Accessibility statement for Edington Parish Council

This website is run by Edington Parish Council.

The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 requires public sector bodies, which include local councils, to ensure reasonable adjustments are made to websites so as they are accessible to people with various disabilities. These include:

  • Impaired vision
  • Motor difficulties
  • Cognitive impairments or learning disabilities
  • Deafness or impaired hearing

From 23 September 2020 all local council websites must comply with these regulations.

As Edington Parish Council is only a small council with very limited resources we are required to undertake a basic check on our website using a sample number of pages. A list of the pages sampled can be obtained from the Edington Parish Council by emailing parishcouncil@edingtonwiltshire.org.uk

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)
  • find information contained in difficult to navigate tables within a text block  or other accessible format on the same page

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

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

The page layout and colour scheme are implemented using cascading style sheets (CSS) and can be over-ridden by the user. All text can be enlarged or reduced to suit your preferences using third party software including functions within the Microsoft operating system, and most browser software.

 We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • you may not be able to modify the line height or spacing of some text
  • some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • most of our online forms are accessible to navigate using just a keyboard.

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

email parishcouncil@edingtonwiltshire.org.uk

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 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: parishcouncil@edingtonwiltshire.org.uk

 giving the page title and the nature of the problem.

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

Edington Parish Council 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 2.1 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

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

We plan to add text alternatives for all images when we publish new content and we will make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Some icons used for navigation may not have a text alternative.

Some pages are non-compliant as we are not required to test all pages initially, but we will do so as and when pages are revisited for modification.

Interactive tools and transactions

Some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag.

Our forms are built using pre-coded plugins and are ‘skinned’ to match our website. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (information and relationships).

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when the website is next remodelled.

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

PDFs and other documents

Some of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

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.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested in July 2020. The test was carried out by ourselves

We used this approach to decide on a sample of pages to test with static content, links and pictures

We tested:

  • our main website platform, available at

https://www.eph.edingtonwiltshire.org.uk/

  • our sub sites main pages, available at

https://www.eph.edingtonwiltshire.org.uk/

https://www.devplan.edingtonwiltshire.org.uk/

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

All web pages will be assessed by the guidelines published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), available at www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/

Edington Parish Council requires that:

  • All new web pages should be written to at least AA standard
  • All existing pages should meet at least A standard
  • Pages will be bought up to AA standard as they are periodically revised
  • New content will be written as clearly as possible
  • Legacy content will be re-edited where necessary as it is revised

Helping users to access our website

The following resources will help you modify your own browser and operating system preferences to suit your own needs:

For more information on assistive technology (screen enlargers, screen readers, speech recognition systems, speech synthesizers, refreshable Braille displays, Braille embossers, talking word processors, and large-print) for the visually impaired please visit the RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) website.

The British Dyslexia Association website has information about accessibility issues people with Dyslexia may encounter.

This statement was prepared on 21 July 2020.