Accessibility

This website is managed by Greater Manchester Combined Authority. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

Change colours, contrast levels and fonts –you can adjust the colours by using the colour mode option
Zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen – you can adjust the font size by using the font size options or your browser
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)

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:

you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
live video streams do not have captions

We are currently making improvements to the Accessibility of this website.

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format:

email enquiries@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk
call 0161 778 7000
write to us at:

Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Churchgate House, 56 Oxford Street, Manchester M1 6EU

We’ll consider your request and get back to you.

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 the GMCA digital team by email gmdigital@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk or telephone 0161 778 7000.

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).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment. To access this call 18002 0161 778 7000. If there is a specific number you wish to call add the prefix of 18002 to enable Text Relay.

Our offices have access to an audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Greater Manchester Combined Authority 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.

Images

Not all of our images 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 September 2020. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Navigation and accessing information

The accessibility of embedded video is dependent on the standards reached by the third-party provider. Where possible we will make use of features such as subtitles to ensure our content is accessible.

The accessibility of embedded social media feeds social sharing buttons is dependent on the standards reached by the third-party provider. We are unable to change the settings on these.

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 September 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.

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

Live video

Live video streams do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live).

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Pre-recorded video

Some pre-recorded videos don’t have an audio captioning or description, so the information in them isn’t available to people who cannot see or the hear the video content. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2, 1.2.3, 1.2.5.

We plan to add audio captioning or descriptions for all pre-recorded videos by September 2020. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested on 21^st October 2019. The test was carried out internally by Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

We checked a broad sample of pages on the website, including the homepage and a selection of other pages. We used a free-to-use developer tool which checks each page against standard accessibility issues. A manual audit was also conducted. Each of the issues was logged, and an action plan formed and implemented for the website.

What we have done to improve accessibility

We are always open to suggestions, additions or the reporting of accessibility problems. Users can use the contact details supplied above.

We made the following improvements in May 2020:

added a ‘skip to main content’ function on the header of every page
added a ‘skip Twitter feed’ function
all forms, menus and web pages are keyboard accessible
all buttons are labelled
language is set to English

We have developed a web guide to ensure all web authors are creating content that is accessible.

We plan to annually review website accessibility, and ensure that any new pages or PDFs and other online documents conform to web accessibility criteria.

This statement was prepared on 4th May 2020. It was last updated on 5th June 2020.