How accessible this website is

This accessibility statement applies to policinginsight.com and policing.tv (The Websites).

The Websites are run by CoPaCC. We want as many people as possible to be able to access them.
For example, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings
• zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using a keyboard or 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 if you have a disability.

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

• in certain text-based browsers:
  • some form submissions will not be supported
  • some interactive elements, such as the Media Monitor widget, will not be fully accessible
• you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
• most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, email: [email protected] marking it ‘For the attention of Ian Barrett, Director of Publishing.

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

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

The below describes how we action each Principle from the Governments WCAG 2.2 Design Principles. The audit was conducted internally and manually tested.

Principle 1: Perceivable

• provide text alternatives (‘alt text’) for non-text content:
  – We provide alternative descriptions for every image on a page. This can be read by a screen reader.

• provide transcripts for audio and video
  – We are currently working towards this (see exceptions)

• provide captions for video
  – We are currently working towards this (see exceptions)

• make sure content is structured logically and can be navigated and read by a screen reader – this also helps if stylesheets are disabled:
  – Markup is structured semantically so it’s identifiable by a visitor using a screen reader.
  – Navigations are structured in unordered lists and are easily tabbed through.
  – Priority content always precedes other content.
  – Where headings are present, they are in correct order.

• use the proper markup for every feature (for example, forms and data tables), so the relationships between content are defined properly
  – Every form field is associated with a <label> element.
  – Tables are properly marked up using the appropriate<table> structure. 
  – Pull quotes are enclosed in a <div> tag with the class name pullquote.

• not use colour as the only way to explain or distinguish something
  – Where colours are used as identifiers, they are accompanied by overlaying text to serve as labels.

• use text colours that show up clearly against the background colour
  – The Websites have been tested with the WebAIM Contrast Checker to ensure that our background colour and text overlay combinations comply with accessibility guidelines.

• make sure every feature can be used when text size is increased by 200% and that content reflows to a single column when it’s increased by 400%
  – The site uses responsive breakpoints and if the browser window zoom is increased it will adapt accordingly.

• not use images of text
  – Alternative text descriptions are available for all images, including those that may have text in the image.

• make sure your service is responsive – for example to the user’s device, page orientation and font size they like to use
  – The site has been tested for accessibility in all commonly available viewport sizes.

• make sure your service works well with assistive technologies – for example, important messages are marked up in a way that the screen readers knows they’re important
  – The most important system messages on The Websites are error messages from form submissions. These stand out correctly below each field contained in their own element.
  – The Websites include an anchor in the form submission URL that directs users back to the form in case of errors. This feature is compatible with most screen readers.

Principle 2: Operable

• make sure everything works for keyboard-only users
  – The websites have been tested to confirm that the tab order is accurate and that content is arranged in a prioritised sequence.
  – Users can navigate through form fields correctly using tab
  – Hit area links, like those in our article boxes, are implemented as block-level elements to facilitate easier tab navigation.

• let people play, pause and stop any moving content
  – Animated GIFs can be paused by hovering over them and clicking the pause/play toggle button.
  – Our Media Monitor widget can be paused by hovering over it.

• not use blinking or flashing content – or let the user disable animations
  – The Websites do not feature this style of content.

• provide a ‘skip to content’ link or equivalent
  – A `skip to content` link is present for text readers. It is the first thing the visitor will see.
• use descriptive titles for pages and frames
  – Titles across the website are carefully chosen

• make sure users can move through content in a way that makes sense
  – The tab order has been explained above. To add more context, we also have the following features to assist in navigation: Breadcrumbs, Previous | Next Links, Nested Unordered Lists for Navigation.
  – There are no duplicate links that are close to each other, making it both understandable and easy to tab through the pages where there are lists of links.

• use descriptive links so users know where a link will take them, or what downloadable linked content is
  – Whenever possible, we use the aria-description attribute in links to clarify their purpose and destination.

• use meaningful headings and labels, making sure that any accessible labels match or closely resemble the label you’re using in the interface
  – Each heading and label on the websites is unique and clearly directs users to the relevant content it describes.

• make it easy for keyboard users to see the item their keyboard or assistive technology is currently focused on – this is known as ‘active focus’
  – Block-level links encompass HTML structures without duplication, ensuring clarity about the currently focused element.
  – HTML structures are composed of unique links, preventing any duplication.

• only use things like mouse events or dynamic interactions (like swiping or dragging) when they’re strictly necessary – or let the user disable them and interact with the interface in a different way
  – The Websites use these interactive events only in the Media Monitor widget, which can be navigated with arrow buttons and paused on hover.

• make it easy for users to disable and change shortcut keys
  – The Websites do not provide customisable shortcut key settings. Visitors can rely on their operating system or browser settings for general accessibility needs.

• make sure interactive elements such as buttons are big enough or spaced far enough apart to make it easy to select the right one
  – All interactive elements have been tested to confirm they meet this standard.

Principle 3: Understandable

• make it clear what language the content is written in, and indicate if this changes
  – Although it is not explicitly stated, The Websites are primarily written in English, with only a few instances where another language appears briefly.
  – The content includes indicators when the language changes within the text, ensuring assistive technologies can adjust to the correct language settings for users.

• make sure features look consistent and behave in predictable ways, including help mechanisms
  – Features look consistent and behave predictably across Policinginsight.com and Policing.tv. This includes implementing intuitive help mechanisms that provide clear guidance to users.

• make sure all form fields have visible and meaningful labels – and that they’re marked up properly
  – All form fields are accompanied by meaningful labels that are correctly marked up, ensuring that assistive technologies can accurately interpret them.

• make it easy for people to identify and correct errors in forms
  – Error messages are positioned directly below the relevant form fields.
  – Error messages provide clear guidance for easy resolution.
• make it easy for people to re-enter information they’ve previously entered into a form
  – Upon form submission, the page includes an anchor that automatically positions the viewport back to the form. This ensures that the form is immediately accessible.

• make it easy for people to log in without having to remember information or solve a problem
  – The Websites provide a ‘forgot password’ feature that enables users to reset their password if they cannot remember it, ensuring accessibility and ease of account recovery for all visitors.

Principle 4: Robust

• make sure your code lets assistive technologies know what every user interface component is for, what state it’s currently in and if it changes
• make sure important status messages or modal dialogs are marked up in a way that informs users of their presence and purpose, and lets them interact with them using their assistive technology
  – The Websites use appropriate ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles, states, and properties to enhance accessibility and provide users with a comprehensive understanding of the interactive elements on the page.

Compliance status

The Websites have been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard using the Government Digital Service standards testing tool. We aim to maintain this standard going forward.

Exceptions

• Video content without captions
  – Certain older video content lacks captions. We are actively working to caption all video content.
  – Impact: Users with hearing impairments may not access all video content.
  – Alternatives: Please contact our support team at [email protected] for transcript requests.
• Access to video transcripts
  – We are working towards providing links to transcripts for each of our videos.

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

PDFs and other documents
We are working towards better accessibility to our PDFs and documents but since they are not within the scope of our accessibility regulations we cannot guarantee these will be fully accessible.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will be considered.

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