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Accessibility statement for Check your long term flood risk

This accessibility statement applies to the Check your long term flood risk service at check-long-term-flood-risk.service.gov.uk

This website is run by the Environment Agency. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means that you should be able to:

  • use browser settings or plugins to change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • use browser settings or other software to zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • navigate most of the website 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 made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

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

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:

  • the mapping, and the tools that are part of it, are not accessible for those using assistive technology
  • in some situations, the contrast of colours on maps is not high enough to be legible to all users
  • we link to guidance on GOV.UK that includes PDF documents that are not fully accessible to screen reader software

What to do if you have difficulty using this service

If you need information on this website in a different format like an accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We're always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we're not meeting accessibility requirements, contact:

Enforcement procedure

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).

Technical information about this website's accessibility

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

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the following exemptions.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

There are several instances of non-compliance with WCAG level AA. These are:

  • navigation landmarks do not provide a label that is descriptive enough to inform a user of their function, which does not meet the requirement for WCAG 2.4.6 Headings and labels
  • the Friendly Captcha grey information text does not meet the requirement for WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
  • the map focus element does not meet the requirement for WCAG 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast
  • the colours used in the flood depth graphic, for both the grey against the white background and the grey against the blue produce a contrast ratio, which does not meet the requirement for WCAG 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast
  • zoom controls are removed from various map pages when viewed in WCAG reflow settings at 1280 x 1024px at a magnification of 400%. Additionally, the positioning of certain elements over the map does not account for the addition of a scroll bar and some of the text is cropped. This does not meet the requirement for WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow

We will to fix these issues in the following ways:

  • we plan to add a descriptive aria-label attribute to the navigation landmark that allows a screen reader to know this section is for page navigation
  • we will make sure text colours used provide sufficient contrast against the background, so that the outlines of the text characters are sufficiently defined for low vision users
  • we plan to use the format indicated in the GOV.UK Design System, for understanding focus state styles
  • we will make sure the flood depth graphics achieves a colour contrast ratio of least 3:1 against any adjacent colours
  • we plan to make sure the map pages can be viewed as a single column at 320px without any loss of content or functionality

We will look to address these issues by December 2025.

Content that's not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

The website has the following content which is out of scope of the accessibility regulations:

  • maps
  • third party content which is out of our control, for example a corporate logo on the map the website uses
  • PDF content that was published before 23 September 2018

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

  • we have fixed 7 issues that failed to meet the WCAG version 2.2 A standard
  • we are working to fix all other content which fails to meet the WCAG version 2.2 AA standard and we will update this page when these issues are fixed
  • once we have fixed these issues, we will conduct usability testing with people with accessibility needs

Preparation of this accessibility statement

The original statement was prepared on 22 September 2020.

It was last reviewed on 7 January 2025.

This website was last tested on 3 December 2024. The test was carried out by the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC).

We tested the following pages:

  • Where do you want to check
  • Select an address
  • Flood risk summary
  • Rivers and the sea: understand your flood risk
  • Rivers and sea map
  • Rivers and the sea: possible flood depths
  • Surface water: understand your flood risk
  • Groundwater and reservoirs: understand your flood risk
  • Flood risk map