Accessibility Statement for publicappointmentsni.org

This statement applies to content published on the www.publicappointmentsni.org domain.

This website is run by The Commissioner for Public Appointments for Northern Ireland (CPANI). 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)

How accessible this website is

Parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:

  • some pages and document attachments are not clearly written
  • some pages and elements have poor colour contrast
  • some images and icons do not have good alternative text
  • some documents are in PDF and MS Office formats and are not accessible

How to request content in an accessible format

If you need information in a different format please contact us and tell us:

  • the web address (URL) of the content
  • your name and email address
  • the format you need, for example, audio CD, braille, BSL or large print, accessible PDF

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, please contact us and we will investigate the issue.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’) in Northern Ireland. If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

CPANI 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-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

The content that is not accessible is outlined below with details of:

  • the accessibility problem(s)
  • where it fails the success criteria, and
  • when we plan to fix it

Developer issues

A number of accessibility issues are related to the underlying Drupal content management system (CMS) and will require developer and web design input.

These include but not limited to the following:

  • Colour contrast interface elements (WCAG 2.1, Level AA, 1.4.11)
  • Elements use colour to convey meaning which is not accessible to assistive technologies or users with low vision. (WCAG 2.1, Level A, 1.4.1)
  • The use of asides means the reading order is disrupted. (WCAG 2.1, Level A, 1.3.2, 2.4.3)
  • Keyboard focus - Interface elements (WCAG 2.1, Level A, 2.1.1, Level AA, 2.4.7)
  • Some instances where the dropdown menu is not navigable via keyboard (WCAG 2.1, Level A, 2.1.2)
  • There are no skip to content links in the page header (WCAG 2.1, Level A, 2.4.1)
  • There is a redundant home links (WCAG 2.1, Level A, 2.4.4)
  • Content changes on input (WCAG 2.1, Level A, 3.2.2 )

Disproportionate burden

Not applicable.

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

As a website published before 23 September 2018, we are required to comply with the web accessibility regulations from 23 September 2020.

However, some of our content is exempt from the accessibility regulations:

  • heritage collections
  • PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 - unless required for the use of a service.

If you have any problems using this website, please contact us and we will investigate the issue and/or provide you with the information you need in an alternative format.

PDFs and other documents

Some documents are non-accessible in a number of ways including missing text alternatives and missing document structure.

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 PDF copies of the CPANI founding legislation.

Any new PDFs or other documents we publish will meet the required accessibility standards.

How we tested this website

This website was and is currently being tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 level A and level AA, and these tests have been carried out externally and independently.

We used the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We plan to identify and fix issues according to the timescales shown for each area above.

This statement was prepared on 23 September 2020. It was last updated on 03 February 2023.