Accessibility

Accessibility

ReachDeck

To help make sure our website can be accessed, understood and easily used by all we installed ReachDeck.

ReachDeck lets you customise our website to make it easier for you to use. You can:

  • have the text read aloud
  • translate our website to multiple languages
  • look up unfamiliar words
  • create an mp3
  • add a screen mask
  • magnify the text
  • simplify the page to make it easier to read.

How to use ReachDeck  

To launch the ReachDeck toolbar, click on the ear icon on the bottom right of your screen. A floating toolbar will appear and each of the icons on the toolbar represent a different feature.

If you want further guidance on ReachDeck you can find it on the TextHelp website.

Accessibility statement for nifrs.org

This accessibility statement applies to nifrs.org

This website is created, developed and maintained by Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service. We want our website to be as user friendly as possible for everyone. 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:

  • Some pages and document attachments are not clearly written
  • Some documents are in PDF format and are not accessible

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:

  • Name: Corporate Communications Team
  • Contact number: 028 9266 4221

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of our website. If you find any accessibility issues not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact:

  • Name: Corporate Communications Team
  • Contact number: 028 9266 4221

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’). If you are not happy with our response contact the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) (https://www.equalityni.org/Home)

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service 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 exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Images & media

Disproportionate Burden

PDFs and other documents
  • PDFs are missing document titles that can make it difficult for screen reader users to quickly establish the contents of the document. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 (Page Titled). Any new PDFs will be published with titles as standard.
  • PDFs are missing document bookmarks which are a key method of navigation for some users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.5 (Multiple Ways). Any new PDFs will be developed with bookmarks as standard.
  • Images within PDFs are missing alt text so they will be inaccessible to blind users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text content). Any new PDFs will have descriptive alt text added as standard.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with PDF and other documents all at once. We believe that doing so would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We have started gradually replacing PDFs with HTML and are committed to this process.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

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

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.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on Wednesday 5 July 2023. It was last reviewed on Tuesday 10 September 2024. This is due to be reviewed again on 31 March 2025.

This website was last tested on Monday 20 March 2023. This website was tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level AA, and the test was carried out by UK Government Digital Services.

Our sampling method most closely matches the in-depth methodology that was originally defined by the EU – in particular see section 3 here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2018/1524.

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