Accessibility


Accessibility statement for http://legalservicesboard.org.uk

This website is run by the Legal Services Board (LSB). We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • 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 (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

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:

  • The data visualisation tools used on our research dashboard do not meet  accessibility standards.
  • Some images may be lacking alt-text or descriptions
  • You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • A number of PDFs and other office file format documents are not yet fully accessible to screen reader software

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

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

Legal Services Board
3rd floor, The Rookery
2 Dyott Street
London
WC1A 1DE

We’ll consider your request and aim to get back to you in no more than 10 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:

Legal Services Board
3rd floor, The Rookery
2 Dyott Street
London
WC1A 1DE

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

The Legal Services Board is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

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

Non accessible content

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

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

Images

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 November 2020. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Descriptive links

When using the website, it may be difficult to determine the purpose of some links from the link text alone or context. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (Link purpose in context)

Use of new hyperlinks on the website will meet accessibility standards. We plan to make the required changes links used on essential web pages published prior to July 2019 by November 2020.

Document navigation

Many of the documents we publish are essential to providing our services. Some of these are published in Adobe PDF or other office file formats (Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations) and may not currently be structured to be navigable by a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

We plan to fix these or publish in an accessible format (HTML) by September 2020.  If we find that fixing one or more of these issues will impose a disproportionate burden on the LSB, we will promptly amend this accessibility statement to reflect these findings. All new content that we publish will be compatible with screen reader software of published in an accessible format.

Disproportionate burden

The LSB is conducting an internal assessment to determine whether fixing one or more of the issues identified above may impose a disproportionate burden on the LSB

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

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

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. By Novemeber 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

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.

Research and Market Intelligence – data visualisation

Some of our research pages (particularly the data visualization tools on the ‘market intelligence’ area of our site e.g. https://research.legalservicesboard.org.uk/market-intelligencetest/health-of-the-legal-sector/uk-wide-legal-services-turnover/) have not been tested against WCAG 2.1, and as such it should be presumed that these do not meet accessibility standards.

These pages are currently hosted on the research.legalservicesboard.org.uk site. This subdomain currently fulfils an archival purpose. We are currently working on the development of a replacement market intelligence platform, which we will assess against the WCAG 2.1 guidelines. We expect to complete this work by November 2020.

Content developed and provided by third parties

Content and elements provided by third parties may not meet accessibility standards. Where this is the case, the LSB will do its best to provide text alternatives. Please contact the LSB if you wish to request accessible alternatives to third party content of this type.

The Legal Services Board website is not able to guarantee the accessibility of third-party content that is neither funded nor developed by, nor under the control of, the LSB.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested on 10 June 2019. The test was carried out by the Digital Accessibility Centre. The audit included a technical compliance review, plus user testing by disabled people. We are currently working through the resulting status report and our team is busy making the required adjustments.

Our approach to deciding which pages to test was decided in consultation with our web designer and accessibility auditor.

A selection of pages representing as broad a range of content-types as possible was chosen. All the main templates used throughout the site were represented in the sample, along with contact forms and any other content types. Attention was paid to content where concerns surrounding accessibility were present.

We tested:

You can read the full accessibility test report at: /wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Legal-Services-Board-DAC-Accessibility-Audit-140619.pdf

In addition, we tested the website of the Legal Services Consumer Panel, available at https://www.legalservicesconsumerpanel.org.uk

A version of this statement and a separate audit report is available on the accessibility page for the panel’s website.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

The Legal Services Board is committed to ensuring that this website is accessible to all its users. We launched a new website in June 2019. Throughout the development process we worked with our designers and accessibility auditors to ensure that accessibility was a top priority.

The accessibility test report available above highlighted a number of issues, and the majority of these have since been addressed. We are prioritising our response to addressing the remaining issues (identified in the above sections relating to non-compliance) and, subject to any findings of disproportionate burden, we have set out a timetable by which we expect to have achieved full compliance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’).

All new content will be added to the site in adherence with accessibility guidance.

This statement was prepared on 23 September 2019. It was last updated on 12 August 2021.