Accessibility statement for syfire.gov.uk
This accessibility statement applies to www.syfire.gov.uk.
This website is run by South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
- 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
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:
- keyboard tab focus indicators are not visible on some parts of the site
- Users cannot access a chat bot widget using only a keyboard
- most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
- live video streams do not have captions
- some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
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:
- email press@syfire.gov.uk
- call 0114 253 2351
- Message us on Facebook ‘South Yorkshire Fire’
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in seven days.
If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, you can email us comments@syfire.gov.uk for directions.
Reporting accessibility problems
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: Corporate Communication, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue, 197 Eyre Street, Sheffield, S1 3FG / press@syfire.gov.uk /0114 253 2351.
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 website’s accessibility
South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.
Non-accessible Content – non compliance with regulations
The website is not compliant in the following areas:
- WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard – this issue relates to a chat bot feature
- WCAG 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks and WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value: Frames must have an accessible name (Axe)- this issue relates to a chat bot feature
- WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) and WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value: Links must have discernible text (Axe)- this issue relates to our News & Events pageWe are working with a developer to resolve these issues by 31 January 2023.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how we plan to keep local people safe and we have made these available as accessible PDFs or HTML.
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. For example, we do not plan to fix older documents which we are required to publish under the local government transparency guidelines.
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
Descriptive audio tracks
Some older embedded videos do not have descriptive audio tracks. Pre-recorded time-based media published before 23rd September 2020 are exempt from the regulations.
Live video
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We’re working hard to make our website even more accessible through the use of plain English throughout the site. We also intend to make more of our documents available as HTML in the future, in addition to accessible PDFs. We use accessible text on images throughout the site- as well as social media feeds where this is supported.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 1 October 2020 and last reviewed on 1 December 2022.
This website was tested in June 2020. The test was carried out by Zounou- a third party organisation.
We approached the audit by deciding on a sample of pages to test, based upon our most commonly accessed services and which fairly represented the range of content available on this website.
The test identified 32 accessibility issues, which we then worked with a specialist developer to resolve.
The site was retested on 29 September 2020, which confirmed that the majority of accessibility changes we needed to make had been resolved. A small number of issues, largely relating to documents like PDFs, were resolved by 31 January 2021.
A further sample audit of the website was conducted by the Cabinet Office in August 2022 and this identified some issues which we are currently working to resolve by 31 January 2023.