GDS Accessibility Review

GDS Accessibility Review

Government Digital Service Review

In June 2020 Government Digital Service (part of Cabinet Office) carried out an independent review of https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/

They checked how accessible the website is against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard.

Based on their testing,  they found that https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/ is partially compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA. This means there are some things which are not fully accessible – we had already identified some of those issues which are listed in our Accessibility Statement.

How the site was checked

  • The pages were tested using aXe v4 5.2.
  • Errors found were correlated and checked manually.
  • A keyboard, tab through and zoom check was done.
  • These tests were completed using a Google Chrome browser on Mac OSX with a 15-inch screen.

What pages were checked:

What issues were found?

The below issues were identified by the GDS report. They are listed here with the actions we have taken to resolve these issues. A desktop review of these issue by Digital  Development Manager on 24 December 2020 found these issues to be resolved.


 
Problem Detail Fix
  When the user zooms in to 400% on the Visit Newcastle Page, the coronavirus banner distorts, losing the text giving context to the links. iBars are usually text based with a feature logo, due to the complexity of the information being delivered by the COVID 19 ibars more imagery featuring text was used. Future iBars will be text based so scalable.
WCAG 4.1.1 Parsing Newcastle Council logo is coded as a list element which is not closed. update template html (all page-* templates)
  At the very top of all the pages with the standard layout, users can tab to a ‘skip tomain content’ link. However, when this receives focus, the text disappears and you can only see the outline of the focus box, making its function and content unclear. fix css
  The same problem is evident for links on all pages. When certain links receive focus, a visible border appears but the textdisappears/turns white. fix css
WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow When the pages are viewed in mobile view, the link in the Coronavirus banner at the top of the pages spills out of the banner. CSS or remove link from banner
  When the Home Page is zoomed into at 400% the text of the ‘experiences’, ‘attractions’ and ‘venues’ buttons on the ‘Visit Newcastle – Experiences’ image turnblack. CSS fix
  The ‘read more about newcastle’ button inthe image mentioned above also distorts in mobile view and is not easily readable CSS fix
at a width equivalent to 320 CSS pixels; The email address corporatecommunications@newcastle.gov.uk on the Accessibility Statement page is too large to fit on the screen, creating horizontal scroll bars. CSS or content fix
  On the news page, the ‘news from around the city’ articles do not reflow, prompting horizontal scrolling. css fix
WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible, WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) At the very bottom of the page, the user can tab to ‘print’, ‘bookmark’ and ‘Newcastle’. However, there is no visible text/image to indicate the options nor that they have received focus. css fix
  There is also a fourth element that receives an invisible focus but is not actionable. css fix
Other Homepage : When the user opens ‘view more services’ you would expect to be able to tab to the expanded service options; however, focus order skips to the news stories template fix
WCAG 1.3.1 Info andRelationships The COVID-19 Page and car parks and on street parking pages contain a lot of ‘click here’ links which don’t adequately inform the user of where the link will take them. Change content
WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible COVID 19 Discretionary Business Grant Form, there is no focus when you tab to the privacy notice on the ‘your information’ page. There is also no focus on links in text on the second page of the form.  
  Focus is not clear on the ‘continue’, ‘reset’and ‘back’ buttons of the Pay for a Blue Badge Page. Seems to be using an old version of our custom css? Supplier will need to update.
  The privacy notice link (light blue writing on white background) fails colour contrast on the ‘your information’ page of the COVID 19 Discretionary Business Grant Form. On the second page of the form, the links in text (blue on white) also fail – as does the skip to main content link on allform pages.  
  Regarding the Pay for a Blue Badge page,the header options and ‘continue’, ‘reset’ and ‘back’ buttons fail colour contrast.  
  Regarding the Pay for a Blue Badge Page, when it is zoomed in to 200% or higher, the header options disappear and cannot be accessed from the page.  
  Zooming and scaling is disabled on the COVID 19 Discretionary Business Grant Form webpages  
WCAG 3.3.2 Labels the COVID 19 Discretionary Business Grant Form use asterisks but there is no indication as to their purpose  
  the Pay for a Blue Badge Page use asterisks but there is no indication as to their purpose  
WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard user cannot tab to ‘show purpose’ or ‘see vendors’. Users cannot access the privacy link in the bottom right hand-side of all pages using just a keyboard.  
  Focus is lost in and around advertisements on all pages.  
WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose Refers to the ReciteMe button on the bottom right hand corner of all pages. It does not have discernable text. update html
  Also relevant to the Coronavirus business support banner which appears on all pages.  
WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast(Minimum) The privacy icon at the bottom right hand side of all pages fails colour contrast requirements.  
WCAG 1.4.4 Resize Text when the page is zoomed in. The COVID banner, privacy button and advertisements overlap each other and block out some of the links on the footer. Also, the user cannot see all of the banner as it is cut off.  

 

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