Accessibility statement

This website is run by Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service. 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.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Some PDF documents published on fireauthority.dsfire.gov.uk are not currently accessible. We are making every effort to publish accessible documents wherever possible. We are continually improving training of our staff in publishing accessible documents. 

Some of our financial documents are not accessible to screen readers. We are looking at alternative options to correct this for the next financial year. 

Wherever we need to publish a PDF we will try to make an accessible version of the document available. If you need an accessible version of a document, please email comments@dsfire.gov.uk with your request. 

We are having an accessibility audit carried out on the site in December 2021. We will then make a plan to correct any accessibility issues. This will take place before January 2022. 
 

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille please email comments@dsfire.gov.uk. We’ll consider your request and get back to you within five 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, please email comments@dsfire.gov.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 in an emergency.

BT provide Relay UK, a service that connects people using a textphone with people using a telephone or another textphone. It allows deaf, hard of hearing and speech-impaired people to contact the UK 999 service in an emergency by dialling 18000.

Visiting us in person

Some of 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

Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service 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, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

A section of our website is not responsive and text will not reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window.
This fails Guideline 1.4 Distinguishable/Success Criterion 1.4.10 Reflow. We are working to fix this issue and expect to have it completed by August 2021.

Some webpage elements on a section of our website are inaccessible when using just a keyboard.
This fails Guideline 2.1 Keyboard Accessible / Success Criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard. We are working to fix this issue and expect to have it completed by August 2021.

Some webpage elements on a section of our website don’t have descriptive titles.
This fails Guideline 2.4 Navigable / Success Criterion 2.4.2. We are working to fix this issue and expect to have it completed by August 2021.

Some webpage elements on a section of our website have poor colour contrast.
This fails Guideline 1.4 Distinguishable / Success Criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum). We are working to fix this issue and expect to have it completed by August 2021.

Some pages on a section of our website have a poor active focus when tabbing through links.
This fails Guideline 2.4 Navigable / Success Criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible. We are working to fix this issue and expect to have it completed by August 2021.

Some images have don’t have descriptive alt text.
Not all images on our site have concise and descriptive alt text. This fails Guideline 1.1 Text Alternatives / Success Criterion 1.1.1 Non-text Content.

Some webpage on a section of our website don’t have a ‘skip to content’ link.
This fails Guideline 2.4 Navigable / Success Criterion 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks. We are working to fix this issue and expect to have it completed by August 2021.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations.

PDFs and other documents

Some documents are not accessible in a several ways including missing text alternatives and missing document structure. For example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This fails Guideline 4.1 Compatible / Success Criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value. These documents are not essential to providing our services.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018.

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

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

How we tested this website

We are currently testing a beta website to replace the existing dsfire.gov.uk. This accessibility statement will be updated fully once the new website has been fully launched and all elements tested for accessibility.

We tested our webpages using the WAVE accessibility tool, Google Lighthouse, and used elements of the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) approach to deciding on which of our pages to test.

This statement was prepared on 14 September 2020 and updated on 25 June 2021.