Guidance

CTS Online Assessibility Statement

Published 20 December 2024

Applies to England and Wales

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible.

• For people using only a keyboard, not all functionality - such as the calendar for picking dates, can be accessed and there are no skip links to bypass blocks of repeated content.

• For people with low vision or colour blindness, colour is used to solely convey information, making it difficult to perceive the content. Additionally, the colour scheme used by the service has poor colour contrast and can make the content difficult to perceive.

• For people who need a larger text size, or need to zoom in, the service does not reflow content into a single column when zoomed in and requires vertical and horizontal scrolling to navigate the service. When changing the text spacing or word spacing, some content will be clipped and not visible.

• For people using screen readers, the link text does not make sense out of context. Visual content and relationships are not conveyed programmatically making it difficult to distinguish the headings and linked content, without being able to see the visual styling. Images are used as interactive controls without any of the semantics required to identify the images as controls.

• For people using voice control software, some labels are not contained in their related form element’s name, meaning that you may encounter barriers in trying to navigate through interactive elements.

• In general, users cannot extend their sessions and timeouts occur every 30 minutes. Page titles are the same throughout the service and do not differ to describe the individual page’s topic or purpose.

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 [email protected]

• call the CTS Online team – 03450501235, Hearing Impaired (Typetalk) 1800103450501234

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 14 days.

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: [email protected].

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.

Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter. Find out how to contact us at CTS Online (defra.gov.uk).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Defra 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 (WCAG) 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.

There are a number of items that use visual styling to convey information that is not conveyed programmatically, such as:

• visually identifiable headings not marked up as headings

• table headings not used for data tables

• no programmatic link between content visually linked

• no link between a group of radio buttons and their legend

• labels are not marked up as such

• images are used as interactive controls

These items all fail WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A). People using a screen reader may not be able to understand the context behind the information that they are accessing and may be unable to use the service.

This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence (A). People who are blind or visually impaired may not be able to understand the organisation of the page and the content available. People using only keyboards to navigate the service may not be able to access content.

A “traffic light” system is used to provide users with instructions relating to the colour of the light. This method of displaying information relies solely on colour. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.3 Sensory Characteristics (A). People who are blind or visually impaired may not be able to perceive the content being conveyed in the manner described.

Colour is used solely to communicate problematic movements of cattle to the user. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1 Use of Color (A). People who are colour blind may not be able to perceive the meaning conveyed by the colour.

The orange colour used for headings across the site tends to result in a poor colour contrast ratio, making it difficult to perceive the content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (AA). People who have visual impairments may encounter difficulty trying to read the content on the website.

The site does not respond to the reflow test at all and retains its default multi-column layout, requiring both vertical and horizontal scrolling to navigate. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.10 Reflow (AA). People with low vision who need enlarged text will have to scroll to see the whole page or will not be able to read it if the text overlaps other text.

Adding text or word spacing causes content to be clipped and information to be lost. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.12 Text Spacing (AA). People, especially people who require to change the text to make it more legible, will find it hard to read text because they are not able to increase the spacing without content clipping.

Form elements such as the bespoke dropdown list and the calendar are not accessible using only the keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard (A). Keyboard-only users will not be able to access parts of information within the site.

Users are logged out after 30 minutes of inactivity and are not able to extend this time period. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.2.1 Timing Adjustable (A). People who need more time to understand and find the information that they need may be unable to do so without having their session interrupted.

There are no skip links present in the service. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (A). People may not be able to reach the main content of the service quickly and the lack of bypass blocks may mean numerous keystrokes (or similar actions) to navigate past repeating content, or having to hear the same content, on every page throughout the service.

Page titles are not unique. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 Page Titled (A). People may not be able to quickly and easily identify whether the information contained in the webpage is relevant to their needs. People may not be able to accurately understand the page’s content and may be confused by the inconsistency between the page title and primary heading.

A number of links throughout the service do not make sense out of context, using text such as “Click here”. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (A). People with visual disabilities will not be able to determine the purpose of a link without exploring the link’s context.

There is only a single way to navigate through the site. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.5 Multiple Ways (AA). People may not be able to easily find the content that they need and may be unable to use the service as a result.

There are interactive controls where the title overrides the associated label, so that voice control software would not be able to interact with the element due to a mismatch. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.5.3 Label in Name (A). People using voice control software may encounter difficulty when trying to use controls.

When using the Welsh version of the service, the language tag has not been programmed correctly. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.1.1 Language of Page (A). Assistive technology such as screen readers may not be able to correctly determine the language used, which may lead to issues in announcing content across the service.

The word Cymraeg does not contain the attributes for a screen reader to pronounce this content in Welsh. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.1.2 Language of Parts (AA). Assistive technology such as screen readers may not be able to correctly determine the language used, which may lead to issues in announcing content in a different language.

Numerous parsing errors can be detected when validating the HTML across the site. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1 Parsing (A). People using assistive technologies may experience unexpected behaviour as the content may not be able to be parsed due to the errors in the code.

Images that have been made interactive with JavaScript do not have any semantics to provide a name or role that would be available to assistive technologies. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A). People using assistive technologies may not be able to perceive the content or operate the service due to the lack of accessible attributes.

Status message on “View Cattle Summary” page is not programmatically marked up as such. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.3 Status Messages (AA). People may not be aware of this feedback regarding their required actions on the service and this may lead to confusion as to whether there is anything that the user needs to do.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

All non-compliance with accessibility regulations are covered by disproportionate burden.

Disproportionate burden

To make CTS Online fully compliant with WCAG 2.1, 230 pages (192 dynamic screens and 94 static screens) would need to be created. For the project implementation of both AMLS2 and CTS Online, one-time charges are estimated to be in the region of £2,000,000 to £3,800,000, excluding expenses and VAT.  In addition, there is a short timeframe left for this product.

Accordingly, we assert that the cost of updating CTSO would be a disproportionate burden. To access the full disproportionate burden statement please click here.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 21 March 2024.

It was last reviewed on 21 March 2024.

This website was last tested on 28 February 2024.

The test was carried out by the Defra Accessibility Team. We chose a sample of 6 pages to test as examples of the main pages types used across the service.