We are actively working to increase usability and accessibility of our website. The site is compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 level AA.
As part of this commitment we have partnered with technology access charity, AbilityNet.
AbilityNet completed an audit of the Victim Support website and highlighted areas of improvement for accessibility. We have worked with our digital agency to ensure those improvements have been implemented on the website.
The second part of this work included user testing involving participants with different disabilities or participants who use additional technology to access the internet. A number of recommendations were made to help improve usability and we have implemented a majority of those recommendations to achieve AbilityNet Accreditation. See the AbilityNet Accreditation certificate.
We are using AbilityNet’s iComply service to help maintain usability and accessibility compliance.
Images
All images and images of buttons have an appropriate alt text for people using screen readers. In some case, there is also a title text to improve usability on the site. Decorative images should have null alt=“” and won’t be announced by screen readers.
Rich media (embedded YouTube videos)
We aim to provide captions on all our own YouTube video content. When we want to share other individual’s or organisations’ video content, if the YouTube video has not been accurately captioned, we will provide a link rather than embed the video on a page.
User-generated (third party) content
We have used a Twitter widget feed on our latest news page. Changes have been made to ensure the content is accessible for keyboard users.
Keyboard access
We have implemented a number of changes on the site that allow keyboard users to navigate around the site logically.
Exceptions
Adobe PDF downloadable documents
We are aware that our current PDFs are not all accessible. We are working towards ensuring all our future information and publications are accessible and we are aiming to have all our information leaflets accessible by August 2017. If you would like a document or publication in an alternative format, please email webadmin@victimsupport.org.uk
Live chat
We offer a live chat service for people affected by crime in London. This service is delivered through third party software, WhosOn. Currently there are limited customisation options available on this platform. We will be working with the supplier to find ways to improve accessibility and customisation.
Recruitment site
We have recently launched a new online recruitment site to offer an efficient recruitment service to job seekers who want to work for Victim Support. The recruitment site has not yet been audited at the same standard as the Victim Support site but the charity is planning work to achieve this.
Links to other sites
This site has links to resources on other websites. Whilst we do our best to check the content on these links is relevant, appropriate and accessible, we cannot guarantee that it will be at all times.
