Accessibility statement

Accessibility statement for avonfire.gov.uk

This accessibility statement applies to avonfire.gov.uk.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website and we have worked to ensure that you should be able to:

  • Listen to the website using a screen reader
  • Navigate the website using just a keyboard
  • Navigate the website using speech recognition software
  • Change font sizes using your browser settings

We are committed to writing our content in plain english.

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

How accessible this website is

This site was originally developed in 2008 and we are aware that some parts of our website are not as accessible as we would like them to be. We are in the process of developing a new, accessible website to at least WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria.

  • Many of our PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen readers
  • Some of our images do not contain an alt text description
  • Content will not reflow when using the zoom function of a web browser

How to request content in an accessible format 

We want to ensure that anyone using our website is able to access the information they need. If you require assistance or need the information on this website in a different format such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille please contact us:

  • Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • Call 0117 926 2061

Translation

If you would like to have pages on our site translated into another language, please use the link to Google Translate and the instructions given below:

  • Link to Google Translate
  • Copy the web address of the page that you want translated
  • Paste the copied web address into the left hand white box on Google Translate
  • In the right hand white box, click the downward arrow to select your language from the drop down menu
  • Click on the web address link in the right hand box and this will open a new window with the selected page translated into your chosen language

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

Avon Fire & 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.

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

Zooming

Using the zoom setting of the web browser may require the use of the side scroll bar to access content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion1.4.10 (Reflow). Our new website will resolve this issue.

Images

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards. 

PDFs and other documents

Many of our non essential PDFs and other documents are not formatted so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, role value). We will identify our most important documents and ensure that they meet accessibility standards or are converted to HTML by September 2020. When we publish new content we’ll make sure it meets accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden

Documents

We have assessed that it would be a disproportionate burden to fix most of our PDFs and other documents published since September 2018.

Our document pages account for a very small proportion of the total page views across our website. 

As an example this year’s Fire Authority meetings page accounts for just 0.14% of total page views since 01 January 2020. 

Making our documents accessible at this time would not represent the best use of our budget which has been allocated to the development of a new, accessible website.

We have committed to ensuring that our new website meets at least WCAG 2.1 AA standard and we will review our approach to publishing PDFs and other documents as part of this project.

We have provided an approximate calculation of the cost of resolving accessibility issues below.

The calculation assumes that one full-time member of staff would carry out the duties and that they earn £16 per hour which aligns roughly to the top end of our Hay 7 pay scale of £31,371 per annum.

Since September 2018 we have published approximately 200 PDFs and documents which may not be fully accessible.

We have estimated it would take on average two hours to make each document accessible however, a large proportion of our documents such as our Avon Fire Authority papers contain many pages and will take considerably longer than this.

2*(£16 per hour) x 200 documents = £6,400

Images

The inclusion of Alt text is unfortunately sporadic since 2015 and this means that as a worst case scenario (assuming that adding descriptive text stopped entirely) we have:

  • 840 incident articles and
  • 340 news articles

Providing a total of 1,180 articles.

We would normally provide only one image with an article and using our content management system to amend an image to provide a description would take approximately two minutes.

Updating 1,180 articles at one every two minutes equals 39.2 hours of work.

39.2 hours x £16 per hour  =  £627.2 

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

PDFs and other 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 do not plan to fix https://avonfire.gov.uk/documents/category/197-2017?download=1382:agenda-and-reports-01-december-2017-pdf-1-2mb.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are in the process of developing a new website and accessibility is recorded as a primary requirement of the project. By working with a suitable agency our new website will be fully accessible to at least WCAG 2.1 AA standard.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 07 August 2020. It was last reviewed on 20 August 2020.

This website was last tested on 05 August 2020 The test was carried out in-house.

We identified the following sections of our website to be used for testing

  • Homepage
  • Your safety
  • Contact us
  • Our Services
  • News and incidents
  • About us

We tested multiple pages within each section as they are most closely linked to our core activities and services and allow members of the public to engage with us and receive the majority of user traffic.

We used the following tools to carry out our tests and referred to guidance on doing a basic accessibility check.

We feel that as we are in the process of developing a new accessible website, our budget is best spent on this rather than the considerable costs involved in procuring services for a full check.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting the accessibility requirements, please contact us:

  • Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • Call 0117 926 2061