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Welfare Partners Accessibility Statement

This is the accessibility statement for Welfare Partners and applies to all content published on WelfarePartners.ie. Welfare Partners is committed to achieving WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 Level AA standard.

This statement was prepared on 09/09/2024.

Compliance Status

WelfarePartners.ie is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 and WCAG 2.2 Level AA guidelines.

How we assessed WelfarePartners.ie

We follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 and 2.2 Level A and Level AA to test and audit the level of conformance of WelfarePartners.ie.

How we are going to improve and ensure accessibility on WelfarePartners.ie

  • We have assigned Access Officers to each area of the Department of Social Protection.You can find details of Access Officers on gov.ie.
  • We will engage in user testing to ensure the accessibility needs of people are met.
  • We will conduct continuous accessibility assessments on WelfarePartners.ie.
  • We have assembled a team to audit and fix content which fails to meet the WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 Level AA standard.

Non-Accessible Content & Limitations

Despite our ongoing efforts to ensure accessibility of WelfarePartners.ie, there may be some limitations or non-accessible content. Below is a description of known limitations.

  • Focus States: Some focus states are missing or not visible. This can make it harder for people using a keyboard to navigate the site.
  • Tab Steps: In some instances, tabbing may not follow the visible steps on the page. People using keyboard navigation may need to tab more times than seems evident to access the option they would like.
  • Enter Button / Space Bar: Throughout the site, when selecting options using keyboard navigation, the enter button and space bar may be interchangeable. In certain circumstances, the enter button and space bar may not work as expected (for example, the enter button may not work for checkboxes across the site).
  • Arrow Buttons: When making a selection from dropdown lists, the first option may appear inaccessible when using the arrow buttons to navigate the list. People using keyboard navigation may need to use the arrows to scroll down through all options to return to the top of the list.
  • Tables: Some tables on WelfarePartners.ie may not be accessible to people using assistive technologies, such as screen readers or voice recognition software, to read content on the site.
  • Images: Images on WelfarePartners.ie may be missing alternative text descriptions and so may not be accessible to people using assistive technologies, such as screen readers or voice recognition software, to view content on the site.
  • PDFs: PDF documents featured on WelfarePartners.ie may be less accessible than HTML web pages for people using assistive technologies to read content.
  • Mobile menu: Some users may have difficulty logging in or accessing options on the mobile menu of WelfarePartners.ie when using assistive technologies such as screen readers.
  • Assistive Technologies: Welfare Partners is currently undergoing testing for accessibility using assistive technologies. As this testing is ongoing, some aspects of Welfare Partners may not be accessible to people using assistive technologies, such as screen readers or voice recognition software.

This above is not an exhaustive list of non-accessible content and limitations.

Operating System and Browser Compatibility

WelfarePartners.ie is compatible with the following browsers and operating systems:

  • The latest version of Chrome
  • The latest version of Firefox
  • The latest version of Safari
  • Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11
  • The latest versions of Android and iOS

WelfarePartners.ie is not compatible with Internet Explorer and will therefore not perform optimally using this browser.

The accessibility of WelfarePartners.ie depends on the following technologies:

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript

Feedback and Contact Information

We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of WelfarePartners.ie If you have any concerns or complaints about the accessibility of this website, please contact us at DigitalServices@Welfare.ie. We will respond to you within 7 working days.

If you have difficulty accessing services on this website, please contact DigitalServices@Welfare.ie to request information in an different format. We will respond to you within 7 working days.

Escalating Formal Complaints

If you are not happy with Welfare Partners’ response, you can make a complaint to the Office of the Ombudsman under the Disability Act.

Cookies on Welfare Partners

We use cookies to understand how you use Welfare Partners. This helps us to improve your experience and to measure performance. Click to accept all cookies and we’ll save your settings. You can always change these later in manage cookies. Find out more about how we use cookies in our Privacy policy.


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