Accessibility statement for Charity Commission forms

This accessibility statement applies to Charity Commission’s forms at the https://forms.charitycommission.gov.uk domain.

It covers the following forms:

• Enquiry form
• Raising concerns about a charity
• Dissolution form
• Vest charity land in the Official Custodian
• Notification of a charity merger
• Apply for a waiver
• Apply to make a moral payment
• Spend permanent endowment
• Disposal of charity land
• Decision review
• Use charity or charitable in a non-charitable company name
• Apply to convert a company to a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
• Trustee payments
• Pay a trustee for providing a service to the charity
• Pay a trustee compensation to replace or part replace lost income
• Pay a trustee for being or serving as a trustee
• Employ someone who is or was a trustee
• Employ a person or organisation who is connected to a trustee
• Appoint a member of staff
• Pay expenses to a trustee
• Pay less than £1,000 to a trustee (or the trustees combined)

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

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• zoom in up to 300% 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)

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:

• users cannot rely on the ‘autocomplete’ function to fill in common form fields, like name, email or telephone number
• radio buttons and checkboxes are not structured properly, so the relationship between the form fields may not be clear
• some forms cannot be completed with a keyboard as they are automatically redirected when radio buttons receive focus

Feedback and contact information

If you need something in a different format you can:

• email usability@charitycommission.gov.uk
• call 0300 066 9197 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm)

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within ten working days.

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: usability@charitycommission.gov.uk.

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 Charity Commission 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 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Autocomplete

Users cannot use autocomplete to fill in familiar fields like:

• name
• email
• telephone number

This means users will always have to enter the information directly each time they use the website.

This does not meet standard 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose.

We plan to fix this issue when we move our forms to a new platform. 

Radio buttons and checkboxes

Lists of radio buttons or checkboxes where users have to select at least one option are not structured properly. This means that it can be difficult for users to understand how the different elements relate to each other.

This does not meet standard 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.

We’re looking into this problem further. We’re planning to publish new versions of some forms soon. This problem will be fixed on those forms.

Longer term, we are looking into using a different platform for all of our forms. This will fix this issue. 

Keyboard use

The following cannot be completed with a keyboard:

• 'Employ someone who is or was a trustee' form
• the extra questions as part of the 'Disputes within a charity' option on the 'Raising concerns' form

This is because users are automatically redirected when a radio button receives focus.

This does not meet standard 3.2.1 On Focus.

This issue will be fixed by January 2021.

Disproportionate burden

There are currently no issues that we are claiming are a disproportionate burden to fix.

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

There is no content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations.

What we're doing to improve accessibility

We’re working to fix the issue with how radio buttons are structured on new versions of forms, so that they work better with assistive technology.

Longer term, we will be moving the forms to a different platform. This will allow us to make sure the forms are fully compliant with WCAG 2.1.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 23 September.

This website was last tested between 7 and 11 September 2020. The test was carried out by Nomensa.

The test covered a sample of five pages that included all of the functionality and form fields used across the Charity Commission’s forms.