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Accessibility - third party systems

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3. Granicus (newsletters) and firmstep (forms)

Firmstep's products have been developed to meet the UK Government market standards. Forms are AA compliant ref WAI guidelines. The precise level of compliance is dependent on the CSS and branding used to display a form and any JavaScript/code and HTML elements used locally.

The European Directive came into force for all EU member states by September 23, 2018. All websites created after that date had to be accessible by September 23, 2019, and existing websites will have to comply by September 23, 2020. All mobile applications will have to be accessible by June 23, 2021. The mandated elements of the directive are given at EN 301 549

Citizen facing products are being updated to ensure they meet all required elements of the accessibility directive that require implementation in the EN 301 549 mandate. Further information will be noted in the Release notes as changes are implemented.

Key Features

  • Relative positioning of all on-screen items. This enables the text size to be adjusted by the client browser gracefully without clipping. This enables Form Fillers who require large text to see all of the form.
  • The tab sequence is set to enable a logical flow from field to field. This assists Form Fillers who cannot use a pointing device to complete the form easily using only a keyboard.
  • Alternative text is set on every image. This ensures that Form Fillers who are blind or partially sighted will be able to understand the meaning of an image and will be able to complete the form without seeing the image.
  • No inline styles are used. This means that a style sheet applied by a Form Filler's software may be used to override the look of the form and display it in a style accessible to that individual. (e.g. using a particular set of high-contrast colours).
  • Forms incorporate all these elements automatically - no special consideration is required as the form is constructed to build in accessibilityfeatures.

Forms are tested with current versions of IBM Home Page Reader 3.0 and JAWS 4 to assist blind and partially sighted users. When used in conjunction with JAWS, Forms will output to most popular refreshable Braille displays in computer or Grade 2 Braille.