Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to naturalresources.wales

How you can use this website

This website is run by Natural Resources Wales (NRW). We want everyone to be able to access our websites. This means, for example, that you should be able to:

navigate most of the site in a logical order using just a keyboard
navigate to page content quickly using a keyboard, a screen reader or both through the 'skip to main content' link provided at the top of each page
listen to most of the site using a screen reader (our testers have had high success with NVDA)
use the visible focus provided across the site to support navigation to most pages and elements of the site (excluding maps and comments section of the blog)
use your browser zoom to magnify your view up to 200% without the text spilling off the screen
remove styling and navigate the site in a logical order
navigate and select the types of cookies you wish to accept using keyboard (with some zoom and screen reader issues)
review, change or withdraw a cookie consent using a keyboard or screen reader on our privacy and cookies page

We are working to make the website text easy to understand.

Make your device easier to use

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, for example:

most documents are not accessible to screen reader software, this includes many of our application forms in Microsoft Word
none of our maps are accessible and do not contain a text alternative in most cases (for example, the long term flood risk map )
some links on our website aren’t self-explanatory for a screen reader user
some further development issues remain and these have been refined and added to the backlog we are currently working through
for some services, we link to other NRW websites, separate to the main naturalresources.wales domain, some of these are not accessible (for example, timber sales site and the hazardous waste registration sites)
our cookie preferences banner does not yet fully support zoom and screen reader functions
Power BI interactive reports tool is not fully accessible

Feedback and contact information

If you need information from any of our websites in a different format, such as accessible PDFs, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

call us on 0300 065 3000 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm)
email enquiries@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk
write to us at:

Natural Resources Wales
Customer Care Centre
Ty Cambria
29 Newport Rd
Cardiff
CF24 0TP

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

Reporting accessibility problems with our websites

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of all our websites. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please email the NRW Digital Team digital@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk

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 websites’ accessibility

Natural Resources Wales is committed to making its websites 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

We are continuing to work on fixing these accessibility problems, as part of our accessibility roadmap.

Guidance documents

Most of our guidance was created before September 2018 and is published in Word, Excel or PDF format. Many of these documents are not formatted in such a way as to be accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2

New guidance will be published as web-pages where possible. Any new documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Application forms

Most of our forms were published before September 2018. They are in PDF, Word and Excel and are not accessible.

We are working to convert our most used forms to accessible online forms. 30% of our most used application forms have been converted so far and this work will continue as part of our roadmap of accessibility improvements.

Any new application forms will be published as accessible online forms. We regularly update a list of forms that have been converted into online forms.

Interactive reports

We use ArcGIS and PowerBI to embed interactive data and maps onto our website, for example, on the BETA: Wales environmental information data portal.

These tools offer some natural accessibility capability but may differ to browser defaults.

• charts and data are not fully accessible for people using screen reading software - and no alternative is available in some cases
• when viewed using a mobile or tablet, the layout and functionality may change
• interactive reports will not dynamically change with the screen zoom function
• none of our maps are accessible and do not contain a text alternative in most cases
• the search function that searches datasets and applications that are stored on NRW’s open spatial data platform, ESRI ArcGIS Online

In some cases, the information is not easily available to users in an accessible format. We will be continuing to improve the availability of alternative text and make further improvements for accessibility.

If you need information from these reports, then please contact us.

Papers and minutes from public meetings after September 2018

Papers and minutes from NRW Board meetings and forums published before September 2020 are not accessible as they are not tagged up properly.

Any new board papers and minutes from September 2020 will be as accessible as possible.

Research and reports documents

Some reports and technical documents published after September 2018 are not accessible documents, and may include:

formatting that may cause issues, for example use of tables without label descriptions
images without text alternative (alt text), 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.
some images within PDFs contain text (for example, diagrams with charts or graphs), so people with dyslexia or using a screen reader will not be able to read the information. This doesn't meet WCAG success criterion 1.4.5 (Images of Text).

We have attempted to make research and report documents from September 2019 as accessible as possible.

Maps embedded into the NRW website

Maps embedded into our website are not accessible.

The list view of places to visit is an accessible alternative to the days out map.

Feedback tab (Hotjar)

We use a product called Hotjar to help us gather feedback from people about their experience of using our website. The Hotjar feedback tab is only accessible if you use a mouse to click on it. At 200% and 400% the feedback button is also partially cut off, we have asked the supplier to resolve the issues.

If you are unable to use our ‘Feedback’ button, please use our alternative feedback form to tell us about your experience.

