Accessibility assessment report for Get Information about Schools

Testing Scope

Through completing user journeys and automated testing, the team have completed accessibility assurance testing on your service. Testing was completed on 14/08/2020.

Limitations

However, the following limitations of our testing must be noted:

  • We cannot test the service on every available internet browser; therefore, we cannot guarantee universal compatibility.
  • We cannot test the service within every operating system.
  • We cannot test the service with every Accessibility software package.
  • We cannot provide mobile app accessibility testing.

Testing Standards

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (known as WCAG 2.1) are an internationally recognised set of recommendations for improving web accessibility. Our team uses these standards in testing to help determine a service’s level of Accessibility.

In the UK, the Web Accessibility Regulations 2018 stipulate that public websites and mobile apps must be WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliant. In following with industry best practice and globally recognised standards, we will use the WCAG 2.1 AA standards during our testing.

Devices

The team completed testing on a variety of devices; including:

  • A Macbook (2016) device
  • A Microsoft Surface Book (64-bit operating system - DfE Device)

Please note: We have not tested on a Chromebook.

Operating Systems

The team have tested the following operating systems:

  • macOS
  • Windows 10

Accessibility Software

The team tested using the following:

  • JAWS (2020) - a screen reader (text to speech) program developed for users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content or navigating with a mouse. JAWS provides speech and Braille output for the most popular computer applications.
  • Windows Narrator - a screen reader (text to speech) program inbuilt within windows 10 operating system for users with vision loss.
  • Voiceover - a screen reader (text to speech) program inbuilt within macOS operating system for users with vision loss.

Test Findings

Automated Testing General Findings

Duplicate ID’s Issue

Your service has multiple instances of duplicate IDs. Without correcting these issues user agents, including assistive technologies, may not be able to accurately interpret and parse content. If the content cannot be parsed into a data structure, then different user agents may present it differently or be completely unable to parse it.

Success Criterion 4.1.1 Parsing (Level A): (opens in new tab) In content implemented using markup languages, elements have complete start and end tags, elements are nested according to their specifications, elements do not contain duplicate attributes, and any IDs are unique, except where the specifications allow these features.

Actions to take:

  • Add this issue to your Accessibility Statement
  • Ensure that the pages below do not have multiple static elements with the same id attribute

Page links

Manual Testing General Findings

Link naming Issue

We have found instances where links within your service’s website which are not named correctly and do not have the correct role (see image 1.1). We would suggest the name of the link is changed to something more meaningful (e.g “More information on the data available”). Screen reader users especially need meaningful link names for when they generate a list of links on the page to navigate the content. A link that is simply named “more information” is not helpful in these situations.

In addition to that, this link is actually more of a collapsed button rather than a link. Users of assistive technology must be able to have an idea of the expected outcome of clicking on an element. If the element does not have an accurate role it can be confusing for users who expect a link to go to another page rather than expand information.

Both of these errors mean your service does not meet the stipulations in success criterion 2.4.4 and 4.1.2 of the Web Content and Accessibility Guidelines.

2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context): (opens in new tab) The purpose of each link can be determined from the link text alone or from the link text together with its programmatically determined link context, except where the purpose of the link would be ambiguous to users in general. (Level A)

4.1.2 Name, Role, Value: (opens in new tab) For all user interface components (including but not limited to: form elements, links and components generated by scripts), the name and role can be programmatically determined; states, properties, and values that can be set by the user can be programmatically set; and notification of changes to these items is available to user agents, including assistive technologies. (Level A)

example of a misplaced link within the site
Image 1.1

Code Snippet:

<a href="#" class="expanding-content-trigger" style="display: inline-block;"> More information </a>

Actions to take:

  • Add this issue to your Accessibility Statement
  • Change the link name to something more meaningful (e.g “More information on the core data fields” and offer further instructions for users of assistive technology such as “information will expand below”) or;
  • Change the element to a collapsible button instead of a link with a meaningful name (e.g “More information on the core data fields” button collapsed)

Overall Findings and Recommendations

Although generally the service works well for users of assistive technology , it does not meet all of the WCAG 2.1 level AA criteria. Therefore, in its current form the system is not accessible to users of assistive technology and does not meet WCAG 2.1 AA Level of compliance. We suggest these issues are added to your Accessibility Statement immediately (if you do not have one, you must create one by 23rd September to comply with regulations) so users are at least aware of them. In addition, the issues in the report should be fixed as soon as there is development time available.

Please review the Actions to take and, where the decision is made not to take these forward, strong evidence should be provided if requested.

Please use the content of this report to produce an accessibility statement at your earliest convenience. For more information on accessibility statements please visit https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2019/05/21/accessibility-update-sample-accessibility-statement-monitoring-and-enforcement/ (opens in new tab)

Nick Jarvis-Smith
IT Accessibility Compliance
Technology Services: End User Computing
Technology Directorate

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