Accessibility Statement

Mercia Group Ltd is committed to ensuring that its digital products, services and experiences are accessible and inclusive. Our digital content and website should enable fair and equal access for disabled people and those with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive impairments.

 

Measures to support accessibility

Mercia Group Ltd takes the following measures to ensure accessibility of its digital content, products and services.

  • Ensure accessibility features as part of our vision and priorities.
  • Include accessibility throughout our internal policies.
  • Appoint an accessibility champion and/or ombudsperson.
  • Provide continual accessibility training for our staff.
  • Assign clear accessibility goals and responsibilities.

 

Conformance status

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) define the standard and success criteria for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. The guidelines outline three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. Mercia Group Ltd is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 level AA. Partially conformant means that some parts of the content do not yet fully conform to the accessibility standard.

 

Additional accessibility considerations

Our goal is to meet and exceed the requirements of WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance to provide the optimum user experience. We aim to apply some AAA success criteria where images of text are only for decorative purposes and re-authentication after a session expires does not result in a loss of data.

 

Feedback

We welcome feedback on the accessibility of the Mercia Group Ltd website. Please contact us if you encounter any accessibility barriers:

  • Phone: +44 (0) 20 7490 0049
  • E-mail: accessibility@wilmingtonplc.com
  • Visitor Address: Mercia Group Ltd, Grove Park, 2 Thorpe Way, Enderby, Leicester, LE19 1SU, or, Mercia Ireland Ltd, 13 Baggott Street Upper, 2nd Floor, Dublin 4, D04 W7K5
  • Postal Address: Accessibility Steering Group, Wilmington plc, Suite 215/216 Fort Dunlop, 2nd Floor, Fort Parkway, Birmingham, B24 9FD
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mercia-group-ltd/
    Facebook: @merciagroup
    Twitter: @merciagroup

We aim to respond to feedback within 3-5 working days (this excludes weekends and local holidays).

 

Compatibility with browsers and assistive technology

The website is designed to be compatible with the following assistive technologies:

Compatibility with NVDA, JAWS and other web browsers and OS has yet to be tested fully.

The website is expected to work with more recent versions of the web browsers: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox on Win 10 and 11, and Safari on macOS Monterey and Big Sur.

If compatible with your Windows setup, the latest updates to OS can be installed from Microsoft.

If compatible with your Mac, the latest versions to OS can be installed from the Apple Store.

The website for Mercia Group Ltd is not yet fully optimised for mobile devices and tablets.

 

Technical specifications

Accessibility of the website relies on the following technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and any assistive technologies or plugins installed on your computer:

  • HTML
  • WAI-ARIA
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • PHP

These technologies are relied upon for conformance with the accessibility standards used.

 

Limitations and alternatives

Despite our best efforts to ensure accessibility of the Mercia Group Ltd website, there may be some limitations. Below is a description of known limitations, and potential solutions. Please contact us if you observe an issue not listed below.

Known limitations for the website:

  1. Alternative text: Images may not have alternative text descriptions yet because of limitations at the time of upload. We aim to resolve all known instances and add alt-text descriptions to all non-decorative images by the end of 2022. If you need alternative text, please contact us.

  2. Text colour contrast: Some text may be difficult to read because of insufficient colour contrast. We aim to check all known instances and provide sufficient contrast on all text by the end of 2022. If you encounter an issue or require an alternative, please contact us.

  3. PDF documents: Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software because of limitations in the way the document was created. We aim to replace all older PDF documents with accessible versions and/ or provide the information in an alternative format by the end of 2022. If you need a different version, please contact us.

  4. Text size and typeface: Some users may find text difficult to read because of the text size and typeface used. We aim to review the text size and/or typeface to ensure all text is easily readable by the end of 2022. If you encounter an issue, please contact us.

  5. Embedded videos: Some videos may not have closed captions because of limitations when the videos were produced. Some may contain inaccuracies in the text because the original may have excluded closed captions, or an automated service may have been used which introduced errors. We aim to replace all embedded videos with accurately captioned versions and/ or provide the information in an alternative format by the end of 2022. If you encounter an issue or require a transcript of an embedded video, please contact us.

  6. Third party links: This website may contain links to other websites which may not follow the WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standard and criteria. We have limited control over the quality of content provided by third party websites and are not responsible for their content. If you experience any issues after following a link to a website outside of the Mercia Group Ltd domain, please contact the third party directly for support.

 

Assessment approach

Mercia Group Ltd conducted an initial audit of the website by the following approach:

  • Self-evaluation: a sample audit of the website was conducted using automated and manual tools
  • Continuous improvement: a third-party optimisation tool is used to scan and audit the website

 

Formal complaints

For formal complaints, please contact the Accessibility Steering Group via email on accessibility@wilmingtonplc.com or by phone on +44 (0) 20 7490 0049.

 

Formal approval of this accessibility statement

This accessibility statement is approved by:


Victoria Kelly
Managing Director of Mercia Group Ltd

For and on behalf of the Executive Sponsor

Mark Milner

CEO, Wilmington Plc

 

Date

This statement was created on 28 February 2022.

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