Accessibility Statement

We’re committed to making our website accessible so it can be used by as many people as possible. 

This accessibility statement applies to content published within the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust website www.covenantfund.org.uk

Our domain is owned by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust.

We aim to make our website accessible to the widest possible audience. This means, for example, that 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 our website using a keyboard
  • navigate most of our website using speech recognition software
  • listen to most of our website using a screen reader

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have additional access needs.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

To make the Trust website accessible, we:

  • integrate accessibility into all our communications policies and procedures
  • perform internal audits of our website to ensure accessibility compliance
  • ensure our staff and content creation partners are informed of all accessibility guidelines and follow them.
How accessible is our website?

Parts of our website are not fully accessible. For example, we’ve found the following issues on some of our web pages.

  • Some header structure and page IDs are not optimised for screen reader use.
  • Missing or unclear page descriptions.
  • Missing labels in form fields.
  • Non-accessible PDFs (such as those produced by other organisations)
  • Non-optimal image types.
How to request content in an accessible format

If you need information in a different format, please email us at info@covenantfund.org.uk and tell us:

  • the web address (URL) of the content that you need
  • your contact name and email address
  • the type of format you need
  • how you would like us to contact you.

We will then contact you by your preferred means to discuss how we can make the content available in the best format for you.

Applying for a grant

The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust awards grants that make a real difference to Armed Forces communities. We use a grant management system provided by Blackbaud to provide our application form and grant management software. Clicking on our application portal takes you to a third-party site operated by Blackbaud.

If you encounter access challenges in using this third party service to apply for a grant, please contact us at info@covenantfund.org.uk with access request in the subject line. Our team will then get in touch with you to discuss alternative options for applying for a grant which will meet your needs. Please let us know how you would prefer us to communicate with you. We can use phone or email; or a different method. 

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you find any problems that are not listed on this page, or if you think we’re not meeting the accessibility requirements, email us at info@covenantfund.org.uk.

What to do if you are not satisfied by our response

If you contact us with a complaint and you’re not happy with our response, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

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’). 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Trust 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 and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

  • Some header structure and page IDs are not optimised for screen reader use.
  • Some text may spill off the screen when enlarged to 200% or more.
  • There is a lack of alternative text on some images.
  • Missing or unclear page descriptions.
  • Missing or unclear link descriptions.
  • Colour contrast on some link buttons.
  • Missing labels in some form fields.
  • Language is not specified to optimise screen reader use.
  • PDFs are not accessible by screen reader software.

We’re working with our content and development team to identify the above instances, where these issues exist and how to fix them.

Disproportionate burden

We’ve identified the following as disproportionate burden for 2020. We’ll review this yearly.

  • Adding accessibility features to existing media created before 2018.
PDFs and other documents

Many of our existing PDFs and Word and other Office file format documents are essential to providing our services. 

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018, if they’re not essential to providing our services.

Some older information we have is relating to funding programmes which have now closed. If you require a copy of this information in a different format, please e-mail info@covenantfund.org.uk with the words access request in the subject line with details of the content you are trying to access. We will then contact you to discuss the best way of sending you the information in a format that is accessible to you.

Any new PDF, HTML or Office file format documents we publish will aim to meet accessibility standards.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to any live video streams we publish where these are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. However, we intend to identify and implement new technologies that would make this possible, when technology evolves.

 How we tested this website

Our websites were and are currently being tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level A and level AA. The Trust will continue to test and refine our website in accordance with accessibility guidelines and we welcome any user feedback.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

The Trust prepared this statement on 8 September 2020. 

This website is being tested via a combination of accessibility tools throughout September 2020. The testing is being carried out by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust and our content development partner.

We check our sites for accessibility on a regular basis. These tests are carried out by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust and our content development partner via a combination of tools for accessibility.