{"id":1154,"date":"2022-04-28T12:08:53","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T11:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.watersoflife.ie\/accessibility\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T11:27:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T11:27:58","slug":"accessibility","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.watersoflife.ie\/ga\/accessibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Inrochtaineacht"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Waters of LIFE Website.<\/h2>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<h3>Our commitment and approach to maintaining an accessible website<\/h3>\n<p>The Department is committed to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>maintaining an accessible website<\/strong> in accordance with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishstatutebook.ie\/eli\/2020\/si\/358\/made\/en\/print\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">European Union (Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications of Public Sector Bodies) Regulations.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>ensuring that this website achieves \u201cLevel AA\u201d conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, to comply with the National Disability Authority\u2019s Code of Practice on Accessibility of Public Services and Information Provided by Public Bodies. (The National Disability Authority\u2019s Centre for Excellence in Universal Design has an introduction to policy and legislation relevant to Universal Design in Ireland.)<\/li>\n<li>ensuring that all new information on the website will achieve \u201cLevel AA\u201d conformance to the Web Content<br \/>\nAccessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.<\/li>\n<li><strong>including accessibility when we procure<\/strong> 3rd-party systems or upgrades to existing systems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>How we test for conformance with official accessibility guidelines<\/h3>\n<p>The Department uses a range of techniques to help providing access for all. They include:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th><strong>Approach<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>Reasoning<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Automated Scanning<\/td>\n<td>Automated scanning provides a quick (but not complete) overview of issues that persons may encounter<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Guidance<\/td>\n<td>Provision of guidance to content editors such as using Alternate Text<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Manual Review<\/td>\n<td>Regularly performing manual review of each site and adjusting the site to help improve accessibility<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><figcaption>Accessibility Testing Methods<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>This website\u2019s conformance with official accessibility guidelines<\/h3>\n<p>The website currently has <strong>a partial<\/strong> conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)<br \/>\n2.1. Our most recent web accessibility audit for this website was on 25\/09\/2025.<\/p>\n<h3>Areas for improvement and time-lines<\/h3>\n<p>We are aware of some areas on the website where we could improve accessibility. We are currently working to achieve this.<\/p>\n<table style=\"height: 160px;\" width=\"1374\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th><strong>Section of website<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>Need for improvement<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>Time-line for improvement<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>Alternative access<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Imagery<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Some images with links missing alt text<\/td>\n<td>Within Days<\/td>\n<td>If you have problems using certain sections of this site, email us at <a href=\"mailto:info@watersoflife.ie\">info@watersoflife.ie<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Areas for improvement, time-lines for improvement, and alternatives<\/p>\n<h3>How to send feedback on this website\u2019s accessibility<\/h3>\n<p>We welcome feedback on the accessibility of this website.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Email us at <a href=\"mailto:info@watersoflife.ie\">info@watersoflife.ie<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Write to us at:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">Water Advisory Unit,\r\nDepartment of Housing, Local Government and Heritage,\r\nCustom House,\r\nDublin 1,\r\nD01 W6X0<\/pre>\n<h3>Accessibility features of this website<\/h3>\n<p>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:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th><strong>Feature<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>Purpose<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Alt Text<\/td>\n<td>All Images where appropriate have suitable Alt text to provide a descriptive element to the image portrayed<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Heading Outline Hierarchy<\/td>\n<td>Logical sense applied to headings where possible H1, H2, H3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Descriptive Links<\/td>\n<td>Links and Buttons have descriptive elements or Aria labels where those elements are cannot be provided<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Contrast<\/td>\n<td>Reasonable minimums in difference with relation to contrast between foreground elements and background elements<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Navigability<\/td>\n<td>Logical structure applied to the website to ensure the site can be used without a mouse<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>ARIA Landmarks<\/td>\n<td>A large variety of aria- landmarks applied to aid in accessibility<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><figcaption>Accessibility Features<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This list is not exhaustive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1154","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watersoflife.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watersoflife.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watersoflife.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watersoflife.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watersoflife.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1154"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.watersoflife.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3199,"href":"https:\/\/www.watersoflife.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1154\/revisions\/3199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watersoflife.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}