Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to the digital application portal at https://account.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk

This portal is maintained by the Fund. This page explains how the Fund works to ensure the portal is accessible.

Our commitment to accessibility and inclusion

We support people and communities across the UK. We believe that when people are in the lead, communities thrive.

This is why, as the UK’s largest community funder, we strive to ensure that National Lottery funding is for everyone, no matter what their starting point.

Whatever your needs or abilities are, you can expect equal access when applying for our funding, and we’re happy to give you extra support if you need it. This might be because you have a disability, including physical and mental health conditions. For example, you might need information in a different way, or may need extra time when talking to us.

On the digital application portal, you should be able to:

change colours, contrast levels and fonts
zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
navigate using just a keyboard
navigate 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 tried to write the content in plain English.

Customise your experience

We're committed to making the portal easy to use. But you may get a better experience by customising them to suit your individual needs. For example, you can:

make the text larger
get the site text read aloud to you.

For videos and guides about how to customise your experience, visit the BBC's My Web, My Way. On that website, you can learn about your computer’s accessibility features and useful software you can install. These are known as assistive technologies.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

If you have difficulty reading English, perhaps because it's not your main language, or you have dyslexia, a mild visual impairment or learning difficulties, you may find it helpful to have the website text read out for you. One tool that does this is BrowseAloud.

How we make the digital application portal accessible

We work hard to ensure that the digital application portal is accessible.

Where possible, we try to research components and patterns with a representative range of users, including those with disabilities.

We also test components to ensure they work with a broad range of browsers, devices and assistive technologies - including screen magnifiers, screen readers and speech recognition tools.

Compliance and enforcement

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).

The Fund is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Accessibility audit

The National Lottery Community Fund is committed to making sure our online services are accessible to all users and comply with level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1), in line with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

To help us do this, we commissioned the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) to carry out WCAG 2.1 AA level technical compliance audit, that will also include extensive testing by users with a wide range of disabilities.

The digital application portal was last tested on 6 September 2022.

Compliance status

The digital application portal is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Limitations

On the dashboard page, there are panels which contain information about the programme. The first line of the panel is visually conveyed as a heading. This is not reflected in the page code. This means that users with screen readers will not get the same context. This may make it difficult to understand the structure of the information. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.
On the application summary page, there are buttons under each section that read ‘Show questions’. If you select one of these buttons, the page will expand to show the questions in that section. Users that use screen readers will not hear ‘Show questions’ when they select the button. Also for users that disable the CSS or use their own stylesheet, the word ‘Show’ will not appear. This could make using this page confusing and disorientating to use. This fails WCAG success criterion 2.5.3 Label in Name and 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.
After an hour of inactivity, a dialog box appears which explains that you will it will sign you out in 60 minutes. There is a countdown timer on the dialog box. When the dialog appears, users with screen readers are still able to access the background content. This may cause confusion as it’s not clear which content is in the background and which content is in the timeout modal. This fails WCAG success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order.

Support

Feedback

We're always looking to improve the accessibility of the digital application portal. If you find any problems that are not listed on this page, or think this website is not meeting accessibility requirements, email us at webmaster@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk.

To help us understand and solve the problem, try to include as much as you can of the information described at contacting organisations about inaccessible websites. All constructive criticism and positive comments are welcome and will be carefully considered.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 9 September 2022. It was last reviewed on 9 September 2022.