Accessibility Statement
Contents:
- Our website
- How accessible this website is
- What to do if you can't access parts of this website
- Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
- Technical information about this website's accessibility
- Content that's not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
- What we're doing to improve accessibility
- Third party systems
- How we tested this website
Our website
This accessibility statement applies to www.dartmoor.gov.uk and www.yourdartmoor.org.uk.
This website is run by Dartmoor National Park Authority. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this 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 tried to make 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 aren’t fully accessible:
- Many PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
- some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
- on some pages you can’t skip to the main content when using a screen reader
- some information is presented as map data and not accessible using a screen reader
- some of our content is difficult to understand
- some pages have skipped heading levels
- there are some text overlays on images with poor contrast
- some pages need improved hyperlinking
- some form controls and buttons are not labelled
- some images are missing alt tags
What to do if you can’t access parts of this website
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please email communications@dartmoor.gov.uk, or you can call us Monday to Thursday 9am - 5pm and Friday 9am - 4.30pm on 01626 832093.
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 7 days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, you can contact us either by email at communications@dartmoor.gov.uk, calling us on 01626 832093, or using our feedback form.
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).
Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
Our offices have audio induction loops, and there is wheelchair access at the back door (ramp available).
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Dartmoor National Park Authority 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 compliance with the accessibility regulations
Issues with text
We aim to fix any non-descriptive link text by September 2021 (for example where link text says 'Click here'). When we publish new content we will make sure link text meets accessibility standards.
We are working to ensure that as much text as possible has a reading age of 11 or below.
Issues with PDFs and other documents
Many of our older PDFs and other documents don’t meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be marked up so they’re accessible to a screen reader.
Some of our documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By November 2021, we aim to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.
The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services (see below for details).
We aim to ensure that any new documents we publish meet accessibility standards.
Issues with navigation
On some pages, there is no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option). This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1 (bypass blocks). We aim to ensure that this link is present throughout the site by September 2021.
Some pages have non distinguishable landmarks. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. We plan to provide Aria landmarks by September 2021.
Alt text
Some images don’t have a text alternative, so the information in them isn’t available to people using a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
We plan to add text alternatives for all images by September 2021. When we publish new content we make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.
Issues with contrast
Some pages have low contrast errors. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) We aim to make all content reach the minimum required levels by September 2021.
Accessibility of our other websites and online services
We use some third party online services and websites to allow customers to interact and transact with us. These include (but are not limited to) online surveys and applying for planning permission.
Not all of these sites and online services meet the necessary standards for accessibility, and where they do not we are engaging with our suppliers to rectify this. We aim to rectify as much as possible by May 2021, but some work may be ongoing past this date.
When procuring new online systems, meeting accessibility standards is included in the specification, and we continue to work with suppliers to ensure sites continue to meet these standards.
Disproportionate burden
We have not identified anything that qualifies as disproportionate burden as of yet, but we are still evaluating our sites and may update this when we identify issues.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role, value).
Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By November 2021, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.
The accessibility regulations don’t 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 don’t plan to fix our Primary Factsheets PDFs on our Basic Factsheets page.
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will aim to meet accessibility standards.
Maps
Many of our online maps are embedded in our website and do not meet accessibility standards. These include (but are not limited to) Ranger areas, permitted camping areas, land owned or leased by DNPA, planning areas, common land, local plan policy areas, tree preservation orders (TPO) and conservation areas, ecology sites, and erosion sites.
The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix online maps or mapping services, as long as essential information is provided in an accessible digital manner for maps intended for navigational use. Where there is a map, we are working on ensuring that an alternative format is available.
Third party content
Our website contains third-party content. We do not have control over and are not responsible for the accessibility of this content, but we endeavour to work with the third party to improve its accessibility. This may include:
- documents produced by a third party (e.g. some Local Plan Review documents)
- links to non-Dartmoor National Park websites.
- content/functionality on our website
- content hosted on other websites, such as social media sites (e.g. Twitter widget)
We are continually reviewing our third-party applications and websites.
What we're doing to improve accessibility
We are training our staff in accessibility and how to create accessible documents. We are working to replace documents based on how often they are accessed and whether they are essential to providing our services e.g. job application documents.
We test our website's accessibility on a monthly basis using Silktide.
Third party systems
We use several third party system providers and are currently working with them to ensure accessibility across all our services. More information relating to each system/product can be found through the links below.
How we tested this website
This website was last fully tested on 25 October 2019. The test was carried out by Helpful Digital.
We tested:
- our main website platform, available at https://www.dartmoor.gov.uk/
- our microsites, available at https://www.yourdartmoor.org/ and https://www.dartmoor.gov.uk/wildlife-and-heritage/dartmoor-story
We continue to run automated tests of this website every month using Silktide.
This statement was prepared on 20 September 2019. It was last updated on 02 Sep 2022.