Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Statement for the JoinPSNI Recruitment Website

This accessibility statement applies to the JoinPSNI recruitment website at URL: https://www.joinpsni.co.uk. This statement is relevant to all elements of the website, including the website’s Police Officer and Police Staff sections.

This website provides information on recruitment to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). A core function of the website is to accept applications from those wishing to apply to Police Service of Northern Ireland recruitment opportunities. 

The website is jointly controlled by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and Deloitte MCS Limited.

Our commitment to accessibility

The Police Service of Northern Ireland acknowledges the importance of website accessibility. The Police Service of Northern Ireland is committed to improving the accessibility status of the JoinPSNI website which aligns with the organisation’s commitment to Equal Opportunities generally. Through efforts to continually improve and, where they arise, address any issues with accessibility on its recruitment website, the organisation demonstrates a commitment to inclusivity and equal access for all individuals, regardless of their abilities or disabilities.

Accessible websites provide equal opportunities for participation. Where the JoinPSNI website is concerned, this means ensuring that everyone, including potential applicants with disabilities can access and navigate the site, browse available job opportunities, and apply without barriers. We want this website to be accessible for as many people as possible. That means our recruitment website should allow users to navigate:

  • Clickables – Elements with button functionality are tagged for assistive technology. Buttons include text explaining their functionality. 
  • Titles – Every page includes a single H1 title. An H1 title provides information to what the main topic of the page is and each page should have exactly one H1 title. 
  • Orientation – Interactive elements such as links, buttons and form fields are navigable using the keyboard. Interactive elements that can be navigated using the keyboard are surrounded by a visual outline whenever they are focused. 
  • Graphics – Images have an alternative text description that describes both the objects and the embedded text that the image contains, using the “alt” attribute. 
  • Document – Listen to most of the website using a screen reader (e.g. VoiceOver and Narrator) and zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen. The HEAD element includes a title element with the name of the page. The HTML includes a proper “lang” attribute. Meta viewpoint tag allows vision impaired users to pinch-zoom to at least 200%. 
  • Readability – Font sizes should be large enough to be readable. Letter spacing is wide enough to be readable.

In addition, we have endeavoured to write content for the website in language that is easy to understand. 

We encourage all users of our website to investigate opportunities on how to optimise their experience when accessing the website. For example, options to customise web browsers and access devices are available, and these may improve your user experience and how you navigate websites. We recommend considering the resources and information provided by the AbilityNet organisation - AbilityNet Fact Sheets. Other guidance and user tips are available on the internet, including via the w3 organisation and NI Direct.

Our current focus on accessibility

With the aim to enhance website accessibility, we have recently completed a dedicated programme of improvement work on the JoinPSNI recruitment website. During this programme of improvement work we engaged with and sought guidance from third parties with appropriate knowledge and experience. We completed a review to identify potential issues. From this review, eight key issues were identified as issues seen frequently on webpages across the site. It was decided that a focussed programme of development work to specifically address these issues would be of value. A programme of development work, which culminated in the implementation of fixes for these frequently seen issues, was undertaken. Although this focussed programme of activity has completed, longer term, we are committed to keeping focus on accessibility considerations and will ensure that inclusivity is to the fore when considering future development options for the website. 

This website is currently considered partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the following non-compliances.

Non-compliant elements include:

  • PDFs - Some JoinPSNI owned PDF documents have non-accessible elements. (In the main, we have converted all JoinPSNI-owned PDF documents into webpage format. However, for both Officer Recruitment and Staff Recruitment, the Guidance for Applicants documents have been retained in PDF format, as, given the nature of these documents, that format is the most appropriate. However, these PDFs may have non-accessible elements).
  • Automated Scanning Flags, recommending Secondary Manual Audits - Automated accessibility scanning has indicated that some webpages may retain elements that could be considered non-compliant. However, only focussed line-by-line manual code audits would allow understanding of this. 

Contact information for feedback or reporting accessibility access needs

It is our responsibility to monitor and strive to continuously improve the accessibility of this website. If you require information about this website or wish to provide feedback on issues that you may have identified from an accessibility perspective, contact email addresses are listed as follows. We would ask you to direct your query to the relevant contact email depending on the section of the website or vacancy you are interested in, i.e., Officer or Staff recruitment.

When contacting us about this, please tell us all relevant details of your accessibility query: 

  • The web address (URL) of the content in question. 
  • Your name and email address. 
  • The issues you are experiencing. 
  • Details of any adjustment needs you might require.

We will consider your request, and the relevant team will respond to you as soon as possible.

Enforcement procedure

We will endeavour to meet users’ accessibility needs and engage with those who contact us with concerns, in order that we can correct matters. However, where issues remain after engagement on the matter, users have the right to seek recourse via the relevant authority.

The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) 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 Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) https://www.equalityni.org/Home.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This website was last audited in April 2024. This statement was prepared in April 2024.