Idox accessibility
Idox Public Access / Consultee Access Accessibility Response
This document comprises a series of statements produced after an accessibility audit of Idox Public Access / Consultee Access by the Idox web team.
The document highlights any failures to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 (AA level) standards, and some further recommendations for improving accessibility, found in the unskinned product – meaning the product before customisations such as logos and branding colours have been applied.
Scope
This document refers to Idox Public Access / Consultee Access, specifically release versions 3.2 to 3.4. The reCaptcha issues only apply from release 3.3 as this was when that feature was added.
Response
Idox Public Access / Consultee Access follows the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 (AA) standard and employs the following accessible best practices:
• Clear page titles for better orientation
• Alternative text description for images (“alt text”) and other non-text elements
• Consistent and clear use of headings including a semantic hierarchy (where possible)
• Association of form controls with corresponding labels
• Logical order for forms that can be navigated using a keyboard (e.g. Using the ‘Tab’ key to move between fields)
• Clear form error messages in proximity to corresponding erroneous form fields
• Association of all data cells in a data table with their headers
• Meaningful text for hyperlinks (and a title attribute, where applicable)
• Sufficient foreground and background colour contrast combinations for clear readability
• Keyboard navigation, including for menus and calendar controls
We are aware that there are some aspects of the product that are not fully accessible:
• There are instances of non-unique HTML IDs, which is invalid mark-up, which affects how screen readers parse and announce the page content. This fails WCAG success criterion 4.1.1 - Parsing
• Headings on some pages are not in a logical hierarchy order, which can affect how content is announced by screen reader technology and keyboard-only navigation. This fails WCAG success criterion 2.4.6 – Headings and Labels.
• Our third-party re-Captcha widget does not use sufficient colour contrast for some elements and may be difficult to use with the keyboard. This fails WCAG success criteria 1.4.3 – Contrast (Minimum) and 2.1.1 - Keyboard
• Our third-party map searching widget sometimes use tables for layout; and its controls do not always receive focus and are not accessible by keyboard navigation. This fails WCAG success criteria 1.3.1 – Info and Relationships and 2.1.1 – Keyboard
• The integrated online measuring tool (OMT v5.0) has various issues (which will need to be addressed independently of Public Access) - these include missing form labels, heading levels and alternative text for images/icons; empty elements (i.e. with no text content); and low colour contrast. These fail WCAG success criteria 3.3.2 - Labels or Instructions, 2.4.4 - Link Purpose (In Context), 1.4.3 - Contrast (Minimum)
How we tested Idox Public Access / Consultee Access
A demo, unskinned version of Idox Public Access / Consultee Access (v3.4) was last tested on 21 January 2021. The Idox web team carried out the testing, with the help of accessibility testing software WAVE and AXE.
As there are a large number of identical pages (i.e. case files), a representative selection of these pages was tested.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We're using reports from accessibility software, WAVE and AXE, and following WCAG guidelines to work towards being fully compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria.
We will work to address any issues which are brought up by users, as well as reviewing the compliance as part of any future updates to Idox Public Access / Consultee Access.