Accessibility statement for Modern.gov

This accessibility statement applies to Modern.gov, the democracy and committees platform. There’s a separate accessibility statement for the main H&F website.

This service is part of the wider H&F website and is run by Hammersmith & Fulham Council through our third party supplier Civica.

Using this website

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this service.

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
  • get from the start of the service to the end using just a keyboard
  • get from the start of the service to the end using speech recognition software
  • listen to the service 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:

  • date pickers are not keyboard accessible
  • some fields are missing a label
  • some colours don't have enough contrast
  • PDFs may not be accessible
  • some links are only identified by colour

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 us at webmaster@lbhf.gov.uk

Reporting accessibility problems with this service

We're always looking to improve the accessibility of Modern.gov.

If you find any problems that aren't listed on this page or think we're not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, please use our report form to let us know.

Report an accessibility issue

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Hammersmith & Fulham Council 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 and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Colour contrast

There are several issues to do with foreground colours having low contrast with background colours.

For example, this includes:

  • the red used for error messages
  • dates in the calendar that fall out of the month being viewed or when today’s date is highlighted
  • The text on the tabs not selected
  • links on non-white backgrounds.

These issues fail WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (contrast - minimum).

Images, video and audio content

Images showing the party membership of a committee in a pie chart have an empty alt tag indicating that is a decorative image and should be ignored by screen readers.

However, as this information isn’t presented anywhere else on the page as text, the content of the image should be made available to users of assistive technologies. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

Interactive tools and transactions

There are input fields that don’t have a label associated with them, however some do have title text. The title attribute value for unlabelled form controls will be presented to screen reader users.

However, a properly associated text label provides better usability and accessibility. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.6 (labels or instructions) and 3.3.2 (headings and labels).

The forthcoming decision list page and the committee archive don’t have a page title. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 (page titled).

The forthcoming decision list page is also missing a top-level heading. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (info and relationships).

PDFs and other documents

PDFs and other documents may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role, value).

Technology

The date picker and date range drop down menu are not keyboard accessible. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 (keyboard).

On the forthcoming decision list page, the header cells in the table don’t receive keyboard focus when they are tabbed to. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 (focus visible).

On committee detail pages, there is embolden text that should be marked up as headings. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (info and relationships).

The purpose of some links may not be clear to screen reader users when viewing the calendar by month. This is because not all the link text is given when the title of the meeting is too long to be shown. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose – in context). Users can get around this by switching to the week or events view.

Some links are only identified by colour and have no other distinguishable feature when surrounded by normal text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1 (use of color).

Disproportionate burden

We are assessing if the cost of fixing the issues with PDFs and other documents would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

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

PDFs and other documents

Our older PDFs and other documents may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role, value). 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. We do not plan to fix any of the PDFs published before this date but will respond to requests for documents to be made in an alternative format.

Pre-recorded media

We publish audio recordings of Full Council meetings but have not included transcripts for them. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.1 (audio-only and video-only - prerecorded). The accessibility regulations do not require us to add transcripts to pre-recorded media published before 23 September 2020. We do not plan to add transcriptions for any recordings published before this date. 

Third-party content

Some meeting items may include documents from third parties. 

How we tested this service

This service was last tested on 25 August 2020 by Hammersmith & Fulham Council using:

  • Accessibility insights for web
  • browser inspection tools
  • manual checking
  • NVDA
  • Siteimprove
  • Text spacing
  • WAVE
  • Web developer.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We're working with the supplier, Civica, to fix the issues in this statement and to make the system more usable for all users.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 9 April 2021.

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