Accessibility statement for Legal Aid Management System (LAMS)

This page explains how accessible the nidirect legal aid management system (LAMS) is and what is being done to improve accessibility.

Accessibility statement

This statement applies to the LAMS extranet based application accessible via the www.nidirect.gov.uk website. This service is part of the wider nidirect website. There’s a separate accessibility statement for the main nidirect website.

This extranet application is run by the Department of Justice. It is designed to be used by solicitors and barristers who are making and managing Legal Aid applications and cases on behalf of their clients. The text should be clear and simple to understand by legal professionals. When accessing the extranet application through the web browser, you should be able to:

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

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this extranet application is

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

some pages have fields where autocomplete is turned to off, as the Legal Aid process requires that these specific fields need to updated in real time

some video content does not have a text alternative
some documents are in PDF format and are not accessible

Feedback and contact information

If you need information in a different format contact us by calling the nidirect Contact Centre who handle calls on behalf of the Legal Services Agency on 028 9040 8888 and advise us of:

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

LAMS is always looking to improve the accessibility of this extranet application. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think they are not meeting accessibility requirements, contact them on 028 9040 8888 and they 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 LAMS respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI).

Technical information about this extranet application accessibility

The Legal Services Agency is committed to making its website and applications accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance Status

This extranet is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the exemptions listed below.

Disproportionate burden

Level AA -1.3.5 Identify input purpose (added in WCAG 2.1). Some of these fields have autocomplete turned to ‘off’.

The autocomplete functionality on some fields is turned to off. The Legal Aid process requires that specific fields need to updated in real time. LAMS believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. LAMS will make another assessment when Legal Aid processes are updated.

Content that’s not within the scope of accessibility regulations

As an extranet application LAMS is required to comply with the web accessibility regulations for content published after 23 September 2019.

Some of their content is exempt from the accessibility regulations:

pre-recorded audio and video content that was published before September 2020
third party content that’s under someone else’s control - in the context of LAMS this includes supporting information uploaded onto LAMS by suppliers
content on the extranet published before 23 September 2019

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 LAMS publish will meet the required accessibility standards.

How this extranet application was tested

This extranet application was 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 of the Department of Justice.

This extranet application was last tested between 20 July 2020 and 29 July 2020. The test was carried out using the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test.

What LAMS is doing to improve accessibility

Maintaining an accessible site is an ongoing process and LAMS is continually working to offer an accessible and user friendly experience.

This statement was prepared on 22 September 2020. It was last updated on 21 April 2022.

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Accessibility statement for Legal Aid Management System (LAMS)