Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to these guidance pages on extra.hants.gov.uk, the IBC Portal and ESS Lite

Shared Services (IBC) is hosted by Hampshire County Council on behalf of the Shared Services Partnership. We want as many people as possible to be able to use these guidance pages to support the use of self service. For example, that means you should be able to:

change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings
zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
navigate most of the website using a keyboard or speech recognition software
listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We've also made the website text on the guidance pages as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible these guidance pages are

We know some parts of our guidance pages are not fully accessible:

the webchat function is not fully optimised for navigation using a keyboard or for screen readers
most PDF documents are not fully optimised for screen readers
some images may be missing alternative text
some headings are not in the correct order

Accessibility on the Employee Self Service (ESS) Portal and ESS Lite

Individual personalisation can be made within Employee Self Service portal and ESS Lite. See the Accessibility guidance on how to make changes, which include:

themed changes to background colour and contrast
display setting for optimised touch input. Increases the size and spacing of controls to allow you to interact with them more easily using your fingertip. This is useful for hybrid devices that combine touch and mouse events

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format use the Live chat now button during opening hours 8:30am to 5:00pm Monday to Thursday, and 8:30am to 4:30pm on Fridays.

You can call us on 0300 555 0223, and use our call back service to leave a message. We’ll consider your request and get back to you on the same day if your request is considered urgent.

You can raise an enquiry through Employee Self Service.

Reporting accessibility problems with our guidance pages

We're always looking to improve the accessibility of our guidance pages, IBC Portal and ESS Lite. If you find any problems not listed on this page, or think we're not meeting accessibility requirements, contact general enquiries.

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

Hampshire County Council is committed to making this guidance accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

The guidance pages have been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.

The guidance pages are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

Some tables have a complex structure, so not all cells are assigned to a header cell. Screen readers are unable to determine how cells relate to the headers. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and relationships.

Some of our guidance pages use image navigation across the top of the page to skip to a subsection on the page. If a second level of navigation is not defined, an empty list element remains in the code. Empty list elements have a role in determining the page structure for assistive technologies. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and relationships.

The global default font size is slightly too small, so links that are in close proximity are difficult to interact with without risk of pressing other, nearby links. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.5.8 Target size (minimum).

All issues have been raised for redevelopment and improvement. We aim to have all issues fixed before the next scheduled review in June 2025.

Hampshire County Council uses a third party webchat widget for providing live chat or chatbot assistance. It has the following accessibility issues:

The button to activate the webchat is an image of text is an image of text that reads 'need help? chat now'. The programmatic name of this button is 'Live chat'. The two should match, or the graphic should be replaced with live text.
The link to the privacy policy, and placeholder text for 'enter your email address' do not have sufficient colour contrast.
The form field for 'enter your email address' does not have sufficient colour contrast.
After selecting the webchat button, you must tab backwards to reach the chat window. The chat window should be automatically be the next item of focus.
The website contains a <style> element, which is not allowed within the <body> element.

We are working with the provider to deal with these accessibility issues.

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

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services.

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

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 26 July 2024. It was last reviewed on 26 July 2024.

The guidance pages were last tested on 17 July 2024 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

The testing was carried out through in-house code and quality reviews, and using accessibility monitoring software.