Accessibility Statement

West Midlands Fire Service is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This accessibility statement applies to www.wmfs.net.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliance listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reason(s):

(a) non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Downloadable documents in our ‘Documents’ section do not all comply with WCAG 2.1 guidelines for accessibility.

Word documents and PDF documents do not all have text alternatives for non-text content - WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content

PDF documents do not contain a specification of the natural language - WCAG 3.1.1 Language of Page

Some documents contain images of text (tables or diagrams) - WCAG 1.4.5 Images of Text

All documents on our website are being reviewed and replaced to achieve full compliance by March 31 2023.

Some of our documents have diagrams. These images do not have a text alternative, so the information in them is not available to people using a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

We plan to ensure all downloadable documents on our website meet these standards by March 31 2023. When we publish new documents we’ll ensure they meet the required standards.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 18/10/2022. The statement is reviewed annually and the latest review date was also 18/10/2022.

This accessibility statement was created following an evaluation of a range of sample pages evaluated using automated tools and manually.

The automated tools used were the latest version of Axe - https://www.deque.com/axe/ and WAVE Evaluation Tool - https://wave.webaim.org/

Tests were completed using different settings in the Google Chrome browser on Windows 10 on 17 and 32-inch screens and on Microsoft Edge browser on Windows 10 on 17 and 32-inch screens.

Feedback and contact information

Any feedback of compliance failures, requests for information in alternative formats or accessibility compliance on our website should be directed to West Midlands Fire Service Corporate Communication team by:

• Email contact@wmfs.net – include 'FAO Corporate Communications' in your email.
• call 03300 589 000
• or submit a contact form on our website at https://www.wmfs.net/contact-west-midlands-fire-service/

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).