Accessibility statement

This statement applies to content published on the www.avonandsomerset.police.uk domain. It does not apply to content on police.uk subdomains.

This website is run by the Avon and Somerset Police Website team. It is designed to be used by as many people as possible. The text should be clear and simple to understand. You should be able to:

zoom in up to 300% without problems
navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
use most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

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

How accessible this website is

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

some pages and document attachments are not clearly written
some tables do not have row headers
some pages have a poor colour contrast
some heading elements are not consistent
some images do not have good alternative text
some buttons are not correctly identified
some error messages are not clearly associated with form controls
many documents are in PDF format and are not accessible
some on-page and interface components do not include ARIA attributes
some form fields are incorrectly labelled

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

Email website@avonandsomerset.police.uk
Call 101
Write to:
Avon and Somerset Police
Police and Fire Headquarters
PO Box 37
Valley Road
Portishead
Bristol
BS20 8QJ

We will consider your request and get back to you within 14 days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website.

If you find any problems not listed on this page or you think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, email the Website team at website@avonandsomerset.police.uk

If possible, provide details to help us to identify and resolve the issue as quickly as possible:

outline the issue
include the URL of the page or the page title
tell us which mobile, laptop or tablet device was used
tell us which browser was used

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 are 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 and Somerset Police are committed to making its websites 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

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 will make sure our use of images meets this criterion.
Where we embed third party content such as YouTube/Vimeo videos and OS Maps, we rely on software hosted through third-parties and this may come with accessibility issues. For example, YouTube does not include a title attribute on its iframe code. This fails WCAG 4.1.2 success criterion (Name, role, value). When we publish new content, we will manually add title attributes where appropriate.
Some ARIA attributes on our page feedback system are not correctly labelled. ARIA attributes provide information about the behaviour of interactive elements. This fails WCAG 2.1: Technique ARIA5: Using WAI-ARIA state and property attributes. We are reviewing our page feedback system.

PDFs and other non-HTML documents

We know that in some parts of this website that PDF, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Word documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.

These include:

missing titles which do not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2
content not being formatted in an accessible structure which do not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4
visual elements such as images, diagrams, tables and charts have not been provided with text alternative which do not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1

Forms

We provide the use of forms for reporting crime or incidents and applying for information. Some elements found within these forms may be difficult to use and navigate.

We are investigating all the above issues to plan timelines to resolve them.

Content that’s not within the scope of the Accessibility Regulations

We are currently undertaking additional accessibility audits and will list content below which does not comply with WCAG success criterion.

Disproportionate burden

There are no accessibility issues that would be a disproportionate burden to fix.

How we tested this website

We use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level A and level AA to test how accessible this website is.

This website was and is currently being tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level A and level AA, and these tests have been carried out on a sample of pages across the website.

We use the following tools to test this website:

What we are doing to improve accessibility

We plan to identify and fix issues according to the timescales shown for each area above. We will update this page when issues are fixed.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23 September 2019. It was last reviewed on 28 November 2022.

This website was last tested on 28 November 2022. The test was carried out by our Website team using a number of third-party systems, including: