Accessibility statement for Debt Management Office

 

This accessibility statement applies to the Debt Management Office website at https://www.dmo.gov.uk.


This website is run by the Debt Management Office. 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
  • 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)

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, for example:

  • Some of our older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software

 

Feedback and contact information

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

  • email webstrategy@dmo.gov.uk
  • call +44 (0) 20 7862 6500

We'll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

 

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, please contact the Digital Team:

  • email webstrategy@dmo.gov.uk

 

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

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF or large print, call 020 7862 6500 or email the relevant department https://www.dmo.gov.uk/contact/ and provide the following:

  • the web address (URL) of the content
  • your name and email address
  • the format you need

For more information, https://rnid.org.uk/

 

Technical information about this website's accessibility

 

The Debt Management Office is committed to making its 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 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exceptions listed below.

 

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

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

Not Conforming to HTML Specification

Not all pages adhere to the HTML specification, e.g. using deprecated tags.

Use of Device Dependent Events

Some pages use events that will not function on all devices

Link Purpose

Links to slightly different URLs use the same text.

General PDF files

There are PDFs on this website which are not exempt from the regulations, but which do not currently comply with them. These PDFs generally contain readable text content but have not been tagged or formatted to raise their accessibility up to the required standards. These failures include

• Some PDFs do not contain Document Title property
• Some larger PDFs do not contain bookmarks to aid navigation
• Tab order is not always consistent with structure order
• Some figures do not contain alternate text
• Not all tables have headers
• Nesting of headers is not applied consistently

We are also working to improve the accessibility of new PDFs which fall within the scope of the public sector website 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 in future. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Focus Visible

Currently, at 200% zoom the keyboard focus is not visible when tabbing onto the magnifying glass within the search bar.

 

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

PDFs and other documents

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. However, we plan to complete remediation of these items in future.
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

How we tested this website

The DMO website is tested weekly using an automated tool.  This involves a full automated scan of 125 pages of the site using the Sitemorse tool, producing a report which provides a prioritised roadmap allowing us to work towards full compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards. 

 

 

What we are doing to improve accessibility

 

Using the report, we will continue to improve accessibility on this website, working with our web developers and content editors to ensure any additions to our website meet the correct standards. 
We are also:

• ensuring staff who create web content understand how to make it accessible
• raising general accessibility awareness across our organisation

The DMO expects to improve compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard in future.

 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

 

This statement was prepared on 08 November 2021. It was last reviewed on 21 April 2023.