Accessibility statement

Accessibility statement for Step Forward Luton

This accessibility statement applies to stepforwardluton.co.uk and all Step Forward Luton sites including place.stepforwardluton.co.uk and invest.stepforwardluton.co.uk.

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

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in up to 300% 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
  • 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 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:

  • text elements may be presented smaller than expected and there is a limit to how far you can magnify the investment & strategic location maps on our Invest ‘Home’ & ‘Investment opportunities’ pages
  • images contain text which you may not be able to read
  • heading elements are not consistent
  • some pages show a Google map which screen reader users and keyboard users can find difficult to use

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:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.

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:

Step Forward Luton
hello@stepforwardluton.co.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

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.
Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Step Forward Luton 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 and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Headers

  • Some headings may not be structured correctly. This fails WCAG 2.1 level A success criterion 1.3.1 (info and relationships).

We will correct this issue over time as we review each page. 

Images

  • Some images contain text this fails WCAG 2.1 level A success criteria 1.4.5 (images of text)

When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards, however there are some exceptions to this (which may only be partially compliant), including

We will correct this issue over time as we review each page.

PDFs and other documents

Any new documents we publish should meet accessibility standards but there are some exceptions to this (which may only be partially compliant), including

  • very complex PDFs which are non-essential for accessing our services such as complex tables in the statement of accounts documents
  • documents produced by external organisations
  • documents specifically designed to be downloaded for use as posters or flyers
  • some form documents where related systems are dependent on the existing layout or format
  • maps, building plans, historical archive scans

However should any users require an accessible version of any one of these documents please email access@stepforwardluton.co.uk

Content that’s not within the 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. For example, we do not plan to fix Funding-opportunities.pdf.

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

Live video

Live video streams may not include captions. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 Captions (Live). We may not add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Maps 

How we monitor this website

Our website platform, available at stepforwardluton.co.uk is tested every 180 days.

When developing additional content or functionality we use a combination of methods to test the accessibility, including:

  • automated software (Siteimprove and Accessibility Insights )
  • manual sampling (by template type and high volume)

We also use a range of other tools to test for accessibility issues including:

  • Accessibility insights for the web
  • Arc toolkit
  • Axe
  • browser developer tools
  • Siteimprove accessibility checker
  • WAVE
  • Web Aim contrast checkers
  • Web developer

Manual reviews are carried to assess any content and functionality automated testing cannot cover.

  • What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are continuously working to resolve all identified accessibility issues which are within our control as well as working with all our third-party supplied systems to try to resolve any of their identified accessibility issues. We monitor our site regularly using

  • Siteimprove – a subscription service that reports on accessibility and quality assurance for all pages.
  • SiteImprove provides three levels of accessibility warnings based on the WCAG 2.1 criterions, errors, warnings and reviews.
  • stepforwardluton.co.uk is currently (August 2023) marked at:
    • 97.5% for accessibility compliance level A
    • 100% for accessibility compliance level AA
    • 100% for accessibility compliance level AAA
  • invest.stepforwardluton.co.uk is currently (August 2023) marked at:
    • 97.5% for accessibility compliance level A
    • 100% for accessibility compliance level AA
    • 100% for accessibility compliance level AAA
  • place.stepforwardluton.co.uk is currently (August 2023) marked at:
    • 97.5% for accessibility compliance level A
    • 100% for accessibility compliance level AA
    • 100% for accessibility compliance level AAA

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 1st June 2023. It was last reviewed on 2nd August 2023

This website was last tested in July 2023. The test was carried out by Treacle Factory.

We tested a large sample size of page types and varieties from our site. Paying careful attention to make sure all types of user journey and the most popular tasks were represented, such as the main homepages, common page templates, news / article posts, event pages, contact forms and representative sample pages containing commonly used elements across the website.

We complete our accessibility audits by testing how the site performs when accessed using accessibility tools such as:

  • Accessibility Insights for the Web, Axe, Siteimprove and WAVE to test coding elements
  • Siteimprove and Web Aim contrast checkers to test the contrast levels between colours.