Accessibility

Accessibility statement for www.hertscommissioner.org

This accessibility statement applies to the Herts PCC website.

This website is run by Herts PCC.

We want everyone to be able to use this website. You might have a better experience if you change the settings on your computer to suit your needs. The site has been built so that you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard or using speech recognition software
• listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

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

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible.

• On Search results pages the purpose of some of the links may not be clear to screen reader users.
• Some PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen readers. However, users can request accessible versions.
• Forms on this site are not available unless JavaScript is enabled.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you can't access something you need on this site, please tell us about it and we will get you what you need in another way:

By email: [email protected]

To help us understand the problem as quickly as we can, please tell us:

• the web address or title of the page where you found the problem
• what the problem is
• what computer and software you use

Feedback and contact information

If you'd like to contact us about something else, and you need a response, please use our contact page. 

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).

If you are in Northern Ireland and are not happy with how we respond to your complaint you can contact the Equalities Commission for Northern Ireland who are responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the 'accessibility regulations’) in Northern Ireland.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Herts PCC 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 and exemptions listed below. 

Non accessible content

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

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

The purpose of the links in the pagination on the Search page is not clear from reading the link text alone or by reading the link text with programmatically associated link context. This doesn’t meet criterion 2.4.4 Link purpose (in context) (Level A).

We aim to fix this issue by the end of December 2023

PDFs and other documents

PDFs may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. We are in the process of replacing or fixing any PDF and Word documents which are essential to our services, however users can request accessible versions. 

With a few exceptions, all new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. All new documents that aren’t accessible will be clearly identified, and we will provide an accessible version wherever possible.

After users complete some of our forms they are given the option to download a copy of their data in PDF format. We know that these PDFs are not currently fully accessible to screen readers. Building accessible PDFs is part of our future development plans and is being reviewed.

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

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents are not fully accessible, for example, they may not be easy to read using a screen reader. 

We aim to have replaced or fixed any PDF and Word documents which are essential to our services, like forms published as Word documents.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we don’t plan to fix every older non-essential document like old campaign PDFs.

There are some small HTML parsing errors across the site caused by third party content that is neither funded nor developed by, nor under the control of Single Online Home. The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix these.

How we tested this website

This website has been tested using:

• automated testing – the quickest way to catch 20% to 50% of potential issues
• manual testing – using assistive technology tools to test the website with a social focus on areas with known problems
• user testing – asking users with accessibility needs to test the website, and learning from their feedback

We continually monitor and test the accessibility of our site and have made fixing and improving the accessibility of the site part of our daily work. 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 3 March 2022. It was last reviewed on 29 June 2023.

A full external audit was carried out on this website in May 2019, and a more limited Government Digital Service audit was run in October 2022.

We tested the service based on a user's ability to complete key journeys. All parts of the chosen journeys were tested, including documents. Journeys were chosen on a number of factors including usage statistics, risk assessments and subject matter.