Accessibility statement for Criminal Injury and Damage Management Information System (CIDMIS)

Accessibility statement

This service is part of the wider nidirect website. There’s a separate accessibility statement for the main nidirect website.

This page only contains information about the nidirect Criminal Injury and Damage Management information System (CIDMIS).

This statement applies to the Criminal Injury and Damage Management information System web based application accessible via the www.nidirect.gov.uk website.

This application is run by the Department of Justice.   It is designed to be used by as many people as possible. The text should be clear and simple to understand. When accessing the application through the web browser, you should be able to:

• zoom in up to 300 per cent without problems
• navigate most of the application using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the application using speech recognition software
• use most of the application using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and Voice Over)

How accessible is this web application

Parts of this web application are not fully accessible. For example:

• ensure all images and icons have appropriate alternative text to convey what they are to screen reader users
• have better information and labelling for elements and components
• improve the reflow and resizing of the pages

Feedback and contact information

If you need information in a different format contact us by :

• telephone on 0300 200 7887  
• email: compensationservices@justice-ni.gsi.gov.uk

and advise the following:

• the web address (URL) of the content
• your name and email address
• the format you need, for example, audio CD, braille, BSL or large print, accessible PDF

Reporting accessibility problems with this web application

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 us on 0300 200 7887 or by email at compensationservices@justice-ni.gsi.gov.uk  and we will investigate the issue.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’) in Northern Ireland. If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI).

Technical information about this web application accessibility

nidirect is committed to making its website and apps accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance Status

The CIDMIS system does not meet WCAG 2.1 A or AA as a whole.

Non-accessible content

The content that is not accessible is outlined below with details of:

• the accessibility problem(s)
• where it fails the success criteria

We are currently working towards developing a timeline of when we plan to fix these issues and this will be updated when available.

Perceivable

Level A - 1.1.1 Non-text content. All non-text content that is presented to the user has a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose, except for the following situations; Controls Input, Time Based Media, Test, Sensor, CAPTCHA and Decorating, Formatting, Invisible.

Level A - 1.3.1 Info and relationships. Information, structure, and relationships conveyed through presentation can be programmatically determined or are available in text.

Level A - 1.4.1 Use of Colour.  The links in the header and the footer are not underlined to indicate that they are links. Whilst these are not solely relying on colour, due to existing in a different location on the page where navigation is often found, it is suggested to underline the links so that it is more obvious to users that they can click on them. 

Level AA - 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum).  There are a number of cases throughout where the colour contrast between the text and the background is not high enough, making it difficult for some users to read.

Level AA 1.4.10 Reflow. Content can be presented without loss of information or functionality.

Level AA - 1.4.11 Non-text contrast (added in WCAG 2.1). Throughout the form pages, the outline colour used for text input fields and also the colour used for the focus states of all the buttons are not of high enough contrast meaning they are more difficult to see. For the text field outline colour, darken this colour so there is a higher contrast between the outline and the background colour.

Operable

Level A - 2.2.1 Timing adjustable. When using the Citizen portal, after a period of inactivity, it timed out. There wasn’t any prior warning of this. This results in the user having to log back in. It is best practice to ensure a user is given warning about a time limit which is about to expire and be able to select to say this wish to continue if they need to.

Understandable

Level A - 3.3.1 Error identification.  If an input error is automatically detected, the item that is in error is identified and the error is described to the user in text.

Level A - 3.3.2 Labels or instructions. Labels or instructions are provided when content requires user input.

Robust

Level AA (Added in WCAG 2.1) 4.1.3 Status messages. In content implemented using markup languages, status messages can be programmatically determined through role or properties such that they can be presented to the user by assistive technologies without receiving focus.

Disproportionate burden

Not applicable.

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

As a web application published before 23 September 2018, we are required to comply with the web accessibility regulations from 23 September 2020.

PDFs and other documents

Many documents are non-accessible in a number of ways including missing text alternatives and missing document structure.

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 other documents we publish will meet the required accessibility standards.

How we tested this web application

This web application was and is currently being tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 level A and level AA, and these tests have been carried out externally and independently.

We used the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are currently working towards a timeline of when we plan to fix these issues and this will be made available once completed.

This statement was prepared on 23 October 2020. It was last updated on 4 November 2020.