Accessibility Statement

Introduction

This accessibility statement applies to the content of Technical Standards Enterprise System (TSES) which includes the main domains:

National Highways want as many people as possible to be able to use the TSES web applications. This means you should be able to:

Change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser functionality
Zoom in up to 400 per cent 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
Interact with most of the website using a screen reader (including recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

How accessible these web applications are

National Highways know from a recent accessibility audit that parts of these web applications are not fully accessible.

There is a known issue with the tagging of PDF’s, the tags are insufficient and, in some cases, incorrect
Images do not have alt text
Magnifying the PDF document to 400% causes text to merge together
Keyboard users of the CARS application may get trapped unless they know hidden shortcuts
A focus indicator is not always visible
Not all pages have headings, or headings in the correct semantic order

We are actively working to address these issues as part of an ongoing programme to improve the accessibility of these web applications.

Feedback and contact information

National Highways are always looking to improve the accessibility of these web applications. Contact us if you have an accessibility query including:

issues with accessing information or using these web applications
an accessibility problem not listed on this statement
any positive feedback about these web applications’ accessibility

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 are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about these web applications’ accessibility

National Highways are committed to making these web applications accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

These web applications are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non accessible content

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

Keyboard

Some system functionality is only available on hover
Custom list boxes do not implement keyboard events
Some links cannot be accessed using a keyboard alone
Some pages do not allow keyboard users to move to other parts of the page
The focus order is not always predictable when using a keyboard
Some elements are missing an obvious focus indicator
A skip link has not always been provided to allow users to skip over repetitive content
Visible text labels do not always match with the aria-label making it hard for users who rely on speech input to activate components

Deafness and cognitive

Autocomplete attribute has not been added to some fields on either the Edit account page or the Password page

Magnification and contrast

Content/functionality is lost on some pages for people who need to zoom in to 400% or who need to increase text size.
Small text and some components, such as icons, fall below the standard colour contrast rating

Screen reader

The alternative text description for the logos in the CARS and DAS main navigation is incorrect
Some headings are missing or do not follow a logical order
All pages in CARS are missing ARIA landmarks and the main ARIA landmarks are missing in DAS
Lists have not been used to group contents on a page
Radio buttons and checkboxes have not been structured in a logical manner
Mandatory fields have not been identified as such
CARS does not always show an error message and instead changes the font colour to red
Some links do not clearly describe their purpose or say which page would be reached if followed
Other than the landing page, page titles are the all the same and do not accurately describe the content of the page
Links within collapsible content are not detected unless the content is expanded

Content that is not within scope of the accessibility 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.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

PDF documents are automatically generated by the web applications and it has been concluded that there is disproportionate burden to make these documents accessible. The immediate focus is therefore on presenting outputs from the TSES web applications in HTML format to make them accessible.

An Accessibility Review has been completed to identify all accessibility issues. This was carried out in accordance with the new accessibility legislation for public services and against the WCAG 2.1 guidelines.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 2 September 2021.

These web applications were last tested between 9-25 March 2021 by Nomensa, who performed an expert evaluation all pages within the web applications against all level A and AA success criteria of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1.

These web applications’ accessibility will be reviewed on a regular basis. We will update this accessibility statement with any relevant changes.

Page last reviewed: 14 September 2021
Next review due: 14 March 2021

DAS Help

Help page for the Departures Approval System