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Jobs at Aberdeenshire Council

Accessibility

 

Accessibility statement for Aberdeenshire Council Jobs website 

This accessibility statement applies to https://jobs.aberdeenshire.gov.uk. 

This website is run by Aberdeenshire Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, this means that you should be able to: 

  • Change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings 
  • Zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen  
  • Navigate most of the website using a keyboard or speech recognition software 
  • Listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver) 

We also aim at making 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: 

  • Some pages have incorrect heading structure or they include empty headings 
  • Some of our links are not worded or added properly to be accessible 
  • Some of our documents are not fully accessible 
  • Some images are missing a text alternative or don’t provide a meaningful one 

Feedback and contact information 

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please email recruitmentadvice@aberdeenshire.gov.uk. 

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please email recruitmentadvice@aberdeenshire.gov.uk.  We will consider your request and get back to you within 10 working days. 

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 are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS). 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility 

Aberdeenshire Council is committed to making this 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 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exceptions listed below. 

Non-accessible content 

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations 

Language 

The language is not set in the code on some of our pages. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.1.1 (language of page).  

Website search 

Not all form fields, such as text areas, have a description that is explicitly associated with the field to make sure that people using assistive technologies will also know what the field is for. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.3.1 (information and relationship), 3.3.2 (labels or instructions) and 4.1.2 (name, role, value). 

Links 

Some links don’t make sense when read on its own (for example ‘here’ or ‘click here’ or linked images with no text). On some pages the same link text is used for links going to different destinations, so people might not know the difference. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose – in context). 

Most links are identified only by colour and they are missing additional visual cues such as underline. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.1 (use of colour). 

There are a few instances on the website, where different link description point to the same destination. Going through such links is time consuming, for example screen reader users must hear each link read aloud in turn. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose in context). 

Colour contrast 

Within the footer, colour contrast between link text and footer background is not sufficient. This can cause issues to users with visual impairments making it harder for them to use these links. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3. (contrast minimum). 

Even though all pages have page titles, the title tag is not unique for every page making it difficult for user to distinguish the topic and purpose of different page. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.2 (page titled). 

Headings and titles 

On some pages there are empty headings or heading structure isn’t logical which may confuse people using a screen reader. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (information and relationships). 

Even though all pages have page titles, the title tag is not unique for every page making it difficult for user to distinguish the topic and purpose of different page. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.2 (page titled). 

Images 

Some images don’t have a text alternative or a meaningful one so people using a screen reader can’t access the information. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). 

Documents 

Some of our PDFs and other documents, which are essential to providing our services, don’t meet accessibility standards. They may be scanned PDFs or they may not be marked up correctly for assistive technologies. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 4.1.2 (name, role value), 1.4.5 (images of text) and 1.4.9 (images of text – no exception).  

Disproportionate burden 

We are required by law to carry out disproportionate burden assessments where we are not able to meet our legal obligation to reach the WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standard.  

This assessment relates to all accessibility issues listed in this website’s accessibility statement.  

Benefits 

Here is how making the Jobs website accessible would benefit our users: 

Inclusive access to jobs and recruitment information to all 

Burden 

Our assessment of the burden of applying accessibility fixes to website publications is that: 

  • Due to accessibility and user experience related issues with the Jobs website (for example lack of flexible page layouts and site identity issues), we are planning to move the content of the site to our main council website by end of 2024. This will rectify current accessibility issues 
  • We are currently working on developing a new council website and once launched the Jobs content will benefit from better presentation of content as well as enhanced accessibility offered by the new site 
  • Most documents hosted on the Jobs site are not required for providing essential council services 
  • Job vacancies and our essential recruitment information is available on the myjobscotland website, so we do provide an alternative and more accessible user journey to this information 
  • We have estimated that it would take 1 week of IT time and cost us around £1,500 to fix accessibility issues on each page template on the Jobs website 

Our organisation’s size and resources 

Aberdeenshire Council is a local authority and due to competing priorities, the resources available to tackle outstanding accessibility issues are limited. 

Most of web development work done in house by our IT team. While we do and can address accessibility issues, the resources required to address many of them in a short period of time would mean resources would need to be diverted from maintaining essential services and continuing current development work. 

Assessment 

Having considered the estimated effort involved in fixing issues on the Jobs website, we have concluded that the work involved in it would be a poor use of staff time. This represents a disproportionate burden to the organisation in terms of cost and time. 

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

PDFs and other documents 

PDFs and other documents published before 23rd September 2018 are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations if they are not essential to providing our services.  

What we are doing to improve accessibility 

We haven’t set up a detailed road map but here is what we actively do to improve accessibility: 

  • We carefully monitor our external websites and online services to make sure they meet the standards 
  • We are working on creating a comprehensive accessibility guidance for staff 
  • We engage with our suppliers to make sure their products that we use are accessible 

Preparation of this accessibility statement 

This statement was prepared on 22nd March 2024. It was last reviewed on 25th March 2024. 

This website was last tested on 18th March 2024 against the WCAG 2.2 standard. 

We carried out our own tests. A sample of pages was testing by our web team using automated testing tools: