Accessibility Statement
This website is run by Newark and Sherwood District Council, operating as the National Civil War Centre. 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 made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible:
- some alt text on news page images are incorrect or missing
- some elements across the site fail colour contrast checks
- you cannot skip the main navigation
- some tables are inaccessible to screen readers
- Headings are not defined on all pages
- Voice control cannot be used to control videos
Some links are not labelled correctly.
What to do if you can’t access parts of this website
If you need any information on this website in a different format, you can contact us:
- Email: museums@nsdc.info
- Call us: 01636 655765
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.
Call or email us for directions If you cannot view the map on our page.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We are in the process of improving the accessibility on this website and appreciate that access for people is a priority.
If you find any issues that are not highlighted in the ‘How accessible this website is’ section of this statement or think we’re not meeting certain goals, contact us.
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
We are committed to making our website accessible, in accordance with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
Due to the areas listed below this website is not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard:
Non-accessible content
The content listed is non-accessible for the following reasons:
- Headings are not defined
- The website language is not specified
- No navigation bypass option (‘Skip to Content’)
- Navigation bar is difficult to access/identifiable when using voice navigation
- Images lack sufficient alternative text
- Images of text throughout the site
- Colour contrast in some elements is insufficient
- Links are non-descriptive on News page
- Tables miss header cells
Content throughout the site is considered ‘fairly difficult’ to read.
Non-compliance with accessibility regulations
No/skipped Heading Levels
On some pages across the site, there are no Heading 1 elements present. In other places, other Heading elements are skipped entirely This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.6 Headings and Labels.
We plan to ensure the text content can be reflowed correctly by November 2020. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our content blocks meets accessibility standards.
Unspecified Language of Pages
The website does not contain a language attribute, preventing screen readers reading the content in the appropriate language. Lack of language attribute means the site is unable to facilitate automatic translation of content. This fails Success Criterion 3.1.1 Language of Page.
We plan to ensure that our website has a specified language attribute by November 2020
Link Purpose
Links on the new page in particular provide no context of where the link is sending the user. This fails Success Criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context).
We aim to fix this issue by November 2020. And all new content that is added will contain links that provide adequate context.
No bypass elements
The website does not have the provision for users to be able to skip the main navigation via a ‘Skip to Content’ button. This fails Success Criterion 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks.
We aim to fix this issue by November 2020.
Voice Control Links
Links on the top level navigation are difficult to access for users using voice navigation. This fails Success Criterion 2.4 Navigable.
We aim to fix this issue by November 2020.
Poor/Missing Alternative Text
Images on the site contain missing or incorrect alternative text, providing screen reader users with no context. This fails Success Criterion 1.1.1 Not-text Content.
Some of these images contain text that is not described in the alt text. This fails Success Criterion 1.4.5 Images of Text.
We aim to fix this issue by November 2020. Any new images uploaded to the site will have accurate alt text added.
Insufficient Colour Contrast
Some of the hover elements in the footer of the website fail to meet the minimum contrast ration of 4.5:1. This fails Success Criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
We aim to fix this issue by November 2020. All new elements will adhere to colour contrast ration of 4.5:1 or higher.
Table Missing Header Cells
On some pages a HTML table is present but is missing the header cells. Table header cells give the information contained in the columns more context, rendering the tables inaccessible for screen readers. This fails Success Criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
We aim to fix this issue by November 2020. Any new tables will be implemented with corresponding header cells.
Readability
Content should be written as clearly and as simply as possible. In some areas, content is ‘fairly difficult to read’ based on the Flesch Reading Ease score. This fails Success Criterion 3.1.5.
We aim to review all website content by November 2020. All new content will conform to a ‘standard’ level of reading ease or higher.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do 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 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 December 2025, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.
The Public Sector Body Accessibility Regulations 2018 do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
Live video
Live video streams do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions, live).
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We are working on our accessibility roadmap shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility on the website.
Our website will be monitored for accessibility issues to allow all members of the team to react to any issues. Tests will be automated and manual.
Training will be provided to all editors with accessibility at the forefront.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on Friday, September 18, 2020. It was last reviewed on Friday, September 18, 2020.
This website was last tested on 5 August 2020. The test was carried out by HeX Productions.
We used this approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test all pages through automated methods and a set number of customer journeys through manual methods. This ensures all templates and layouts have been tested
Contact details:
Email museums@nsdc.info
Telephone: 01636 655765
National Civil War CentreAppletongate
Newark
NG24 1JY