Accessibility statement for ahdb.org.uk

This accessibility statement applies to the AHDB website ‘ahdb.org.uk’.

Our aim is to be compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard and maintain these standards with continuous review of the site content and structure.

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 have 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

Our website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard; however, we are aware that there are some elements of the website where we are still fixing issues and therefore will not be fully accessible. These are:

On some content listing elements text fades, preventing users being able to read all summary text
Some image link elements use an old styling that has poor contrast
The Image Gallery feature on the Farm Excellence pages has poor accessibility features and there is poor contrast on some text formats in the farm bio section
A small number of images still do not have alternative text
Some older embedded videos do not have captions or titles
Not all features can be controlled through a keyboard

Please note, these items are identified as and included within our business-as-usual development, the list will be updated as these issues are resolved

Known issues last updated: January 2024

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, or have any feedback email us at accessibility@ahdb.org.uk.

In your message please include:

the web address (URL) of the content
your email address and name
the format you need - for example, plain text, braille, BSL, large print or audio CD
if you need a PDF in an accessible format

If you cannot view the map on our ‘Contact us’ page, call us on 024 7669 2051 or email us for directions.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, email us at accessibility@ahdb.org.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 are not happy with how we respond to your enquiry/complaint, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

AHDB is committed to making this 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-accessible	Reason	WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria	Next steps
Some links do not contain text or an image with an alt attribute	Due to the number of links on the site it is taking time to identify and fix all of them	WCAG 2.1 A F89	These are being identified by using Sort Site scans and corrected manually.
Some older alt texts are not descriptive of the image	Due to number of files with inaccurate alt text, it is taking time to identify all	WCAG 2.1 A F30	These are being identified by using Sort Site scans and corrected manually
Accordion elements do not have correct role attributes, ARIA attributes or Unique IDs	Development work required to improve this feature, and manual corrections required	WCAG 2.1 A 1.3.1 WCAG 2.1 A 4.1.1 WCAG 2.1 A 4.1.2	Pages where accordions are used are being identified by using Sort Site scans and corrected manually. A development fix is also required which will be done as ‘Business as Usual’ work
Some pages have the same title, so the title cannot be used to distinguish pages	Editors are responsible for unpublishing older content pages	WCAG 2.1 A F25	These are being identified by using Sort Site scans and manually unpublished by editors
Text fades which prevent users being able to read all summary text	Still working on development solution	WCAG 2.1 A F102	Development fix required to replace text fades with ellipses
Some HTML Table elements do not identify Row and Column Headers	Requires manual input which takes time	WCAG 2.1 A 1.3.1	These are being identified by using Sort Site scans and corrected manually
Image link elements using a transparent black background and white text identified through manual testing	Requires manual input which takes time	WCAG 2.1 A F24	This occurs on 110 pages across the site and will be manually replaced with a new element
Farm Excellence pages – Missing Alt texts for some image elements (this includes the Image Gallery), contrast issue on some text formats in farm bio section	Due to many files with missing, incomplete, or inaccurate alt text it is taking time to identify all	WCAG 2.1 A F65	These are being identified by using Sort Site scans and corrected through manual entry
Link uses general text like 'Click Here' with no surrounding text explaining link purpose.	Requires manual input which takes time	WCAG 2.1 A 2.4.3, 2.4.9	These are being identified by using Sort Site scans and corrected manually
Some iframe elements do not have a title attribute.	Requires manual input which takes time	WCAG 2.1 A 4.1.2	These are being identified by using Sort Site scans and corrected manually
Some pages contain empty headings	Element with bug requiring development fix and some manual edits required	WCAG 2.1 AA 1.3.1	These are being identified by using Sort Site scans and corrected through manual entry
On some pages, multiple elements use the same ID	Requires manual input which takes time	WCAG 2.1 A 4.1.1	These are being identified by using Sort Site scans and corrected manually
Several links on a page share the same link text but go to different destinations	Requires a manual fix which takes time	WCAG 2.1 A 2.4.4, 2.4.9	These are being identified by using Sort Site scans and corrected manually

Content that is not within 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. We are continually reviewing these document and plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages as necessary.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services. For example, we do not plan to fix old research papers that are in a PDF format. 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.

Third-party content

Some of our content is supplied from third party sources, that is neither funded nor developed by, nor under the control of, the public sector body.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

We continuously work on enhancements to our website (ahdb.org.uk) and content workflows to achieve and maintain AA accessibility compliance for site functionality and all new content.

We provide web accessibility focused training for website editors, including promoting the use of the WAVE extension to test their pages.

How we test to improve accessibility

We use three industry trusted tools for monitoring our accessibility compliance listed below, and conduct scans at the following frequencies with each tool, reviewing results after each scan and raising with necessary teams to correct:

Sort Site Professional – Scanned monthly as part of a site integrity check, this includes accessibility compliance and broken link checking.
Axe DevTools powered by Deque – Scanned on pages during development for in-depth code analysis and industry accepted recommendations to fix code.
Wave Browser Extension – Scanned by content editors and IS team to identify issues with new content being created.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was first prepared in November 2020. It was last updated on 31 January 2024.

This website was last tested on 21 September 2020 by Connect Internet Solutions Ltd using a sample of pages selected by popularity and range of content type. The subsequent accessibility report is aiding our work in updating the site and its content to be fully accessible to the AA standard. If you would like a copy of the report, contact us at accessibility@ahdb.org.uk