Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Statement for the West Yorkshire Police website

This accessibility statement applies to this website, www.westyorkshire.police.uk and any of the content contained within this site.

Please note, this accessibility statement does not cover the platforms accessed by the following sub domain https://www.saferroadsmediasubmissions.westyorkshire.police.uk and partner site https://www.wypcommunityalert.co.uk.

This website is run by West Yorkshire Police. We want as many people as possible to be able to use our website, for example, that means you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • navigate most of the website using 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.

 

How accessible this website is

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

  • The Live Chat feature may be difficult to navigate using a screen reader software
  • Some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Printable PDF forms are used within the Firearms Licensing section of the site
  • The font size on the AddThis content sharing tool is small
  • Tables used to show data may not be accessible
  • On some of our advice and campaign pages our website features supporting PDF documents - these PDF documents are provided as an addition to the accessible web page text and supporting images - these PDFs are provided to allow high quality printing and supplement the accessible information elsewhere on the page. Please see conforming alternate version for more information and guidance on this
  • Due to the way some of our pages are structured, headings and sub-headings may not always appear in the most logical order if you are using assistive technologies to navigate the page
  • Some pages may use images to represent text
  • Some Alt tags may not accurately describe the image
  • Alt tags on Do You Recognise CCTV appeals are a unique reference number and do not represent what the image displays (images are CCTV stills)
  • The vertical text on our Leave Page Quickly tool may be difficult to understand for those with difficulties navigating, or those with visual impairments
  • Some older embedded YouTube videos may not have text transcripts / subtitles

If any of these issues stop you getting the information or service you need from our website, please contact us using the details below and we will try our best to help.

 

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 please get in touch using one of the methods below.

In order to help us understand your requirements as quickly as we can, please have ready :

  • the title of the file / document you require in an alternative format
  • where you found the problem (ideally the website address of the page)
  • the format you require the document / content
  • what technology you were using
  • what difficulties you had accessing the content
  • your contact details (name and email address)

Once you have this information please do one of the following :

  • Complete our Request an Alternative / Accessible Format Document Online Form - this will be directed to the relevant department within the Force for consideration
  • Contact us using our Live Chat tool and explain you wish to request an alternative version of some information from this website
  • Call 101 and explain you wish to request an alternative version of some information from this website
  • Alternatively you may also wish to write to us, for the attention of the Digital Development Team within Corporate Communications, at :
    West Yorkshire Police
    PO Box 9
    Wakefield
    WF1 3QP

We will consider your request and aim to respond within 10 working days.

 

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

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, or if you have any other concerns or comments about the accessibility of this website, please get in touch using one of the methods below.

To help us understand the problem as quickly as we can, please have to hand :

  • where you found the problem (ideally the website address of the page)
  • what the problem is
  • what technology you were using
  • your contact details (name and email address)

Once you have this information please do one of the following :

  • Use our Accessibility Comments / Feedback Online Form to provide us more information
  • Use our Live Chat system and explain you wish to report an accessibility issue with this website
  • Call 101 and explain you wish to report an accessibility issue with this website
  • Alternatively you may also wish to write to us, for the attention of the Digital Development Team within Corporate Communications, at :
    West Yorkshire Police
    PO Box 9
    Wakefield
    WF1 3QP

 

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

 

Contacting us by phone

If you are deaf, hard of hearing or speech-impaired there are various methods you can use to get in contact with the emergency services.

Please click here for further information about these contact methods.

 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

West Yorkshire Police is committed 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

This website was designed, built and first published in 2017 and was designed by our external suppliers to take into account the best practice standards at the time, including WCAG 2.0 and 2.1, ARIA standards (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) and the GOV.UK Design System.

However, since this website was launched there may have been additional functionality added to the site that may not be fully accessible to these guidelines and standards. Some of the current known issues are detailed below.

 

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons

These include:

  • The Live Chat feature may be difficult to navigate using a screen reader software
  • Some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Printable PDF forms are used within the Firearms Licensing section of the site
  • The font size on the AddThis content sharing tool is small
  • Tables used to show data may not be accessible
  • On some of our advice and campaign pages our website features supporting PDF documents - these PDF documents are provided as an addition to the accessible web page text and supporting images - these PDFs are provided to allow high quality printing and supplement the accessible information elsewhere on the page. Please see conforming alternate version for more information and guidance on this
  • Due to the way some of our pages are structured, headings and sub-headings may not always appear in the most logical order if you are using assistive technologies to navigate the page
  • Some pages may use images to represent text
  • Some Alt tags may not accurately describe the image
  • Alt tags on Do You Recognise CCTV appeals are a unique reference number and do not represent what the image displays (images are CCTV stills)
  • The vertical text on our Leave Page Quickly tool may be difficult to understand for those with difficulties navigating, or those with visual impairments
  • Some older embedded YouTube videos may not have text transcripts / subtitles

If any of these problems stop you getting the information or service you need from our site, please contact us using the details below and we will try our best to help.

 

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs, Word documents and Excel documents may not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion.

Examples of such documents are Minutes of Chief Officer Team meetings, Force policy documents and Freedom of Information Disclosure Log documents.

West Yorkshire Police aim to edit, or replace, existing older PDF and Word documents as part of a continual rolling programme of work to ensure compliance.

When we publish new content we’ll aim to ensure our documents meet accessibility standards.

You may wish to request a particular PDF or Word document be provided in an accessible format, and we will do our best to provide an alternative document. Such requests will be considered subject to departmental workloads and operational requirements.

 

Archived PDF 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.

 

Conforming Alternative Versions

On some of our advice and campaign pages our website features supporting PDF documents - these PDF documents are provided as an addition to the accessible web page text and supporting images - these PDFs are provided to allow high quality printing and supplement the accessible information elsewhere on the page. Please see conforming alternate version for more information and guidance on this

 

Disproportionate burden

There are currently no issues which fall under the disproportionate burden criteria.

 

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

There is currently no content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations.

 

What we're doing to improve accessibility

West Yorkshire Police has a team of two people within the Digital Development Team, whose responsibility it is for managing the website's Content Management System - alongside supporting the website's content authors, along with other duties.

The auditing of the pages of this site is a continual ongoing process by the Digital Development Team, and issues identified by both the automated tests, listed below, alongside the manual content checks, will be addressed as resources / funding allows.

The Force is keen for the site to be as accessible as possible, however, resources for the development of the site, and any paid-for fixes that may be required by external suppliers, may be limited / delayed due to restricted funding for website development work.

Any changes / fixes that can be done manually by the Digital Development Team, without the need for external suppliers, or funding, will be done so as staffing and resources allow, allowing for any prior operational policing commitments.

The Issues resolved section below will provide details of fixes as and when they are released.

 

Issues resolved

This section documents when we have been able to resolve known issues with the website :

7th December 2020

Missing 'form control labels' on the following text entry boxes / form fields :

  • The homepage 'Get started' search field
  • The site-wide top menu drop-down search tool 
  • The postcode search tool on the My Neighbourhood landing page
  • The search tool on the Freedom of Information Disclosure Log
  • The crime reference field on the Local Crime Tracker tool
  • The search field on the AskThePolice section

The above issues were resolved and a system update released on Monday 7th December 2020. We re-tested the sections of the site, listed above, with the Wave Accessibility tool, and the form search field errors previously identified are no longer flagged.

 

17th February 2021

  • Alt tags / Aria tags that were missing on two logos within the Ask the Police Frequently Asked Questions section have been added
  • Alt tags were missing from the clickable maps on the Neighbourhood Policing Team district landing pages have been added

The above issues were resolved and a system update released on Wednesday 27th January 2021. We re-tested the sections of the site, listed above, with the Wave Accessibility tool, and the form search field errors previously identified are no longer flagged.

 

Cabinet Office Government Digital Services Accessibility Monitoring Team Site Assessment - 31st August 2022 

In August 2022 this website was assessed and reviewed by the Cabinet Office Government Digital Services Accessibility Monitoring Team.

A number of issues were reported in this assessment - some of which required considerable work to fix, some we were able to address immediately. The issues and the dates these issues were resolved are detailed below:

 

1st September 2022

On 1st September 2022 the following additional text was added to this page :

  • West Yorkshire Police is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

 

8th December 2022

As part of  the Cabinet Office Government Digital Services Accessibility Monitoring Team assessment in August 2022 the following issues were found and subsequently addressed as part of a site-wide update on 8th December 2022 :


These are on all webpages:

  • The magnifying glass is not accessible using the keyboard.
  • At 200% zoom and more, links in the banner of the webpage are not accessible using the keyboard. This includes, the telephone links, magnifying glass and the menu.
  • At 200% and more, links within the menu are not accessible using the keyboard 

    This failed the WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard success criteria.

