Accessibility

Accessibility

This accessibility statement applies to Worcestershire Pension Fund's website

This website is run by Worcestershire Pension Fund. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • zoom in without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard (including skip to content or skip to main navigation)
  • navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader

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 aren’t fully accessible:

  • most older PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams do not have captions

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact: pensions@worcestershire.gov.uk

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, contact: pensions@worcestershire.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)

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

Some of our offices have audio induction loops. You may wish to check whether a loop is available before your visit, please see the contact us page.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Worcestershire Pension Fund 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 2.1. AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed in the Non-accessible content section.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • some images do not have alt text or have alt text when it should be decorative, this fails 1.1.1 Non-text content
  • the hamburger menu when zoomed in or on mobile devices cannot be seen due to poor colour contrast, this fails on 1.4.3 Colour contrast minimum
  • in some areas of the site text falls on poor contrast for text and background, this fails 1.4.3 Colour contrast minimum
  • some text size in our website is very small and does not zoom, this fails 1.4.4 Resize text
  • the back to top function is a floating object that may obscure content, this fails 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum)
  • some download links may not make sense when read on their own; this fails 2.4.4 link purpose in context
  • the same link text is used for links going to different destinations; this fails 2.4.4 link purpose in context
  • some heading levels jump from h1 to h3, this fails 2.4.6 Headings and Labels
  • text on some focus elements do not meet minimum contrast, this fails 1.4.3 contrast minimum
  • not all elements on focus have an obvious change of appearance to those with low vision, this fails 2.4.13 Focus Appearance
  • some pages use collapsible content instead of navigating to a new page, which may be confusing as its inconsistent navigation, this fails 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation
  • some page titles throughout the site do not announce, this fails 2.4.2 page titled
  • some pages have unexplained abbreviations, this fails 3.1.4 Abbreviations
  • some pages have a considerable amount of text and complex language, this fails 3.1.5 Reading Level
  • on load of the website the cookie item receives focus which is confusing for keyboard navigation, this fails 3.2.1 On focus
  • on the search page screen reader users do not know that the search results have been actioned or how many results their search found, this fails 4.1.2 Name Role Value

We intend to fix these items in due course.

Issues with files

  • there may be some files that are not fully accessible

We use Siteimprove tool to monitor any issues regarding accessibility and aim to fix any issues that has been found as soon as possible. We use Adobe Pro's accessibility checker to check the PDF documents and Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker to check any Microsoft Office files. We have also created a guidance for our staff how to make accessible documents, for more information on this, please see the SCULPT for Accessibility page.

Issues with third-party applications

We use some third-party applications which might not all be fully accessible, but the third-party companies are either in the process of reviewing their applications or have reviewed the applications and given a statement when the issues are going to be fixed.

Disproportionate burden

We have not identified anything that qualifies as disproportionate burden yet, but we are still evaluating our sites and may update this when we identify issues.

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

Regulations do not apply to the following content of a website or mobile application of a public sector body:

Older files

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. 

Third party content that we have not paid for

Social media buttons such as Tweet/Like

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We use Silktide to check this site for accessibility issues.

Worcestershire County Council's IT and Digital Team uses WAVE Evaluation Tool to for checking individual web pages, and the Silktide tool for checking and monitoring the whole site's accessibility status. Silktide crawls the site every five days.

See the SCULPT for Accessibility pages for more information on what we are doing to improve document accessibility.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on February 2023. It was last reviewed on 22 July 2024.

This website was last tested during July 2024. The test was carried out by using our own testing methods and using third party input.

Manual testing

To do our testing we chose a selection of home pages, document pages, custom pages and a typical form to offer a cross-section of page types within the website.

The pages on this pensions website follow the same template and functions of the Worcestershire County Council website.

We tested the following pages manually to ascertain any accessibility issues:

Automated testing

Worcestershire County Council subscribe and pay for the automated Silktide tool for checking and monitoring the whole website's accessibility status regularly to identify any ongoing issues.

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