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Accessibility statement

Accessibility statement for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service. This accessibility statement applies to www.cambsfire.gov.uk.  

This website is run by Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:  

  • 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.  

We’ve 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

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:  

  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software  
  • our interactive games and maps are not fully accessible.   

Feedback and contact information

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

  • email pressoffice@cambsfire.gov.uk  
  • call 01480 444500, ask for the Media and Communication team  
  • Write to us at: Media and Communication team, Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Hinchingbrooke Cottage, Brampton Road, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE29 2NA  

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within seven working days.  

If you cannot view the map on our ‘Find a Fire Station’ page, you can email us at pressoffice@cambsfire.gov.uk for directions.  

Reporting accessibility problems

  • 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: pressoffice@cambsfire.gov.uk, or call 01480 444500 (ask for press office)
  • Write to us at: Press Office, Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Hinchingbrooke Cottage, Brampton Road, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE29 2NA

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

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service 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.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some content on hover is not dismissible. Content (such as a dropdown menu or a popover) that appears when a user hovers a pointer (such as a mouse) over, or moves focus to, a particular section of the page can often cause problems for users. For low vision users, who use screen magnification or increased zoom settings, the content may obscure adjacent parts of the page which they cannot comfortably reach without triggering the appearance of the content. This fails WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.4.13 Content on Hover or Focus (Level AA).

We are working with our external website provider to explore fixes for this issue. This will be addressed by December 31, 2023.

Sometimes zooming obscures content, meaning where content breaks out of fixed-size containers and, when hovered, becomes partially cut-off and unreadable. When content is hidden when the page is viewed at zoom, it means someone with low vision who depends on zoom functionality to be able to read the content will not be able to do so. This fails WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.4.4 Resize Text (Level AA).

We are working with our external website provider to explore fixes for this issue. This will be addressed by December 31, 2023.

Some content is missing skip links. Certain pages have a right-hand sub-navigation. While the main page structure itself has a skip link just before the header, which allows users to jump past the header, the right-hand navigation comes before the actual content (in terms of focus order), and there is no mechanism available to skip this secondary navigation to directly reach the content itself. Without a skip link, someone who is sighted and who uses a keyboard to navigate will have to tab through all the links in the right-hand secondary navigation to reach the main content area. This fails WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (Level A).

We are working with our external website provider to explore fixes for this issue. This will be addressed by December 31, 2023.

Lack of visible focus indication. Keyboard users rely on the browser’s focus outline to keep track of where they are on web pages. The currently selected form input, button, or hyperlink is the one said to have the focus. Without a visible focus indicator it can be difficult or impossible for keyboard users that aren’t using additional assistive technology such as a screen reader to know which control (whether it be a link, button, or something else) currently has focus and therefore what action will take place if they press the Enter, Space, or other keys. This fails WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order (Level A) and WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible (Level A).

We are working with our external website provider to explore fixes for this issue. This will be addressed by December 31, 2023.

The small-screen hamburger menu used for the navigation presents a variety of interrelated accessibility issues, failing a series of WCAG 2.1 success criteria. When the control to open the hamburger menu is first triggered, and the menu appears, focus is not moved directly to the first item in the menu. Instead, users have to Tab first past the control that triggers the search dropdown before reaching the menu itself. Overall, the way the hamburger menu has been implemented will make it very difficult, if not impossible, for keyboard users and users of assistive technologies to confidently navigate the site. This fails WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence (Level A), WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order (Level A) and WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible (Level A). 

We are working with our external website provider to explore fixes for this issue. This will be addressed by December 31, 2023. 

On some pages, when in 400% zoom, although the tab function works, it does not tab through in the most logical sequence.

We are looking to address this with our external website supplier by December 31, 2023.

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 September 23, 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we do not plan to fix older documents that we are required to publish under the local government transparency guidelines.

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

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We’re working hard to make our website even more accessible through the use of plain English throughout the site. We also intend to make more of our documents available as HTML in the future, in addition to accessible PDFs.

We are working with our external website provider to explore fixes for the issues highlighted above. This will be addressed by December 31, 2023.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on May 24, 2021 and reviewed on June 1, 2023.

This website is reviewed on a weekly basis by Siteimprove, a third party organisation, which tests every page on the website for spelling errors, broken links and accessibility issues against A, AA and AAA accessibility standards.  

Siteimprove has been set up to schedule a test of the site every seven days, with the reports monitored by the Media and Communication team. The Accessibility overview score for the website is currently 98.7%.  

Reports generated by Siteimprove can be provided electronically by request.

Translations

We aim to provide services which are open to all.

For those people needing to access our services and whose first language is not English, we recommend the use of automatically translated versions of our website, available in a number of languages, using the Google Translate service available at the bottom of the page on the left hand side.

Please note: these translations are direct/automatic translations and therefore may not convey the same message as originally intended in English.

If you wish to contact us regarding any accessibility issues relating to this website, or indeed any such issue relating to our Service as a whole, please don't hesitate to get in touch