FamilySupportNI Accessibility Statement


This statement relates to all web pages with the web address beginning https://www.familysupportni.gov.uk/

This website is administered by Health and Social Care Board for Northern Ireland. 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 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 are committed to ensuring the website has Level AA conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. We have audited this website’s accessibility continually while designing and developing it.

Feedback and contact information

The HSC Employers are committed to equality of opportunity If you experience issues or need guidance with using the site, please reach out to us via our contact page.

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, please reach out to us via our contact page.

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, please contact Equalities Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

We are committed to making this website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

FamilySupportni is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations


Principle 1: Perceivable Web content is made available to the senses - sight, hearing, and/or touch

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

Semantic markup may not always be used to designate headings (<h1>, <h2> etc).

There may be contrast issues with some of the text displayed on the site. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum). 

Principle 2: Operable Interface forms, controls, and navigation are operable

For some pages keyboard focus needs to be updated.

The purpose of each link may not be determined from the link text alone, or from the link text and its context.

Principle 3: Understandable Information and the operation of the user interface must be understandable

The meaning of unfamiliar abbreviations may not be explained the first time it is used.

A more understandable alternative is provided for content that is more advanced than can be reasonably read by a person with roughly 9 years of primary education. Some of our content may need to be revised to ensure we meet this criterion.



We plan to review and resolve these issues by December 2021. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.


What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are increasing accessibility training and guidance for our web publishers. Any new content added to our site will be reviewed using online accessibly tools to ensure compliance.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 08/09/2021. It was last reviewed on 08/09/2021.

This website was last tested on 22/07/2021. We have done a basic check using in-house expertise, applying the international WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards

How we tested this website

We used an automated on-page accessibility tool (WAVE) to test a small selection of pages. 

There may be other issues that our testing has not picked up. The website will be tested more thoroughly and systematically and this statement will be updated as required.


Last Updated: 14/09/2021