Accessibility Accreditation for Volunteer Hub - Department of Fire and Emergency Services

Client:: Volunteer Hub - Department of Fire and Emergency Services
Accreditation Level:: Platinum
Date Accreditation issued:: 12 Mar 2024

Digital Accessibility Conformance Evaluation

A technical evaluation of 30 pages was conducted. The pages selected constitute an accessibility audit of the website. These pages were selected by Web Key IT and agreed on by the client as representative of the overall accessibility and functionality of the website.

The evaluation was completed in accordance with the WCAG Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) which can be viewed at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-EM/.

The pages were audited manually and cross-checked using a team of website evaluators to ensure that the results and comments presented are valid and comprehensive.

A separate and external testing of these pages has been conducted by a group of trained testers, all with disabilities. All items that related to WCAG 2.1 level AA compliance have been remediated and as many of the usability issues as practical and within scope have also been addressed.

Accessibility support baseline

Website/Application Tested:: https://volunteerhub.dfes.wa.gov.au/
Date Tested:: 2 Jan - 12 Mar 2024
Scope of test:: 30 pages selected as a representation of the website in accordance with the W3C WCAG Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM)
Guildelines:: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 at https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/
Conformance Level satisfied:: WCAG 2.1 to Level AA
Technologies relied on:: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, WAI-ARIA
Primary Browser/s:: Chrome 120, Firefox 121
Secondary Browser/s:: N/A
Number of pages evaluated:: 30
Platform:: Desktop
Valid from:: 12 Mar 2024
Expiry:: 12 Mar 2025

Remaining Issues and Exceptions

There are some aspects on this website, including some third-party content, which the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) do not have the ability to bring into conformance with WCAG 2.1 to Level AA.

Third party applications on this website include:

Google Maps
Kendo/Telerik Sitefinity scheduler

Some videos may not contain additional audio descriptions of visual content not described in the standard audio description.

On the Contacts page (https://volunteerhub.dfes.wa.gov.au/home/contacts) there is no alternative text for the (font-awesome) phone icons, however in the ‘Search All Contacts’ tab has all information is available in text.

Whilst the DFES has gone to great lengths to make all of its online content AA accessible, borders and focus indicators for some element in some browsers will be using the default border which may have a low colour contrast ratio. There may also be some empty headings which DFES is unable to edit due to an auto-generated widget.

Department of Fire and Emergency Services is making every attempt to provide an accessible solution to these aspects.

Certificate of Web Key IT Pty Ltd Accreditation

Certification Number:: DFESVOL2024

This website has been evaluated through a rigid manual process of technical audit of all of the sample pages against WCAG 2.1 to Level AA and meets the requirements of WCAG 2.1 to Level AA.

The website has also been evaluated by the Web Key IT Pty Ltd team of users with disabilities to ensure that none of the user journeys selected posed an issue for these testers/disabilities.

Other Standards

WCAG 2.1 also forms the content of the ISO Standard ISO: IEC 40500:2012 which can be located at https://www.iso.org/standard/58625.html

The content of WCAG forms the standard for digital accessibility compliance in EN 301549 and AS EN 301549 “Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe” which has been adopted in Australia as AS EN 302549. This standard includes:

web content
electronic documents
non-web software, such as native mobile apps

Information can be found at http://www.w3.org/WAI/news/2018-09-13/WCAG-21-EN301549/ and http://mandate376.standards.eu/standard.