Accessibility statement for www.policingauthority.ie

The Policing Authority is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with European Union (Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications of Public Sector Bodies) Regulations 2020. The accessibility of communications will be improved on an on-going basis as part of the Authority’s implementation of the Public Sector Duty under Section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Act 2014.

This accessibility statement applies to the Policing Authority’s website.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

The Policing Authority is committed to achieving a conformance level of Double-A with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard and complying with the Irish National IT Accessibility Guidelines.

We are working on accessibility on an ongoing basis. We are currently in the process of procuring an accessibility audit of the website and we will work on fixing the issues arising from the report. We will update this page when issues are fixed.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

For example, that means you should be able to:

• zoom in without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• listen to most of the website using a screen reader
• use the Tab key on your keyboard to jump from one link to the next. All navigation bars in the site should provide a logical order for this

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

Less accessible parts of the site 

Some parts of this website are not fully accessible, for example:

• you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
• most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
• some of our online forms or consultation tools may be difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
• some images do not have good alternative text
• some images are not text free
• some user interface elements are not highlighted when selected
• some pages have poor colour contrast
• you cannot modify colours, contrast levels or fonts

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format email info@policingauthority.ie. We’ll get back to you within 7 days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact info@policingauthority.ie.

Enforcement procedure

The 2020 Regulations state that enforcement procedure is to be “used in the case of unsatisfactory responses to any notification or request sent in accordance with Article 7(4)(c) of the 2020 Regulations.”

Section 38 of the Disability Act says a person, or a specified person may make a complaint in writing to the head of a public body if that body is not following the law as outlined in sections 25, 26, 27, 28 or 29 of the Act.

If you are not happy with our response, or you want to raise an accessibility issue that is not related to this website, you can make a complaint by emailing info@policingauthority.ie.

Additionally, further information on how to make a complaint to an external body is available at the following:

• Complaints under the Disability Act are made to the Office of the Ombudsman. See the contact information for the Office of the Ombudsman or get more information on making a complaint under the Disability Act.
• Complaints under the Equal Status Acts are made to the Workplace Relations Commission [WRC]. Get more information on making a complaint under the Equal Status Act.

Non-accessible content

The content that is not accessible is listed below.

Content that is not accessible

• Many of the publications on this website are available in PDF format to enable easier reading and printing offline. This format is not always readily accessible to people with disabilities. To read PDF documents, you need to have Adobe Reader on your computer.  Download Adobe Reader for free.
• Some images do not have alternative text or suitable alternative text.
• Some images are not text free.
• Some elements within pages do not have sufficient levels of colour contrast.
• Some pages cannot be found through more than one type of navigation.
• Some pages are not navigable without a mouse or through the sole use of a keyboard.
• Some pages do not have correctly ordered content.
• Not all user interface components can be programmatically determined by all users.
• Some pages do not include consistent navigation.

PDFs and non-HTML documents

Many documents are not accessible in a number of ways including missing text alternatives and missing document structure. Contact info@policingauthority.ie to request documents in an alternative format.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 13 December 2021 and was last reviewed at the same date. This website was last tested for accessibility issues on 6 March 2018. The test was carried out by our website contractor before the launch of the website.

How we did the test

We use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level A and Level AA to test and audit the level of conformance.

This was done by the website contractor by running automated scripts such as Screaming Frog and Lighthouse as well as manual checks completed on the website before the launch.