Accessibility statement

Important information

This accessibility statement does not apply to content on economy-ni.gov.uk subdomains and third party domains hosting economy-ni services.

This website is run by Department for the Economy (Northern Ireland). It is designed to be used by as many people as possible. The text should be clear and simple to understand. You should be able to:

• zoom in up to 300% without problems
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• use most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

How accessible this website is

Parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:

• there are pages where the screen reader calls out blank when navigating through page via keyboard and NVDA.
• on a number of pages abbreviated words get called out as words when using screen readers and navigating through the site some heading elements are not consistent
• there are a number of pages where the alternative text for screen readers is more than around 100 characters.
• there are a number of PDFs which have a blank document title.
• there are some documents where link annotation does not include an alternate description in the Contents Key.

How to request content in an accessible format

If you need information in a different format contact us by email and tell us:

• the web address (URL) of the content
• your name and email address
• the format you need, for example, audio CD, braille, BSL or large print, accessible PDF

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 us by email and we will investigate the issue.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’) in Northern Ireland. If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Department for the Economy 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 compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below was identified during an audit as being non-accessible for the following reasons.

The content that is/was not accessible is outlined below with details of:

• the accessibility problem(s)
• where it fails the success criteria, and
• confirmation of when the identified issues were remedied, when we plan to fix them

Page Structure

The following highlighted issues with published documents were remedied where possible by February 2025.

When we publish new content, we’ll ensure we accommodate these recommendations, and our use of headers and formatting of lists will meet current accessibility standards.

• There are a number of pages which had redundant title text. The title attribute value is used to provide advisory information. It typically appears when the users hover the mouse over an element. The advisory information presented should not be identical to or very similar to the element text or alternative text. This fails Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, 2.4.6 (Level AA).
• There are a number of pages with the layout table present. There are no header cells, so these had to be marked up to the correct semantics. This failed WCAG 2.2, 1.3.1 (Level A), 1.3.2 (Level A).
• There were pages where the screen reader called out blank when navigating through page via keyboard and NVDA. The soft breaks between each paragraph needed to be removed. This failed WCAG 2.2, 3.1.3 (Level AAA).
• On a number of pages abbreviated words get called out as words when using screen readers and navigating through the site. Spaces will be added between the abbreviations to break up the collection, so that they don’t get read out as a word.
• On a number of pages, the Alternative text for screen readers is more than around 100 characters. This fails WCAG 2.2, 1.1.1 (Level A). Where possible, the alternative text will be shortened or provide the text alternative via another method (e.g., in text near the image, through a separate description page, etc.)

Documents

Some documents were identified as non-accessible for a number of reasons which may result in a loss of meaning for users of screen readers or present issues for users with moderately low vision.

The following highlighted issues with published documents were remedied where possible by February 2025.

• Some PDFs had a blank document title. This is a failure of WCAG Guideline: WCAG 2.2, 2.4.2 (Level A)
• Figure element on a single page with no bounding box This fails WCAG 2.2, 2.4.6 (Level A)
• Table header had no associated sub cells. This fails WCAG 2.2, 1.1.1 (Level A)
• link annotation did not include an alternate description in the Contents Key. This failsWCAG 2.2, 1.1.1 (Level A)
• link annotation did not include an alternate description in the Contents Key. This fails WCAG 2.2, 1.1.1 (Level A)

If you find you require one of our non-accessible documents published since September 2018 before it is repaired, contact us by email and we will arrange this for you.

Any new PDFs or other documents we publish will meet the required accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden

Not applicable.

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

As a website published before 23 September 2018, we are required to comply with the web accessibility regulations from 23 September 2020.

However, some of our content is exempt from the accessibility regulations:

• pre-recorded audio and video published before 23 September 2020
• live audio and video
• heritage collections, such as scanned manuscripts
• PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 - unless required for the use of a service, for example a form
• maps
• content on intranets or extranets which have not been revised since 23 September 2019
• archived websites not needed for services, and which are not updated
• third party content that is not within our control, for example, embedded video players like Vimeo or YouTube, and embedded Google Maps.

If you have any problems using this website, contact us by email and we will investigate the issue and/or provide you with the information you need in an alternative format.

How we tested this website

This website was and is currently being tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 level A and level AA, these tests have been carried out externally and independently.

Once the update to Drupal 10 was completed, an external audit was undertaken on a selection of content and publications from the economy website. All issues and recommendations have been recorded in the preceding sections.

The testing process for the external audit was completed with the following approach:

1. Run automated accessibility scanning tools (Wave and Axe) to highlight areas where the content contravenes the WCAG specification. Review the outputs to eliminate false positives.
2. Manually step through the content, using the keyboard for navigation. This highlights potential keyboard traps and ensures that the content tab order is correct and aligns with the reading order. This also ensures the focus states of elements are clear and visible.
3. Manually step through the content using a screen reader to discover any stumbling blocks for users with screen readers. This will ensure the site poses no issues for users with assistive technologies including mispronunciations and incorrect labelling of elements.
4. Increase the browser zoom to 400%. Navigate around the page to ensure that content is clearly presented and is fully functional. This will highlight issues for users that may have visual impairments and thus need zoom functionality enabled.
5. Run web pages against HTML Validator tool to ensure the syntax is correct. Issues with HTML syntax can pose issues for some users e.g. if form elements are not tagged correctly.

We used the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

• We plan to continue adhering with the WGAC 2.2 accessibility guidelines and ensure all future content meets these requirements.
• We will undertake a regular auditing cycle against current or future iterations of WGAC accessibility guidelines.
• We will continue to promote the necessity for creation of accessible content within the department.

If you find any inaccessible content, contact us by email and provide us with the URL and a description of the issue, so we can remedy this for you.

This statement was last updated on 25 March 2025