Accessibility statement for FSA Local Authority Information Network (FSA LINK)

This accessibility statement applies to the FSA Local Authority Information Network (FSA LINK) website.

Last updated: 27 September 2024

See all updates

Last updated: 27 September 2024

See all updates

This accessibility statement applies to the Food Standards Agency Local Authority Information Network (FSA LINK) website.

This website is run by the Food Standards Agency. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

change colours, contrast levels and fonts within your own browser settings 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, TalkBack 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. You can see a full list of any issues in the Non-accessible content section of this statement.

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:

Email: FSALINK@food.gov.uk
Phone our Helpline: 0330 332 7149 (open 9am until 5pm, Monday to Friday)

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 this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact:

Email: fsa.communications@food.gov.uk
Phone our Helpline: 0330 332 7149 (open 9am until 5pm, Monday to Friday)

Read tips on contacting organisations about inaccessible websites.

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).

If you are in Northern Ireland and are not happy with how we respond to your complaint you can contact the Equalities Commission for Northern Ireland who are responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’) in Northern Ireland.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Food Standards Agency 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.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

ShapeError handling is not sufficient for all users. When selecting a checkbox and attempting to continue without filling in all fields, the page does not submit and the error is read out to screen reader users. However, the error message does not remain persistent on screen (WCAG 3.3.1 Error identification)
ShapeKeyboard focus does not travel in the expected order when the ‘tell us what you think about our website’ box appears. Users need to navigate to the end of the page in order to reach the end of the page. (WCAG A 2.4.3 Focus Order)
ShapeKeyboard users are unable to access scrollable content, on step 2 of the onboarding the scrollable region containing the ‘privacy notice’ is not accessible via keyboard. (WCAG 2.4.7 AA Focus visible)
ShapeThe menu items do not receive keyboard focus. (WCAG 4.1.2 A Name, role, value and WCAG 2.1.1 A Keyboard Focus)
ShapeKeyboard users are able to access the modal but once initiated users are trapped within the modal. The ‘close’ button does not receive focus (WCAG 2.1.2 A, Keyboard Trap).

Form Elements

Form elements are present which do not have a programmatically associated label. The
<select> element does not have an explicit label, ad this may confuse screen reader users (WCAG 1.3.1 A Information and Relationships)
The autocomplete attribute has not been applied to form fields that require common user data such as Name and Email (WCAG 1.3.5 AA Identify Input Purpose)

Headings

The headings level do appear in order but there is no heading level 1 to introduce the main content, issue present throughout the site (WCAG 1.3.1 A Information and Relationships and 2.4.6 AA Headings and Labels)
There are some blank headings in the Terms of Services content that could be confusing and disorienting for a screen reader users (WCAG 2.4.6 AA Headings and Labels)
Some download buttons have the appropriate ARIA label but this is not descriptive enough to explain the file the user is downloading. The label should give the full documents title and file type (WCAG 2.4.6 AA Headings and Labels)

Content

When lists of files are displayed, the number of items in a list are announced but the definition list mark-up is incorrect. (WCAG 1.3.1 A Information and relationships)
Content can be lost or obscured when the browser is set to 300% magnification and 1280px width, the menu items appear off screen and are inaccessible. (WCAG AA 1.4.10 Reflow)
The light green and white colour combinations throughout the site, the ‘sign in’ button, the light-green text for the side navigation, the light-grey text on community posts and form help text. the first and latest post buttons and the orange text on white background fails to meet the minimum colour contrast ratio of 4:5:1 against adjacent colours (WCAG 1.4.3 AA contrast (minimum)
The background colour of the ‘Terms of Service’ box and buttons such as ‘Notifications’ and ‘Accounts’ do not meet the minimum colour contrast requirement. (WCAG 1.4.11 AA Non-text contrast)
Error status when completing the personal information form is not announced to screen reader users, focus remains on the submit button (WCAG AA 4.1.3 Status messages)
Some of our PDF content is not currently accessible, we are working on a backlog and fixing issues identified in priority order. (WCAG 2.1 A 1.2.1 Info and Relationships and WCAG 4.1.2 A Name, Role, Value)
The frame used to display non-html documents does not have a title attribute so screen reader users would be unable to determine the content of the frame and could not use the frame as a navigational tool. (WCAG 2.4.1 A Bypass Blocks and WCAG 4.1.2 A Name, Role, Value)
Third party content shared for the benefit of enforcement authorities has not been produced by the FSA and may not always be accessible.

Disproportionate burden

We are not claiming any disproportionate burden claims.

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.

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

What we're doing to improve accessibility

We are working on fixing the issues identified above in the following ways:

We aim to fix some of the website functionality and content issues by September 2025.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 27 September 2024. It was last reviewed on 27 September 2024.