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Accessibility statement for national infrastructure projects

This accessibility statement applies to https://national-infrastructure-consenting.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/.

Using this service

This website is run by the Planning Inspectorate. 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
  • 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 and VoiceOver)

We've also made the 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

This service is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

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

  • some pages and document attachments are not written in plain English
  • many documents are in PDF format and are not accessible
  • there may be some links which do not provide enough context
  • people using assistive technology may find some parts of the site difficult to navigate

The compliance status section below gives more detail on the areas of the site that are not fully accessible.

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:

We'll consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this service

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, email us at: NIEnquiries@planninginspectorate.gov.uk

Enforcement procedure

If you contact us with a complaint and you're not happy with our response contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

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').

Technical information about this website's accessibility

The Planning Inspectorate is committed to making its websites 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 due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • It has been observed that if a user is navigating the page with Dragon Naturally Speaking enabled, they are unable to expand the additional information on the Project Information details components. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value. This issue requires a fix in Dragon Naturally Speaking. As an alternative, users can use MouseGrid, a feature in the Windows Speech Recognition app.
  • If a user is navigating the page with iOS VoiceOver enabled, the user is not notified that there is additional information which has not been expanded on the screen. Because of this, the user would not know that there is more information within the Project Information components to be heard. If the user does click on the section to expand it, there is also no announcement to say this has happened. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: Name, Role, Value.
  • For users of assistive technology the ability to upload files with Dragon Naturally Speaking software fails. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.

PDFs and non-HTML documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. Many documents are not accessible in a number of ways including missing text alternatives and missing document structure. This may mean that some documents are not accessible to a screen reader. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.

  • some of our PDFs are not accessible as they are not tagged properly. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 1.3.2: Meaningful Sequence.
  • a few of our documents have diagrams. These images do not have a text alternative. This does not comply with WCAG Level A 2.1: 1.1.1 Non-text Content.

View the accessible document policy of the organisation that published the document to report any problems or request documents in an alternative format. If more than one organisation is listed, view the accessible document policy of the first.

Where possible, we try to fix these as soon as we can.

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.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This accessibility statement was first prepared on the 8th of November 2023.

An accessibility report of the service by Zoonou took place in October 2023 against the WCAG 2.1 AA standard. It included extensive automated and manual testing on a range of browsers and assistive technologies.

This statement was last reviewed on the 24th of October 2024.