Accessibility Policy

Accessibility Statement for Stapleford Parish Council Website

This accessibility statement applies to www.staplefordwiltspc.org.uk

Stapleford Parish Council is committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability.

This website is run on behalf of the Parish Council of Stapleford. 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)

• We’ve also tried to make the website text as simple as possible to understand.

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

• Advice for Microsoft users and for people using the Microsoft Edge browser

• Advice for Apple users

• Advice for people using the Google Chrome browser

For more information on assistive technology (screen enlargers, screen readers, speech recognition systems, speech synthesizers, refreshable Braille displays, Braille embossers, talking word processors, 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. 

AbilityNet and the BBC have advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

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

• the text will not reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window

• you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text

• most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software

• you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, Microsoft Word document or hard copy:

• email staplefordpcclerk@gmail.com 

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: 

• email staplefordpcclerk@gmail.com 

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

Stapleford 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 (WCAG) version 2.1 AA standard, due to [insert one of the following: ‘the non-compliances’, ‘the exemptions’ or ‘the non-compliances and exemptions’] listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Which of the WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria the problem fails on:

• In some documents (mainly those in the Archive of Parish Council Minutes/Agendas) the font size is less than 12pt.

• Also in older documents, some text is underlined which users may mistake for a web link.

• Some items in bold text may not display correctly when using assistive technology.

• On some pages, the contrast between the colour of text and its background for the element is not sufficient to meet WCAG2.1 Level AA.

We plan to fix these elements by September 2020 save those which are deemed a disproportionate burden.

Disproportionate burden

• We believe that to make archived documents fully compliant would be a disproportionate burden. Documents in archive can be provided in accessible format on request.

• For the benefit of the majority of our parishioners, we occasionally include copies of (or links to) documents from external sources that contain relevant information. We do not assess or edit these externally supplied documents to ensure full accessibility. To do so would be a disproportionate burden. 

Navigation and accessing information

• There’s no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option).

• It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.

• It’s not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping.

Interactive tools and transactions

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 in 2021.

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

PDFs and other documents

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 we publish will meet accessibility standards.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

All future pages/documents/photos published will be double checked to ensure compliance with WCAG2.1

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 2nd September 2020. It will be reviewed  as appropriate.

The whole website was tested on 2 September 2020 using PowerMapper SortSite.