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Accessibility Statement

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

This website is run by Drinking Water Inspectorate. 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 as much of the website as possible using just a keyboard
  • navigate as much of the website as possible using speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, for example an accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 14 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, contact: dwi.enquiries@defra.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

Drinking Water Inspectorate 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

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

The label on the cookie switch and the read out are not the same. Screen reader users may be confused about what they are agreeing to. It is not possible to change cookie settings using JAWS screen reader or Dragon Naturally Speaking speech recognition software.

There are some ambiguous or unclear link text. Multiple links that point to the page have the different link text.

All our map images do not have alternative text. None of the text on the maps is accessible to screen readers.

Some headings do not clearly describe what content follows.

When the home icon has focus, the contrast between white and yellow is not enough and makes the icon hard to see.

When you select the link ‘View cookies’ on the cookie banner, a modal popup appears but this is not announced to screen reader users.

If the user searches but does not type a search term, they are not alerted and they may assume that the search results are for what they intended to type.

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

We plan to add text alternatives for all images by September 2023. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden

Some of our information is specialist to the water industry and highly technical.  We will provide accessible content for reports on request and will prioritise information for consumers.   

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

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.

PDFs and non-HTML 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 for product approval. We are in the process of scoping an upgrade to our product approval system to make it more accessible for all our users.

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 research reports published prior to 2018.

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

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We have been working with our website designer to improve the accessibility of the website and fix the issues listed above, and we are currently reviewing how far we have got with that.

We have used a variety of techniques to analyse the website focusing on critical functionality, and we are committed to checking functionality as we make future changes.

We are working on the website content to improve its accessibility. We have updated most of our consumer leaflets and made them into accessible PDFs and HTML pages. We are working on the remaining leaflets and aim to have them all completed by December 2022. 

All research commissioned since January 2020 will report in fully accessible pdf format. 

The annual Chief Inspector’s Reports (England and Wales, public and private supplies) are produced in an accessible format since 2020.

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

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.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 20 November 2020. It was last reviewed on 10 January 2023.

This website was last tested on 13 to 26 May 2021. The test was carried out by Defra digital services.

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