Accessibility Statement for the National Wildlife Crime Unit

This accessibility statement covers the National Wildlife Crime Unit

We want everyone to be able to use our website but are aware that some people with disabilities may experience difficulties.

We are very sorry about this and will do everything we can to help you as we work to resolve the issues.  

How accessible this website is

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

• Not all parts of the website can be accessed with a keyboard
• There is no visible focus on some buttons
• There are a number of poor colour contrast issues in parts of the website
• There is no pause button for the breaking news banner
• There are a number of images of text on webpages
• Alternate text for images is not available
• The focus order is not correct for some webpages
• Links do not have discernible text
• Form elements do not have labels
• Some PDF documents have contrast issues, and also do not contain document titles

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are aware that some people with disabilities may experience difficulties with our website. We are doing everything we can to resolve these issues.

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, please contact customer.services@acro.police.uk and mark this clearly for the attention of the NWCU.

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, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The National Wildlife Crime Unit 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

• Our webpages have parts which may not be accessible with a keyboard such as the home carousel, the go search button, dropdown menus and the privacy and cookies policy which means these pages can be difficult to be used by people with no vision as well as people who use alternative keyboards or input devices that act as a keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.1.1.
• Our contact webpage has no focus visible on the send button which may mean that users find it difficult to know where they are on the page. This fails WCAG 2.4.7.
• Some of our pages don’t have sufficient colour contrast so it may be more difficult for someone with a visual impairment to see the content properly. This fails WCAG 1.4.3.
• We have found that some of the images on our webpages do not have alternate text which may make it more difficult for people with sight loss to navigate the site. This fails WCAG 1.1.1.
• Some of the links on our pages do not have discernible link names. This can be difficult for people using a screen reader. This fails WCAG 2.4.4.
• Some of the forms on our website do not have sufficient labels to explain what input is needed. This would make it difficult for people using a screen reader or for people who have limited motor control. This fails WCAG 1.3.1.
• Some of the forms don’t have an accessible name when someone needs to select a certain category. This would make it difficult for people using a screen reader or for people with limited motor control. This fails WCAG 4.1.2.
• We have found that some of the documents on our website do not contain a document title to explain the purpose and topic of the document. This fails WCAG 2.4.2.
• We are aware that some content such as the breaking news banner cannot be paused with a button which can cause problems for users using assistive technologies like screen readers. This fails WCAG 2.2.2.
• Some of our pages do feature images of text which can cause problems for users who need to adjust how visual content is displayed. This fails WCAG 1.4.5.
• We are aware there may be an issue with order of navigation on some pages which may cause confusion with some users. This fails WCAG 2.4.3.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are working on a range of improvements to the accessibility of our website. These include solutions to a number of the issues outlined above, all of which we are looking to implement and assess by the 31^st March 2023. These are as follows:

• We plan to amend the colour contrast and document titles on all uploaded documents as well as update parts of the website that have colour contrasts. This will meet the WCAG 2.4.2 and WCAG 1.4.3 standard. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure it meets the same standards.
• We are currently removing all images with text from our website and replacing these with images without text. This will meet the WCAG 1.4.5 standard.
• We plan to introduce a pause button for the breaking news banner across all webpages. This will meet the WCAG 2.2.2 standard.
• We are planning to increase keyboard accessibility to our website to include all features and buttons across all webpages. This will meet the WCAG 2.1.1.
• We will be ensuring all buttons have a focus visible across all web pages. This will meet the WCAG 2.4.7 standard.
• We will ensure that all images, forms and links will have discernible and alternate text and appropriate labels and names. This will meet the standards of WCAG 1.1.1, WCAG 2.4.4, WCAG 1.3.1, and WCAG 4.1.2.
• We will ensure that the navigational order on all pages is appropriate and adjusting where needed. This will meet the WCAG 2.4.3 standard.

Disproportionate burden

Due to an ongoing procurement process for the website hosting, some of these issues have been delayed slightly in being fixed, however these will be assessed by the new supplier and NWCU and will not prevent the remaining issues from being fixed. This may also mean that there may be a delay for any new issues that arise to be repaired, but all ongoing issues will be listed within this accessibility statement, and will be reviewed on a regular basis.

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

PDFs and other documents

Our website contains a number of PDFs and Word documents. We are planning to either fix these or replace them with accessible pages by 31^st March 2023.
 
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 the Tactical and Strategic Assessments published prior to September 2018.
 
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 30^th January 2023.

This website was last tested on 7^th September 2022. The test was conducted by the Government Digital Service on behalf of the Minister of the Cabinet Office as part of their obligations to monitor the accessibility of public sector websites in the United Kingdom.