- Your service
- Information
- Accessibility Statement
This accessibility statement applies to the www.cheshirefire.gov.uk domain.
This website is run by Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. That means users should be able to:
change colours, contrast levels, and font styles and sizes.
navigate most of the website using just a keyboard.
resized content to 400% without loss of content or functionality.
use screen readers and other assistive technologies.
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
Parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:
some heading elements are not consistent or increase by more than one
many documents are in PDF format and do not have appropriate Titles
images, diagrams and charts in PDFs do not have alternative text
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, please contact the Digital Media Team:
Send an email to digital@cheshirefire.gov.uk
Call 01606 868873 (Monday to Friday 9.30am until 5pm)
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
Email digital@cheshirefire.gov.uk
Call 01606 868700 (The switchboard is open from 8.30am till 5pm on Monday to Friday.)
Please could you include:
The web address (URL) of the content
Your name and email address
The format you need – for example, plain text, braille, BSL, large print or digital audio
We’ll consider your request and aim to get back to you as soon as possible.
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).
Cheshire 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.
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons:
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
PDF documents should have titles that describe the topic or purpose of the page. Titles help users understand the topic without having to read the entire document. Without a descriptive title a user may need to spend time searching the document to decide whether the content is relevant. This fails WCAG success criterion WCAG 2.4.2 Page titled
Alternative text should be provided within PDFs. A number of documents on this website do not include alternative text on images, graphs and charts. This fails WCAG success criterion WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text content
Frames used to display embedded videos do not have accessible names. This fails WCAG success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
We understand that the regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018, if they are not essential to providing our services.
We do not plan to fix this content immediately. However, requests can be made to make specific content accessible for those who need it. Contact details can be found above.
Disproportionate burden
Given the large volume of legacy content and the resources required to convert all documents, we have assessed that achieving full accessibility for all existing PDFs within a shorter time frame would impose a disproportionate burden on our current resources. However, we are taking all reasonable steps to address the issue and will continue to review our progress.
If you need assistance accessing any PDF content or require an alternative format, please email digital@cheshirefire.gov.uk, and we will provide support as soon as possible.
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.
The Service is currently working with developers to address the technical issues above.
We are aware that a number of PDF documents published after September 2018 are not fully accessible, and they may not work with screen readers or other assistive technology. We are currently working to resolve these issues and aim to have those documents fully accessible by 1 October 2025.
We have also implemented a new process to ensure PDFs are accessible before being uploaded to the website.
We are currently working towards full compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards. Over the next 12 months, we will be working to meet the additional criteria introduced in WCAG 2.2, including both automated and manual testing to ensure thorough accessibility improvements.
This statement was prepared on 7 June 2023. It was last reviewed on 21 October 2024.
This website was last tested on 1 September 2024 against the WCAG 2.1 AA standard.
The test was carried out by the Digital Media Team at Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service. We used a mixture of manual checks and automated tests to find only the most common barriers to users with accessibility needs. The automated tests were completed using the latest version of axe: https://www.deque.com/axe/.
We use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines v2.1 Level A and Level AA to test how accessible our website (www.cheshirefire.gov.uk) is.
When deciding on sample pages to test, we chose based on:
Some of our most popular pages
Pages that gave a good example of each type of layout/page type
Some pages that include images, videos, documents, and interactive elements
Some pages that feature web forms
Last updated: Monday, 21 October 2024