Accessibility statement for Animal disease movement licensing service

This accessibility statement applies to https://apply-for-an-outbreak-licence.defra.gov.uk/

This website is run by Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA)

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • use browser settings or plugins to change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • 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 (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.

Related content

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • There is an overlay which appears during the account creation process, assistive technology users (especially screen reader and magnification) will be unaware of this and won’t get feedback on the progress it reports.
  • Some forms have validation issues which may be especially confusing as the errors are unhelpful.
  • Some forms have incorrect or missing labels; assistive technology users will have issues completing these sections.
  • Heading levels are used incorrectly in many places, including within forms, which may be confusing especially for screen reader users.

Feedback and contact information

If you need access to information on this website in a different format, or need support completing your application owing to its format then please contact us:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within two 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, contact:

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

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment. Find out how to contact us:

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

APHA 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

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.

WCAG: 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A)
The overlay when creating an account is almost certainly not accessible. Resulting in assistive technology users being restricted from knowing what the components do and using them

WCAG 3.3.1 Error identification
WCAG 3.3.3 Error suggestion
WCAG 3.3.4. Error prevention
A person requesting a licence has validation issues. Resulting in:

  • “Title” does not contain every possible title someone may have, defaults to “Mr”.
  • Unable to use 1 character name.
  • Error message is oddly phrased “at least of 2 characters” ?
  • Some fields are read only - which means they cannot be changed if they don’t pass validation - this means user cannot submit the form.
  • Address details are marked as missing at the top, but not highlighted in the form.

WCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A)
The dashboard “search” button is aria-hidden.
A user may not be able to focus onto the search button, meaning they cannot search.
WCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A)
Dashboard View messages have unhelpful hidden text.
intended to help screen reader users, although adds more verbose information to process.

“View Messages – for this application” doesn’t provide any information, “View Messages – for application” does.
Dashboard Actions have unhelpful hidden text.
These DO specify the application, but use month/date/year formatting and isn’t information displayed elsewhere on the page (e.g. “Test17thMarch” has an earliest movement date, but the Date Requested in N/A and the hidden text gives a date of 3/7/2022.

WCAG 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence (Level A)
Messages have out of order heading. Sequence jumps from Heading 1 and the next heading is Heading 4, this can be confusing.

WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A)
Application Create a Reference has multiple Heading 1 elements
This is confusing the user experience. The “reference” label should not be an H1 element.

WCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A)
Application “What are you planning to move?” radio buttons incorrectly labelled.

WCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A)
Radio buttons all have the ID of “waste” and all the labels are “for” “waste”.

WCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A)
Application “Specify the movement or activity” is a div element not a label.

WCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A)
There is also a Heading 1 element with a label inside it reading “Other movement” but it is not visible.

WCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A)
Application “Are you responsible for the source premises?” radio buttons incorrectly labelled.
These radio buttons all have the ID of “waste” and all the labels are “for” “waste”.

WCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A)
Application “Who is responsible for the source premises?” incorrectly uses H1 elements for labels.

WCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A)
Application “Review details of the source premises” is H2, and no H1 is present.

WCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A)
Application “Total number to be moved” has hidden validation rules.
There seems to be a limit to how many birds can be moved, but it isn’t identified anywhere.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

The licensing service will be incorporating major accessibility improvements in a new multi-species service currently beginning development.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 12/03/2024.

This website was last tested on 25/04/2024.

The quick accessibility check was carried out by the DEFRA Accessibility Team.

We used this approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test: We tested the full user workflow on all the pages in the service.