This accessibility statement applies to the Govtech website used by Manchester City Council.
We want as many people as possible to be able to use the site, so have designed it to let you edit your preferred settings, with options to:
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change colours, contrast levels and fonts
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zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
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navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
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navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
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listen to most of the website using a screen reader
See how you can adapt the website to meet your needs.
AbilityNet can help you to make your device easier to use if you have a disability.
How accessible the Govtech website is
We know that some elements of the website are not fully accessible. For example:
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some of the focus styling is not visible enough
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navigating by landmarks may be confusing for some users
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focus order of validation errors isn’t correct
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contrast of some of our link elements is not high enough
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page changes are not announced.
Feedback and contact information
If you would like to comment on the accessibility of the Govtech website, please email bactu.development@manchester.gov.uk.
We'll get back to you within 14 days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We're always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you have any problems that aren't already mentioned, or you think we're not meeting accessibility requirements, email us at bactu.development@manchester.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've made a formal complaint to us about our website's accessibility, and aren't happy with our response, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service.
Technical information about this website's accessibility
Manchester City Council is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
Compliance status
The Govtech website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 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
Bypass blocks
Several sections of the form blocks are labelled ‘section-1’ and can cause difficulties for screen reader users navigating via landmarks. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.1 Bypass blocks.
Label names
The screen reader experience is affected by each page not being announced. This is also true for the radio button questions within the forms, and so essential information is lost to screen reader viewers.
Focus order
When submitting form pages and errors are present, the user's focus is not moved to the correct field that has errors. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.3 Focus order.
Focus visible
Some in-content links throughout the form don’t have sufficient visibility when focused by keyboard users. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.7 Focus visible.
Contrast minimum
Buttons on the form don’t meet ratio requirements of 4.5:1 along with cookie banner links. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast minimum.
Link purpose
Empty links within the header of the site. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.4 Link purpose (in context).
Error identification
Form fields are instantly validated without user input on page load. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.3.1 Error identification.
Error suggestion
Postcode error messages don’t explicitly explain the format required for the postcode. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.3.3. Labels of instructions.
Parsing
General html markup errors. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.1 Parsing.
Status messages
When navigating through pages of the form, page changes are not announced to screen reader users. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.3 Status message.
Info and relationships
There are some markup errors relating to list items and content within them. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and relationships.
What we're doing to improve accessibility
Manchester City Council is committed to making its webforms as accessible as possible to all residents.
Through continued partnership with Govtech, these forms will be improved and tested further within the next 12 months. By May 2025, Manchester City Council and Govtech are committed to a roadmap to compliance related to the above-mentioned accessibility non-compliances.
Any non-compliances that require support to update by Govtech’s form supplier, Granicus, will have its status updated when further information is available.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 29 May 2024.
The Govtech webforms were last tested in January 2024. The test was carried out by staff at Manchester City Council, testing a sample of the forms developed.
We completed our accessibility audit by testing the site using tools such as WAVE (to test coding elements), WebAIM contrast checker (to test the contrast levels between colours) and NVDA (to test the screenreader experience).