Accessibility statement
This accessibility statement applies to the National Trading Standards Scams Team
Friends Against Scams (FAS) is an initiative run by the National Trading Standards (NTS) Scams Team. The NTS Scams Team is hosted by Surrey County Council. This website (www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk) is run by Surrey County Council. We are committed to providing an accessible website that is easy to use by anyone, whatever their age, background, access device or level of ability/disability.
This means that:
- Our pages are written to be clear and easy to understand.
- The website is organised so you can find what you need.
You should be able to:
- Change colours, contrast levels and fonts.
- Zoom in up to 400% 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 aim to meet the AA level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This is the international standard for accessible websites and content.
How accessible is this website?
Most of our website should be accessible. It should work well when used with access devices such as screen readers, braille readers, as well as smart phones and other devices.
These are the internet browsers that we support on our website.
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
We know some content on this website is not fully accessible and this includes:
- Most older PDF documents. These are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
- Live video streams. These do not have captions.
- Some page content.
- Some PDF and other document content.
A detailed list of known accessibility issues and how we plan to address them is available further down this statement. We regularly review the site and add further issues to this statement as they are identified.
Feedback and contact information
If you need information in a different format to the one that we provide, please email us at [email protected]
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
If you have difficulty using any part of our website or think that we're not meeting accessibility requirements, email us at [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 about the accessibility of our website, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
Technical information about this website's accessibility
The National Trading Standards Scams Team is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
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
Video captions
Some video captions are auto-generated and are not always accurate. This fails WCAG 2.1
success criterion 1.2.2 (captions (pre-recorded)). We are working to correct this.
PDFs and other documents
Some PDFs and documents may not meet accessibility standards. For example, they may not be structured so they're accessible to a screen reader. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).
Currently, all documents are checked with an automated test before being published on the site. This eliminates many common accessibility errors but does not guarantee that documents will be fully accessible.
We manually check and fix:
- the most-viewed documents (currently, approximately the top 10%).
- documents that are essential for using our services.
- documents intended for audiences likely to have accessibility needs.
These documents should be fully accessible.
If you are unable to read a document on our site, please contact us and we will help you. Email us at [email protected].
See the section on disproportionate burden for further details.
Images
Some of our pages and documents contain complex images such as diagrams, charts, graphs or infographics. Some of these may not be adequately described. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We are working to correct this.
Disproportionate burden
The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix accessibility issues if doing so would be a disproportionate burden (where fixing an issue would cost a lot but provide minimal or no benefit and would affect our ability to provide our services).
PDFs and other documents
We've assessed that it would be a disproportionate burden to make all PDFs and documents published on our websites fully accessible.
Most of our documents are rarely viewed (in many cases, less than 500 times a year from a population of 67 million people) and so users with disabilities or impairments are unlikely to be negatively impacted. For this reason, we don't believe the cost to fully fix all documents is justified.
For the majority of our documents, we have committed to ensuring they pass an automated accessibility check. This will eliminate many common accessibility issues but will not necessarily ensure that the document is fully accessible.
For our most-viewed documents (approximately, the top 10%), documents that are essential for using our services, and documents intended for audience likely to have accessibility needs, we are committed to manually checking them and making sure they are fully accessible.
If you are unable to read a document on our site, please contact us and we will help you. Email us at [email protected].
We will continue to investigate cost-effective ways of improving the accessibility of all our documents.
Content that's not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
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.
The accessibility regulations also do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents provided by third-parties that we have no control over.
Live video
Live video streams do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live).
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
Maps
Maps are excluded from the accessibility regulations as long as any essential navigational information they provide is available.
How we test this website
What we're doing to improve accessibility
We aim to fix any issues that are identified by our testing as soon as possible. If a prompt fix is not possible, we will plan a longer-term solution to address the issue.
We have a programme of work in place to address the accessibility of our PDFs and documents.
We have increased the training and support available to our staff to help them create accessible content.
About this statement
This statement was prepared on 2 May 2024. It is reviewed every year.