Energy Online is committed to making its websites and mobile applications accessible to all, regardless of ability. We understand that some parts of the website/application are not fully accessible and are working towards providing a high standard of accessibility throughout. This page explains how accessible the Power NI website/application is and what’s being done to improve accessibility.

This website/application is run by Power NI Energy Ltd (Power NI) and is designed to be used by as many people as possible. The text should be clear and simple to understand. You should be able to:

• Zoom in up to 300% without any issues
• Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• Use most of the website and app using a screen reader (including ReachDeck toolbar and the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

How accessible is this website?

This website/application is partially compliant with the  Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA and A standard, due to the non-compliances listed below. We continuously run manual and automated accessibility inspections on our site. The last audit was completed in December 2023. As a result, we are working to fix the following issues which fail WCAG 2.2 AA and A criteria. For example:

Some pages have background and foreground colours that do not have sufficient contrast ratio.

• Some links contain no context.
• Some link elements are read in an incorrect order.
• Some buttons and links are skipped by keyboard and not read out by screen readers.
• Most images do not have correct alternative text or the text is similar to adjacent text on the page.
• Some decorative icons are read out by screen readers.
• Desktop is missing ‘Skip navigation’ link.
• Some pages skip a heading level, e.g. use a heading 1 followed by a heading 3 instead of a heading 2.
• Some pages do not have tagged heading elements.
• Some button elements are not visually apparent when using keyboard tabbed functionality.
• Keypad reward calculator cannot be accessed by keyboard or screen reader users.
• The register page has no way for users to get back to log in page.
• Some pages have form labels present but are not correctly associated with a form control.
• Some forms have missing form labels.
• Breadcrumbs on some pages are not read out correctly by screen readers.
• Some labels are not read out correctly in Help & Support.

PDF Documents

All of our bills and letters are published in PDF (Portable Document Format) format. To view these PDFs, they require you to download and install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software. If you cannot access the information in any of the PDFs please contact us. 

Feedback and contact information

We always welcome your feedback to improve the accessibility of this website. Please contact us if you encounter accessibility barriers that are not listed on this and our website team will investigate. In your message please include:

• the web address (URL) of the content
• your email address and name

Non-accessible content

The content that is not accessible is outlined below with details of:

• the accessibility problem(s)
• where it fails the success criteria
• and when Power NI plans to fix it

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations:

1. Some pages including buttons and navigation elements have issues highlighted around colour contrast, which may prevent some users from accessing the content on the site. This is a failure of WCAG 2.2, Level AA1.4.3.
2. Notification icon in navigation contains no text, the function or purpose of the link will not be presented to the user. This is a failure of WCAG 2.2, Level A, 2.4.4.
3. My bills and My letters are read in incorrect reading order by screen readers. This is a failure of WCAG 2.2, Level AA, 1.3.2.
4. Some buttons and links are skipped by keyboard tabbing functionality and not read out by screen readers. This is a failure of WCAG 2.2, Level A, 2.4.4 and 2.1.1.
5. Most images do not have correct alternative text or the text is similar to adjacent text on the page. This is a failure of WCAG 2.2, Level AA. 1.1.1.
6. Some decorative icons are read out by screen readers. This is a failure of WCAG 2.2, Level A, 1.1.1.
7. Desktop is missing ‘Skip navigation’ link. This jumps the user to the beginning of the main content area so they don't have to go through the repetition of the full navigation on every page. This is a failure of WCAG 2.2, Level A, 2.4.1.
8. Some pages skip a heading level, e.g. use a heading 1 followed by a heading 3 instead of a heading 2. This is a failure of WCAG 2.2, Level AA, 1.3.2.
9. Some pages do not have tagged heading elements. The heading should be tagged as h1 or h2 and follow the appropriate hierarchy. This is a failure of WCAG 2.2, Level AA, 2.4.6.
10. Some button elements are not visually apparent when using keyboard tabbed functionality. This is a failure of WCAG 2.2, Level AA, 2.4.7.
11. Keypad reward calculator cannot be accessed by keyboard or screen readers on desktop or app. This is a failure of WCAG 2.2, Level A, 1.3.1, 3.3.2.
12. Register page has no way for users to get back to log in page. This is a failure of WCAG 2.2, Level AA, 2.4.5.
13. Some pages have form labels present but is not correctly associated with a form control. This is a failure of WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA, 1.3.1, 2.4.6.
14. Some forms have missing form labels. This is a failure of WCAG 2.2 Level A, 2.1.1, 4.1.2.
15. Breadcrumbs on some pages are not read out correctly. This is a failure of WCAG 2.2, Level AA, 4.1.2.
16. Some labels are not read out correctly in Help & Support. This is a failure of WCAG, Level AA, 3.1.2.

We plan to repair these pages within the next 12 months, by January 2025.

How we tested this website/application

This website/application was and is currently being tested for compliance using the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 level A and level AA. These tests have been carried out both externally and independently.

Power NI used the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) approach to decide on a sample of pages to test.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Maintaining an accessible site/application is an ongoing process and Power NI is continually working to offer an accessible and user-friendly experience. Power NI plan to identify and fix issues by 1 January 2025, as listed above.

This statement was prepared on 15 January 2024. It was last updated on 15 January 2024.