These issues were fixed as part of a site update on 8th December 2022.

 

This was on all webpages:

  • At 200% zoom and more, the Leave this page quickly button is no longer available for the users

    This failed the WCAG 1.4.4. Resize Text success criteria.

This issue was fixed as part of a site update on 8th December 2022.

 

This was on all webpages

  • The 'Leave page quickly' button does not have a clear focus visible. This makes it difficult for keyboard users to access.

    This failed the WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible success criteria.

This issue was fixed as part of a site update on 8th December 2022.

 

This was on all webpages

  • The keyboard tabs onto the cookie banner last. This therefore covers content across the webpage.
  • The focus tabs through the middle banner menu, before tabbing back up to the top of the webpage. For example, the keyboard tabs from Skip to main content, to Report it. This skips the middle links, which may be confusing for the users.

    This failed the WCAG 2.4.3 Focus Order success criteria.

These issues were fixed as part of a site update on 8th December 2022.

 

These are on all webpages

  • There is poor colour contrast when using the mouse to hover over links along the banner menu. This includes the link for Leave page quickly. This creates dark blue text on a dark blue background.
  • All our social media sites' link does not have sufficient colour contrast with blue text on a dark blue background

    This failed the WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) success criteria.

These issues were fixed as part of a site update on 8th December 2022.

 

On Accessibility, Contact, Coronavirus, and homepage

  • This refers to: Element location; #leave-page-quickly > .fa-ext.extlink > .fa-external-link.fa-fw[aria-label="(link is external)"] Element location;.navbar-desktop-search To solve this issue, you need to fix the following: aria-label attribute cannot be used on a a with no valid role attribute.

On Accessibility statement and Coronavirus pages

  • This refers to all external link icons across the webpage. To solve this issue, you need to fix the following: aria-label attribute cannot be used on a span with no valid role attribute.

    These failed the WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value success criteria.

These issues were fixed as part of a site update on 8th December 2022.

 

On the homepage

  • This refers to the navigation bar at the top of the webpage. Element source. <ul class="menu nav navbar-nav navbar-right">. To solve this issue, you need to fix the following: List element has direct children that are not allowed inside <li> elements

On Accessibility statement, Contact, Coronavirus pages

  • This refers to the breadcrumb banner. To solve this issue, you need to fix the following: List element has direct children that are not allowed inside <li> elements

On Accessibility statement, Contact, Coronavirus, Home, News pages

  • This refers to: Accessibility, Log in Select language, Contact us and all links for the menu including Online reporting and Cant find it. To solve this issue, you need to fix the following: List item does not have a <ul>, <ol> parent element

    These failed the WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships  success criteria.

These issues were fixed as part of a site update on 8th December 2022.


On news-appeals and basic pages site-wide

This issue was fixed as part of a site update on 8th December 2022.

 

On news-appeals landing page

This issue was fixed as part of a site update on 8th December 2022.

 

This refers to a specific PDF document

This issue was fixed as part of a site update on 8th December 2022.

 

Thursday 26th January 2023

Embedded YouTube videos used thorughout the site

  • YouTube videos embedded onto the site using a module within the site's Content Management System uses an iframe with no iframe title/label attribute.

    This failed the WCAG 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks and WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value success criteria, and also Section 508 Guidelines 1194.22.

This issue was fixed as part of a site update on 26th January 2023.

 

March 2023

 

May 2023

 

February / March 2024

  • The Force Policy section of the site is currently being reviewed, and all Force Policies are, over time, being recreated as accessible web pages. Force Policies have previously been uploaded to the site as partially accessible PDF files.

 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 11th September 2020. It was last reviewed on 9th February 2023.

This website was last tested in February 2023*. The test was carried out by West Yorkshire Police.

Prior to this test, the site was also tested, in August 2022, by the Government Digital Services Accessibility Monitoring Team.

*NB testing of the site and its pages is a continual ongoing process - as new pages are added, and existing pages are edited.

 

How this website has been tested for accessibility

We test this website using the following methods :

The team manually tested a number of pages in order to cover the different content types / page layouts used within the website.

They were:

 

Page last reviewed : March 2024