Waters of LIFE Website.

The Waters of LIFE project is being coordinated by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage through collaboration with project partners including the Local Authority Waters Programme, Teagasc and Coillte.

The Department is committed to ensuring access for all. This accessibility statement explains how the Department, as the Service Provider, will endeavour to meet the requirements as set out in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Version 2.1 at AA Level as defined by the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Our commitment and approach to maintaining an accessible website

The Department is committed to:

• maintaining an accessible website in accordance with the European Union (Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications of Public Sector Bodies) Regulations.
• ensuring that this website achieves “Level AA” conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, to comply with the National Disability Authority’s Code of Practice on Accessibility of Public Services and Information Provided by Public Bodies. (The National Disability Authority’s Centre for Excellence in Universal Design has an introduction to policy and legislation relevant to Universal Design in Ireland.)
• ensuring that all new information on the website will achieve “Level AA” conformance to the Web Content
  Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.
• including accessibility when we procure 3rd-party systems or upgrades to existing systems.

How we test for conformance with official accessibility guidelines

The Department uses a range of techniques to help providing access for all. They include:

Approach	Reasoning
Automated Scanning	Automated scanning provides a quick (but not complete) overview of issues that persons may encounter
Guidance	Provision of guidance to content editors such as using Alternate Text
Manual Review	Regularly performing manual review of each site and adjusting the site to help improve accessibility

This website’s conformance with official accessibility guidelines

The website currently has a partial conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
2.1. Our most recent web accessibility audit for this website was on 11/04/2022.

Areas for improvement and time-lines

We are aware of some areas on the website where we could improve accessibility. We are currently working to achieve this.

Section of website	Need for improvement	Time-line for improvement	Alternative access
Imagery	Some images with links missing alt text	Within Days	If you have problems using certain sections of this site, email us at info@watersoflife.ie

How to send feedback on this website’s accessibility

We welcome feedback on the accessibility of this website.

• Email us at info@watersoflife.ie
• Write to us at:

Water Advisory Unit,
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage,
Custom House,
Dublin 1,
D01 W6X0

Accessibility features of this website

A large number of techniques are used to enable the site become accessible for all. The process is ongoing as content changes and the structure of the site changes. Some of the accessible features on this site include (but not limited to) the following:

Feature	Purpose
Alt Text	All Images where appropriate have suitable Alt text to provide a descriptive element to the image portrayed
Heading Outline Hierarchy	Logical sense applied to headings where possible H1, H2, H3
Descriptive Links	Links and Buttons have descriptive elements or Aria labels where those elements are cannot be provided
Contrast	Reasonable minimums in difference with relation to contrast between foreground elements and background elements
Navigability	Logical structure applied to the website to ensure the site can be used without a mouse
ARIA Landmarks	A large variety of aria- landmarks applied to aid in accessibility

This list is not exhaustive.