§ Dr. CableTo ask the Solicitor General if she will list the actions the Department(a) has taken and (b) is 119W taking to ensure that the websites of the Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are accessible to partially sighted and blind people; and if she will make a statement. [118845]
§ The Solicitor-GeneralThe Crown Prosecution Service is working towards improvements to its website to provide accessibility to individuals with visual impairment.
This involves implementing the Office of the E-envoy's guidelines for UK Government websites that cover a range of accessibility issues.
The guidelines include following the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) recommendations and achieving 'Bobby' approved certification.
In addition, the Crown Prosecution Service will be seeking to achieve the Royal National Institute of the Blind's (RNIB) 'See it Right' accessible website logo for the RNIB scheme that promotes website accessibility for people with visual impairment.
Serious Fraud Office
The Serious Fraud Office has followed checkpoints from priorities one and two of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (recommendations) when the site was built.
The Serious Fraud Office is committed to help partially sighted and blind people, and will consider what further work needs to be carried out on it site in order to help them gain access to its information.
HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate and Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers
HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate has recently undertaken a review of the content of its departmental website. The Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers is currently undertaking such a review. As recommended by the Royal National Institute for the Blind, neither site uses Macromedia Flash or Shockwave software, animated Gifs, frames or pop-up windows. Font sizes within the site's text are scalable and their colour settings are adjusted by site users. Site links, however, have not been coded for recognition by speech software. This and the provision of reports as text files in addition to their current Portable Document Format (PDF) are being considered.
Treasury Solicitor's Department
We have three websites, each of which aims to be accessible to visually impaired people.
The Treasury Solicitor's Department has been designed to be accessible to individuals with visual impairment, using current best practice. The site is currently undergoing adjustments to achieve full compliance with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, issued by the Office of the E-envoy.
The Government Legal Services website has been designed in accordance with Cabinet Office guidelines for websites and general good practice. The site has achieved compliance for accessibility for the visually impaired as required by the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.
The Bona Vacantia (BV) Division websites were developed late in 2001 and meet the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. There are minor areas 120W where further action is required to improve accessibility and the BV website developer has been asked to look at this.