Accessibility Statement

The Northern Ireland Assembly is always working to make this website accessible and easy to use for everyone, no matter what browser you use, and whether or not you have any disabilities. 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

You may find the following links useful in adjusting the settings of the browser that you use to navigate our website more comfortably

Please be aware that when navigating the Research Matters site, we recommend not using the Internet Explorer browser. As this browser now only receives minimal support and updates, much of the functionality of the site is not fully supported by this browser.

For further guidance on adapting your computer to your accessibility needs, visit AbilityNet. Their site shows you how to:

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

How accessible is the website?

We have endeavoured to make the website as accessible as possible however you may encounter sections that are not as easy to navigate as others are.

There is a ‘data visualisation’ section that contains visualisations that present large amounts of information in a visual, easy-to-interpret manner and help illustrate the information in a way that might not be possible with the data alone. Many of the visualisations have been configured using the Microsoft Power BI analytics service. You can find guidance on Power BI’s accessibility features on the Microsoft website. This contains advice on how to use keyboard navigation and screen readers with Power BI as well as general recommendations. However, you may still find difficulty naviagting some of the visualisations. If you experience access issues and would like the information provided in a different format, please contact ResearchPublications@niassembly.gov.uk and we will do our best to facilitate your request.
Some pages may have poor colour contrast.
There may be some issues tabbing through the website with your keyboard. If you experience any difficulty, please let us know and we will look to address the issue.
Some images may not contain Alt Text.

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format:

Email: ResearchPublications@niassembly.gov.uk

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

Maintaining an accessible site is an ongoing process and the Assembly Web Team welcomes any feedback that will help us improve accessibility on the website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please email info@niassembly.gov.uk or call 028 9052 1137.

Enforcement procedure

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.

Visiting Parliament Buildings

If you would like to visit the building, please view our accessibility information to find out the arrangements and facilities that we offer.

You can also view our virtual tour. Our virtual tour videos come with subtitles and there are also British Sign Language and Irish Sign Language versions.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

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

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 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

You may experience difficulty navigating some of our interactive data visualisations. Some interactive elements fail WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.5 (images of text).

Some of the images in our posts do not contain appropriate Alt Text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-text Content.

Some of our PDFs and other document formats may not have been tested and remediated for accessibility.

Navigation and accessing information

When navigating the website with a keyboard, it is possible to skip repeated content in the page header and links will be highlighted as you tab through them. We have also taken steps to avoid keyboard ‘traps’. Content should still be accessible whether viewed in horizontal or vertical orientation and no matter how large the text size.

If you have any difficulty in navigating the site or accessing content, please get in touch and we will consider the issue and provide the content in an alternative format where possible.

How we tested this website

This website, assemblyresearchmatters.org, was redeveloped with accessibility in mind and relaunched in September 2024.

Elements and pages were tested with online accessibility audit tools during the redesign phase. Care was taken to meet accessibility issues flagged by the automated tools and via other manual checks.

However the site was not tested with any assistive technologies and therefore there may be sections of the site which may prove difficult to access or navigate. If you do experience any of these issues, please get in touch.

This accessibility statement applies only to the assemblyresearchmatters.org microsite and not our main website, niassembly.gov.uk, or any of our other microsites.

This statement was last updated on 15 November 2024.