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Accessibility statement for the Victim and Witness Information website

This accessibility statement applies to the Victim and Witness Information website at victimandwitnessinformation.org.uk

This website is run by the Ministry of Justice.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • use browser settings or plugins to change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • use browser settings or other software to zoom in up to 400% 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 but most people should still be able to use the website fairly easily.

  • The victim’s journey images are not accessible to people who use screen readers or magnify the screen a lot
  • Magnification or zoom users will have to scroll down a bit to find the key links on some pages at around 175% zoom
  • People using speech recognition software may find the cookie settings button hard to activate – try saying “press cookie settings”
  • Screen reader users may find the headings are not always in the most helpful order
  • People with low vision may find that a very small number of links have low colour contrast

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact:

accessibility.victimandwitness@digital.justice.gov.uk

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, contact:

accessibility.victimandwitness@digital.justice.gov.uk

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.

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).

If you live in Northern Ireland, complain to the Equalities Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Ministry of Justice 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 2.2 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 placeholder text inside the search box has insufficient contrast when the box is focused and this may be hard for people with low vision to read. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3: Contrast (Minimum). We plan to fix this by July 2024.

The focus highlight on active navigation has low contrast and this may be hard for people with low vision to read. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.4.11: Non-text Contrast and 2.4.7: Focus Visible. We plan to fix this by July 2024.

The cookie button text may not make sense to some users. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.4: Link Purpose (In Context). We plan to fix this by July 2024.

The home page button on hover (white on teal) has low contrast and this may be hard for people with low vision to read. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3: Contrast (Minimum). We plan to fix this by July 2024.

Some link text is a URL and this may be hard for some users to understand. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.4: Link Purpose (In Context). We plan to fix this by July 2024.

The victim’s journey information is not available to people who cannot use the images. They have no suitable alternative text This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1: Non-text Content. We plan to fix this by July 2024.

The search results do not pre-fill the search input with the previously entered term. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.3.7: Redundant Entry. We plan to fix this by July 2024.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Our team reviews accessibility for all the websites built using this system and we aim to fix any issues we find.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 30 November 2023. It was last reviewed on 30 November 2023. This website was last tested on 15 November 2023.

The test was carried out by the Ministry of Justice Digital Accessibility Team. We carried out a basic review and not a full audit. The system used to produce the site (called ‘Hale’) has been audited in the past and all issues found then were fixed.

We used this approach to decide on a sample of pages to test – we tested all of the most common pages:

  • the home page
  • the template used for all the pages
  • the search results page
  • a navigation index page
  • a sample of 5 standard pages