Accessibility

This website is run by NewcastleGateshead Initiative. 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 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 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:

• you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
• most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
• some videos do not have captions
• you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader
• there’s a limit to how far you can magnify the map on our ‘contact us’ page

 

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: invest@ngi.org.uk

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

• email [invest@ngi.org.uk]
• call [+44 (0)191 440 5761]

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.

If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, call or email us for directions via the details listed above.

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

NewcastleGateshead Initiative 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

The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) [2.1] AA standard.

(b) This website is partially compliant with the [Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard], due to [insert one of the following: ‘the non-compliances’, ‘the exemptions’ or ‘the non-compliances and exemptions’] listed below.

Non-accessible content

[Note: if the website is fully compliant with the standard, you can leave the ‘Non-accessible content’ section out.

Otherwise, do not change the ‘Non-accessible content’ heading or the ‘The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons’ sentence – they’re legally required.

Do not change the ‘Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations’, ‘Disproportionate burden’ and ‘Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations’ subheadings: they’re also legally required.

But if you need to list a lot of problems, you can break these subsections up with further subheadings – for example, ‘Navigation and accessing information’ or ‘Interactive tools and transactions’.]

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

H1 tags

• Some pages do not include a single H1 tag, so those using screen-readers won’t know what the main topic of the page is.
• We plan to add H1 tags for all pages by September 2024. When we publish new pages, we’ll make sure they meet accessibility standards.

Alt text

• 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).
• We plan to add text alternatives for all images by September 2024. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

New tabs tagged for assistive technology

• Links that open in a new tab or a new window should either have an “aria-label” attribute or a screen-reader only element explaining to screen-readers that this opens in a new tab. There are two instances were the site currently fails on this.
• We will look to fix this by September 2024.

Keyboard focus should have a noticeable outline

• Interactive elements that can be navigated using the keyboard should be surrounded by a visual outline whenever they are focused – there is one failure on this,
• We will look to fix this by September 2024.

Non-functional icons/spacers should be excluded from assistive technology

• Font icons, SVG or images that are being used as spacers, decorations or their purpose is already described by the content should include a “role” attribute that equals to “presentation” or “none”. We have found a number of failures of this on the website.
• We will look to fix this by September 2024.

 

 

Disproportionate burden

Navigation and accessing information

There’s no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option).

It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.

It’s not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when the supplier contract is up for renewal, likely to be in February 2025.

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 [example of non-essential document].

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.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 7 February 2024. It was last reviewed on 7 February 2024.

This website was last tested on 7 February 2024 against the WCAG [2.1] AA standard.

The test was carried out by the AccessScan service by AccessiBe. The most viewed pages were tested using automated testing tools by our website team.