Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to naturalresources.wales 

How you can use this website

Natural Resources Wales run this website. We want everyone to be able to access our websites, 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 a keyboard
  • navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible 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 accessible, for example:

  • most documents are not accessible to screen reader software. This includes many of our application forms in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel
  • none of our maps are accessible and do not contain a text alternative in most cases
  • some links on our website aren’t self-explanatory for a screen reader user
  • some table content is not marked up correctly for a screen reader user
  • some content may become truncated when applying custom CSS to the page
  • our cookie preferences banner does not yet support zoom and screen reader functions
  • Power BI interactive reports tool is not 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
  • braille

You can:

Natural Resources Wales
Customer Care Centre
Crown Buildings,
Cathays Park,
Cardiff,
CF10 3NQ

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:

  • accessibility problems not listed on this page
  • or you think we’re not meeting the accessibility requirements

Please email the Digital Team: digital@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk


Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service.


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. This is due to some non-compliances issues and exemptions we still have on our website.


Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • some images within word or PDF documents do not have appropriate text alternatives. People using a screen reader cannot access the information. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We plan to resolve this by January 2025.

  • some images may contain inappropriate text alternatives such as ASCII characters. People using a screen reader cannot access the information. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • some images that have a null alternative text are identified with accessible text. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • some decorative images include alternative text. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • 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 January 2025

  • some data table rows and columns are not marked up semantically, and this information is not presented to screen readers. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (info and relationships). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • the Operational Risk Assessment spreadsheet is not accessible. Due to the way our forms are currently structured, using a spreadsheet is our only option. We published the spreadsheet before September 2018. We are working to convert Excel files into accessible online forms. This doesn’t meet success criterion 1.3.1 and 2.4.3. We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • when scaling text to 200%, rendering issues can be observed resulting in truncated text and content overlapping. This mostly 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 January 2025

  • some map content becomes inaccessible when zooming the page content to 400%. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.10 (reflow). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • share icons and social icons for twitter do not have sufficient contrast. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.11 (non-text contrast). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • some text found within card links may become truncated when applying custom CSS to the page. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.12 (text spacing). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • 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 (contrast (minimum). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • the focus order of the ‘Hotjar’ feedback component and the Microsoft BI component is not logical. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 (focus order). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • certain links use general link text like ‘Click here’ with no surrounding context as to the purpose or destination of the link. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • certain links lack an accessible name. Screen readers won’t read what the link does so will read out the whole URL instead. Empty links are currently presented on the site but take the user to the same location. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • 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 (link purpose). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • the ESRI map components lack a visual focus indicator making it difficult for the user to know where their keyboard focus is. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 (focus visible). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • some labels for user interface components might not match the visual name. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.5.3 (label in name). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • 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 January 2025

  • some PDF documents are missing XMP metadata which may result in some content not being announced to screen readers. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role, value). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • some functional elements are marked as being presentational, preventing screen readers from being able to interact with them. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role, value). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • the map component contains nested elements which may result in some content not being announced by screen readers. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role, value). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • when interacting with the map component, when an element is selected the screen reader does not announce the change in content on the page. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.3 (status messages). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

  • some of our PDFs and Word documents published before September 2018 are essential to providing our services. By January 2025, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages

  • some forms published before September 2018 are in PDF, Word and Excel and are not accessible. We are working to convert our Microsoft Word and Excel forms into accessible online forms. We plan to resolve this by January 2025

Maps embedded into our 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 feedback button has the following accessibility issues:

  • at 200% zoom, the feedback button is cut off and is not fully visible for users. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4

  • when the 'Feedback' button is opened using the keyboard, the keyboard then tabs to the top of the webpage, rather than into the feedback button. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3

  • the focus order of the feedback button component is not logical. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 (focus order)

We have asked the supplier to resolve these issues.

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

Interactive reports

We use ArcGIS and PowerBI to embed interactive data and maps onto our website.

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

  • charts and data are not 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 on our open spatial data platform, ESRI ArcGIS Online

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

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

Interactive tools and transactions

Some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag.

We have built and hosted our forms through third party software. These forms are ‘skinned’ to look like our website.


Disproportionate burden

We’ve looked at the cost of fixing:

Designated sites search

Our Designated sites search includes over 10,000 historical documents. Some of these documents may be exempt from the regulations, but some may be considered to be guidance. It would take a considerable amount of time and money to review and address this issue. We have assessed that this would be a disproportionate burden at this time.

We will make any new documents we publish as accessible as possible. ​

Disproportionate burden assessment


Non-accessible content - the content is not within the scope of the applicable legislation

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

PDFs and other documents

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

  • evidence reports
  • research papers
  • 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

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Plugins provided without cost

Share icons and social icons for Twitter (provided by ShareThis) do not have enough 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 need 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.


What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are looking to improve the accessibility on our website by:

  • 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 our other websites


Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 20 August 2020. It was last reviewed on 7 August 2023.

This website was last tested on 1 August 2023. The test was carried out by Zoonou and our own test team.

The testers used a representative sample of the websites as defined by the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology.

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