Accessibility statement

Social Care Wales is committed to making our websites and mobile applications accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This accessibility statement applies to socialcare.wales.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some text elements on our website don’t meet the colour contrast enhanced requirement WCAG success criterion 1.4.6 (Level AAA). This is because they’re on a coloured background or the text itself is in colour.

We will review the colour and font used to make sure that all text on the website meets this requirement.

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

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2. This is because they:

• do not have suitable tags for screens readers
• do not have bookmarks to help screen readers navigate
• are missing a language definition to allow a screen reader to select the correct language when reading aloud
• do not have a title to allow screen readers to identify the document topic.

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 Evidence Matters in Family Justice – Handbook.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

We’re now creating fewer PDF and Word documents, and uploading content as HTML pages as much as possible. We will review the fonts and colours used throughout the website to make sure all content is accessible.

We're regularly using tools such as SiteImprove and axe DevTools to review and fix any accessibility issues.

This statement was first prepared on 19 September 2019. It was last reviewed on 21 November 2023.

The statement has been updated annually. In October 2023, a report by the Government Digital Service was presented to Social Care Wales. The report outlined accessibility issues with the website, which were resolved in November 2023. This statement was updated accordingly.

The statement was prepared using the accessibility tools in SiteImprove and the Government Digital Service report. SiteImprove is regularly used to monitor the site’s accessibility and to identify issues.

In 2024, a full accessibility audit of the website will be completed by an independent organisation.

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).

If you’d like to get in touch with us to provide any feedback, to let us know about any compliance failures, or if you’d like any more information, contact the Communications team at communications@socialcare.wales.