Accessibility Statement

We are committed to making our website fully accessible to all members of society

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This accessibility statement applies to https://www.walescoastpath.gov.uk/.

This website is run by Natural Resources Wales (NRW). 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
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • 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.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
• The heading structure on some pages may not always be logical
• Some content may become truncated or difficult to read when zooming content
• Some images within PDF or Word documents may lack text alternatives
• Interactive maps may be difficult to navigate or inaccessible to screen reader users

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
• call us on 0300 065 3000 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm)
• email enquiries@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk 
• write to us at:
Natural Resources Wales
Customer Care Centre
Ty Cambria
29 Newport Rd
Cardiff
CF24 0TP
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 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, please email the NRW Digital Team digital@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk

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

NRW 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 and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

The National Resources Wales logo within the footer, as well as the danger image within the interactive map contains a null alternative when a descriptive alt was expected. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

On the content page an embedded video lacks accessible text identifying its context to screen reader users. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We plan to resolve this by: January 2025

Some PDF and Word documents contain images or graphics that do not have a text alternative. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

Video content on the Content page lacks associated captions. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2 (Captions (Pre-Recorded)). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

Video content on the Content page lacks a text transcript or audio descriptive track. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.3 (Audio Description or Media Alternative (Pre-Recorded)). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

Video content on the Content page lacks an audio descriptive track. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.5 (Audio Description (Pre-Recorded)). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

Some tables that are being used to layout content are not marked with “role=presentation” and may announce table rows and headers. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

Placeholder text within the ‘Find a place’ input field on the ‘Plan Your Visit’ page, and date text within the calendar component on the ‘Events’ page lack contrast with the background page. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

When zooming text only content to 200% some content becomes truncated, this includes the placeholder text within the search field, as well as card link text. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4 (Resize Text). We plan to resolve this by January 2025.

The close icon present within the mobile navigation menu lacks contrast with the background having a contrast ratio of 1.5:1. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.11 (Non-Text Contrast). We plan to resolve this by January 2025.

When applying custom CSS to the page, this can cause some content to overlap and lack contrast with the background making some text difficult to read. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.11 (Non-Text Contrast). We plan to resolve this by: January 2025.

On the ‘Events’ page the user is unable to tab or arrow down to the specific dates within the calendar function, making some functionality inaccessible. Map components drag and drop functionality is also uninteractable using a keyboard. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 (Keyboard). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

The iOS VoiceOver screen reader is unable to interact with the social media buttons within the footer. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 (Keyboard). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

Across some pages the focus order of content may not always be logical. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 (Focus Order). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

Users of mobile screen readers can swipe through the contents of the navigation menu whilst it is closed. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 (Focus Order). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

Tabbing the map using iOS VoiceOver the user is not focused to new content that is displayed when opening selected menus. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 (Focus Order). We plan to resolve this by January 2025

Some pages may contain HTML Validation errors which may impact the way some screen readers announce content on the page. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1 (Parsing) We plan to resolve this by January 2025

The carousel on the homepage contains an ARIA live region, which causes any updates to be announced to screen reader users as it rotates. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value) We plan to resolve this by January 2025.

Navigating the interactive map using Android TalkBack, some elements when focused will announce graphic multiple times. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value) We plan to resolve this by January 2025.

Disproportionate burden

[Note: in this subsection list accessibility problems you’re claiming would be a disproportionate burden to fix

Bear in mind that something which is a disproportionate burden now will not necessarily be a disproportionate burden forever. If the circumstances change, your ability to claim disproportionate burden may change too.]

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.

Interactive tools and transactions

Some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag.

Our forms are built and hosted through third party software and ‘skinned’ to look like our website.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. 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 January 2025.

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

[Note: in this subsection list accessibility problems that fall outside the scope of the accessibility regulations.]

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By September 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

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

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are actively looking to improve the accessibility on our website. The following are some of the areas we are focussing on over the next 12 months to make our website more accessible.

  • Continue to make documents in active use into accessible format
  • Continue to review areas of the website and rewrite to be in a clear language
  • Further refine and fix remaining web development issues with our templates

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 9th June 2023. It was last reviewed on 9th June 2023. This website was last tested on 8th June 2023. The test was carried out by Zoonou.

The testers used a representative sample of the websites as defined by the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM).