The Greater Manchester Access Programme is committed to making this website https://gmaccess.org.uk accessible for people with different needs, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
We want to ensure that people are able to navigate the website using a keyboard or speech recognition software. We also want to ensure that people are able to listen to the content on website using a screen reader.
We have developed an accessibility checklist that we used to complete a basic accessibility audit of the website during February 2023.1
During the audit we tested whether a sample of the pages on the website is accessible against the international Web Content Accessibility Guidelines AA accessibility standard (WCAG 2.1). The selected pages were assessed using two automated accessibility testing tools, code review and manual user testing.
Compliance
This website is not fully compliant with the WCAG 2.1 accessibility standard as some of the content listed below is inaccessible.
We have installed an accessibility tool that enables our website editors to review all existing content and fix any accessibility issues. We will produce an accessibility guide so website editors are made aware of the importance of accessibility, understand how to use the accessibility tool to check the accessibility of content and are able to take steps to fix any problems.
Keyboard access
We have provided ‘skip to content’ links to allow direct access past the navigation menu to each page’s main content. ‘Skip to content’ links are useful to give screen reader and keyboard users the same capability of navigating directly to the main content.
Text size
You can vary the text size by using your browser’s text resize option. We have installed an accessibility bar on the website that enables users to easily increase the font size of the text.
Increasing the size of text by 200% on this website sometimes causes the structure to break. Increasing text spacing also causes problems with the main navigation bar.
We will review the website structure to identify changes that could be made to prevent it from breaking when the size of text is increased by 200% to meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4 (resized text).
Colour contrast
We have checked text and background colour combinations used throughout the website to ensure that the contrast is sufficient. We used the coolors.co/contrast-checker to ensure all contrast scores are at least 4.5:1, in line with the WCAG AA standard. We have also ensured that information is not referenced by colour alone.
The new accessibility bar that we have installed enables users to easily change the contrast of the colours.
Alternative text for images
Some of the images on this website contain low quality alternative tags or do not contain alternative tags to tell screen readers what they represent, so may not be recognised. We are currently reviewing the images in the media library of the CMS to ensure every image contains good quality alternative tags.
There are a few icons and images that contain the tag aria-hidden=”true” which will not be recognised by screen readers. However, these icons and images are purely decorative and have no functional use. The use of the tag aria-hidden=”true” is legitimate in this instance.
Heading elements
HTML heading elements have been used to represent page structure, supporting assistive technologies that allow page navigation from heading to heading.
Hyperlinks
All hyperlinks are clearly presented in a different text style from normal body text. However many of the links on this website are missing title or aria-label tags so screen readers will not be able to recognise them.
We will review the hyperlinks on the website and edit any that are missing title tags to include title tags that will be recognisable to screen readers and meaningful to people who rely on them. We will also edit all the links which contain the tag target=”_blank” to include a notification for screen readers that the link will open in a new tab,
There are a small number of empty links containing images on the website which screen readers will not be able to recognise. We will add instructions for screen readers to be able to recognise empty hyperlinks that contain images.
Forms
Some of the forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard. We will change the forms on this website to ensure that they can be navigated using just a keyboard.
PDF documents
Most of the older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software. 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.
Any new PDF documents we publish will be fully accessible to screen reader software to meet accessibility standards.
Videos
Older video content is not accompanied by an audio description designed for people with visual impairments. The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix videos published before 23 September 2020.
Any new videos we publish will be accompanied by an audio description designed for people with visual impairments and captions designed for people with hearing impairments, to meet accessibility standards.
Style sheets
We have used Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to control the presentation of pages and have used properly structured markup for content. We will work to ensure that when style sheets are not supported or are turned off, information on the site can still be accessed and read.
JavaScript independence
We will work to ensure that an alternative mechanism has been put in place in for browsers that do not support JavaScript.
Further information
We are always looking to improve the accessibility of our website. If you find any issue not listed on this page, or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please get in touch by emailing info@gmaccess.org.uk.
References
1. The Government guidelines https://www.gov.uk/guidance/make-your-website-or-app-accessible-and-publish-an-accessibility-statement state that an organisation can undertake a basic accessibility audit if undertaking a detailed accessibility audit places a ‘disproportionate burden’ on it.