Additional issues

Decorative images are present across the NRW site that may contain descriptive alternative attributes or placeholder text such as alt="". ". This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023.
Our site logo and map icons currently do not have meaningful accessible names. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1. They are currently being updated and we plan to resolve this by: December 2023.
Multiple third party iframes are currently missing a meaningful title attribute. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 and 2.4.1. We plan to resolve this by: January 2024.
Data tables on the site do not currently have headings marked up due to limitations of the CMS. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023.
Form input fields such as radio buttons or related text input fields are currently grouped using a fieldset attribute; however, no legend attribute is present. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1. We plan to resolve this by December 2023.
Related navigation content is currently not identified semantically using a <nav> element, this is predominantly seen with breadcrumb links and navigational links in the footer. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023.
Search regions have not been semantically identified within the page code. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023.
Currently bold text and block quotes are not semantically marked-up by our CMS. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023.
Multiple instances are present across the site where copy does not have sufficient contrast to the site background. In most instances this copy is linked text or placeholder text and does not impact the main body text of the site. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023.
When scaling text to 200%, rendering issues can be observed resulting in truncated text and content overlapping. This most notably happens with content supported by third parties but also can be observed with text icons and feature content boxes. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023.
Content does not always reflow at 400% zoom (when using a 1280px viewport). This results in horizontal scrolling and is mostly observed in the Flood Warnings iframe. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.10. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023.
Text within feature content boxes becomes truncated when applying custom text styles: Line height (line spacing) to at least 1.5 times the font size; Spacing following paragraphs to at least 2 times the font size; Letter spacing (tracking) to at least 0.12 times the font size; Word spacing to at least 0.16 times the font size. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.12. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023.
Within some blog articles heading levels have been skipped, resulting in a jump from a <h1> heading to a <h3> heading. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1. We plan to resolve this by December 2023
Should an error page be displayed, such as a 404 error, the page title will display as Natural Resources Wales’ without providing context to the specific page contents. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023.
Links with the same name but different target locations (where are taken to on interaction) are present on the site. Additionally to this, empty links are currently present within some content, where prefaced immediately by prior link the empty link will navigate the user to the same location. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023
Empty headings have been observed on the site where heading attributes present but do not contain text. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.6. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023
Duplicate IDs are present across the site codebase for aria-controls. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023
Status messages on the Designated Sites and Website Feedback pages are not announced when navigating with a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.3. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023
Empty headings are present on some pages. When using a screen reader some headings will read paragraph text or images instead of headings. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.6. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023.
Several links on a page share the same link text name but go to different destinations. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023
Certain links lack an accessible name. Screen readers won’t read what the links does so will read out the whole URL instead. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023
Certain images are not informative and do not convey the description of the image. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023
Some PDF documents and webpage titles are not descriptive, meaningful or unique, they do not describe the topic or purpose of the page. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2. We plan to resolve this by: December 2023.

Other NRW websites

Some of the services you may access online with Natural Resources Wales are hosted on separate websites to the main naturalresources.wales site.

The summary of accessibility status of NRW's other websites explains the current accessibility status of other NRW websites.

We have prioritised reviewing and fixing accessibility issues on our websites with the highest number of people accessing them for the most critical services.

Improvements will be part of our roadmap of future work.

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

We don't plan to fix the following, as they are exempt in the regulations.

Older documents

The majority of our older PDFs, Excel files 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 and success criterion 4.1.2.

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.

We therefore don't plan to fix the following information if it was published before 23 September 2018:

evidence reports
strategies and plans
board and committee papers
consultations
permitting documentation (public register)
newsletters
location maps and leaflets
education material (designed for print)
visitor centre leaflets and display boards

Plugins provided without cost

Share icons and social icons for Twitter (provided by ShareThis) do not have sufficient contrast. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.11.

The Disqus comments plugin (used on blog pages) does not have autocomplete attributes for common form input such as name and email. Keyboard users are unable to interact with all aspects of the plugin and require formats for field input are not present. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.3.5, 2.1.1 and 3.3.2

The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix issues that relate to free third-party plug-ins. Despite this we have raised this with Disqus and hope to see a resolution soon.

Disproportionate burden

Our Designated sites search includes over 10,000 historical documents, some of which may be exempt from the regulations (e.g maps), but some may be considered to be guidance. It would take a considerable amount of time and money to fully review and address these, therefore, we have assessed that this would be a disproportionate burden at this time.

Any new documents we publish will be made as accessible as possible.

Disproportionate burden assessment

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are actively looking to improve the accessibility on our website.

The following are some of the areas we are focussing on over the next 12 months to make our website more accessible.

Continue to make documents in active use into accessible formats
Convert remaining application forms in Word documents into online forms
Further refine and fix remaining web development issues with our templates
Continue to review areas of the website, and rewrite to be in clear language
Improve accessibility for interactive data, including providing content in alternative format
Review and prioritise accessibility issues identified on separate NRW websites

We will update our list of things we've done to make our website more accessible and meet the accessibility regulations.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 9 July 2020.

This website was last tested in June 2021. Tests have been carried out by Zoonou and continue to be made by internal testers as we progress with fixing problems identified.

The testers used a representative sample of the websites as defined by the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM).

Our test partner tested this site by manually reviewing representative URLs of all the templates as well as providing the results of a scan of the whole site to report issues that could be detected by automation.

We also use SiteMorse to run automated scans of broken links and missing alternative text for images issues on a regular basis.