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Accessibility statement

This website is run by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, this 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 and NVDA).

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

Accessibility of this website

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

  • Most of our guidance and publications are currently provided in PDF format only. These PDFs are not fully accessible
  • Many older PDF and Word documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Not all our website text is written in plain language, such as to the Plain Language Commission’s Clear English Standard, so it is not as simple to understand as it could be.

We are working to make our content fully accessible. In the meantime, please contact us if you need this information in an accessible format.

What to do if you can’t access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

  • visit our easy read web page
  • email us to request information in other formats
  • visit our contact us page for other ways to get in touch

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within three working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, please contact us.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the accessibility regulations. If you’re not happy with our response, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The IOPC 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-compliance listed below.

How we have improved and tested this website

We have redeveloped our website to make it more accessible to all users. The redeveloped website was launched on 26 July 2023.

Our website is built in Drupal, a content management system. There are several content types used within the website defining the type of page. Testing was carried out on each content type, on a selection of pages, examples of which can be found below.

We tested our old website and the online complaints, review and appeals forms which were hosted on the Egress platform. We used Lighthouse to audit each page for accessibility issues. We used Wave to automatically test for accessibility issues on pages that do not need users to sign in.

Issues discovered and fixed by building a new website included:

  • Drupal PHP templates
  • CSS style changes
  • HTML code changes
  • ensuring colour contrast standards were met
  • adding ARIA labels to required elements
  • ensuring the website was viewport scalable
  • removing duplicate attributes from the PHP template code on each content type
  • adding form elements
  • adding lang=”en” to html template
  • fixing alt text and title/heading issues
  • adding accessible names to buttons and form elements
  • checking for broken links
  • improving our complaints, appeals and review forms

Issues with PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t fully meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be marked up so they’re accessible to a screen reader.

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have guidance documents published as PDF and Word documents. 

The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

Issues with plain language

Not all our website text or publications fully meet plain language standards, so they are not as simple to understand as they could be. Many of these pages or publications are intended for a professional audience, so they include terms and abbreviations which members of the public might not understand.

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

Documents published before 23 September 2018

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.

Third-party content

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix third-party content that is neither funded, developed or under the control of the public sector body. For example, this might include reports or documents we publish from licensees.

This statement was published on 26 July 2023.