue D1.) This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order (A). We expect our supplier to fix this by August 2022.

On some consultations (activities), if you enter your email address... label is not programmatically associated with the "Please enter your email address" question. (Issue D2.) This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A). Screen reader, screen magnifier and speech recognition tool users may not be able to enter their email easily. We expect our supplier to fix this by August 2022.

Colour contrast is insufficient on the fact bank link when it receives focus. (Issue D3.) This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (AA). People, especially partially sighted people, will find it hard to read text because the contrast is poor. We expect our supplier to fix this by August 2022.

HTML parsing is incorrect for some checkboxes/radios. is not permitted as a direct child of the element in cases where groups of checkboxes/radio buttons. (Issue D4.) This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1 Parsing (A). Assistive technologies may not interpret the content coding accurately. We expect our supplier to fix this by August 2022.

When navigating through the search results with a screen-reader, the technology announces the multiple sort options, not one. This can be confusing as it informs users that content is being sorted when it may not be. (Issue S1.) This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A). Screen reader, screen magnifier and speech recognition tool users may not be able to work out how the page is organised. Our supplier has this on their list to fix but we do not yet have a fix date.

Within required questions on response forms, the text ‘(Required)’ is not programmatically associated with question legends, labels or input fields, meaning that users may not be aware that answers are required for specific questions. (Issue S2a.) Our supplier has this on their list to fix but we do not yet have a fix date.

Hint text that further contextualises the information required by questions, is not programmatically linked to the questions in any way. This means assistive technology may not announce this content to users. (Issue S2b.) This fails WCAG 2.1 success criteria 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (AA) and 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A). Our supplier has this on their list to fix but we do not yet have a fix date.

Error identification is not good enough. The page title doesn't say there are errors. The general error message "There were errors with your submission." isn't set as an alert. The error messages do not say what the error is. The error message is not linked to the legend and so is not read out. The visual marker is not clear and for most forms of colour deficiency this won't be distinct from the rest of the text. (Issue S4.) This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.1 Error Identification (A). Users may not know that an error has occurred or cannot work out what is wrong. Our supplier has this on their list to fix but we do not yet have a fix date.

When searching for content, the title does not update to reflect the terms searched for and therefore does not accurately describe the contents of the page. (Issue S9.) This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 Page Titled (A). People may not be able to quickly and easily identify information contained within documents. Our supplier has this on their list to fix but we do not yet have a fix date.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are working with our software supplier to make sure that accessibility problems with the software system are fixed as soon as possible.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 20 June 2022. It was last reviewed on 20 June 2022.

The underlying software used for this site is provided by Delib and was tested for them by Tetralogical in May 2021. This site was tested by the Defra Accessibility Team on 12 January 2022.

Tetralogical audit - test method and sample chosen:

A representative sample of pages from the Citizen Space system was selected to be audited after Tetralogical carried out an initial analysis of the platform. The sample represented key page types, content types, and popular features, so that the accessibility assessment captured a broad range of issues.

The methodology used a blend of analytical tools, manual testing, and usability verification with assistive technologies. Pages were evaluated against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 level AA.

Conformance testing was carried out using:

• Browsers: Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Safari.
• Tools: Developer tools in Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Safari.
• Inspectors: Accessibility Insights, and XCode Accessibility Inspector.
• Checkers: Axe Core, Axe for Android, Siteimprove, Tenon, ARC Toolkit, Android Accessibility Scanner, and the TPGi Colour Contrast Analyser.

Assistive technology verification was carried out using:

• Screen readers: JAWS, NVDA, Narrator, VoiceOver and TalkBack.
• Screen magnifiers: ZoomText, and platform level magnification services.
• Voice: Dragon, and platform level voice services.
• Other: Keyboard.

Defra audit - sample chosen:

The test was carried out by the Defra Accessibility Team. We chose a sample of 8 web pages and 3 PDF documents to test as examples of the main document types used throughout the service. We also did a quick review of 5 consultation pages and any related surveys, to look for issues that might arise when consultations are written by Defra staff.