Accessibility statement for Vale of Allen Parish Council website

This accessibility statement applies to https://valeofallen-pc.gov.uk

This website is run by Vale of Allen Parish Council. 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

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

We have been successful in making the following changes to make our website more accessible:

  • Adding a contrast button so you can change the colour contrast of the website. We’ve also changed some colour elements on the website to ensure colours contrast more effectively
  • Adding a zoom button to quickly increase the size of the text of the website. We have also made sure that when using other means of increasing the size of text (e.g. using your browser) the text also continues to display the website correctly
  • Ensuring that the website content, menus and other parts of the website can be navigated using a keyboard
  • Ensuring the structure of the website can be easily navigated by other means such as screen readers and voice controls
  • Removing a function which opened some links in new windows to avoid navigation confusion
  • Improved link focus

However, we know some parts of this website are not yet fully accessible:

  • You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Some images on latest news updates do not yet have alternative text / captions
  • Some links to PDF documents require appropriate labelling
  • Where we have used an embedded PDF reader, the PDFs displayed are not accessible, and where this occurs we are yet to make alternative PDF downloads available for all instances

Feedback and contact information

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

  • email the Parish Clerk at voapc@outlook.com
  • call the Parish Clerk on 01258 840634
  • or write to Vale of Allen Parish Council, The Willows, Gussage St Michael, Wimborne, Dorset BH21 5HX

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 10 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, email the Parish Clerk at voapc@outlook.com, or call the Parish Clerk on 01258 840634, or write to Vale of Allen Parish Council, The Willows, Gussage St Michael, Wimborne, Dorset BH21 5HX

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).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

We do not have an office with public access which you can visit in person. Consequently, please contact us by either of the following means

  • email the Parish Clerk at voapc@outlook.com
  • or call the Parish Clerk on 01258 840634

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Vale of Allen 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.

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.

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 by the end of 2020. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Some of our PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software. Those within scope of the Accessibility regulations will be replaced by accessible PDF documents by the end of 2020.

Most links to PDF documents do not yet have appropriate labelling to say so. Those on pages / relating to documents which are within scope of the Accessibility regulations will be labelled by end of 2020.

Some pages include tables which are not fully accessible. Those on pages / relating to documents which are within scope of the Accessibility regulations will be labelled by end of 2020.

The extent of accessibility problems which may be presented by the website’s embedded PDF reader are still being explored. It is intended to provide alternative PDFs to download by end of 2020.

Disproportionate burden

Line height and spacing

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with providing functionality allowing the user to change line height and spacing. 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 supplier contract is due for renewal.

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

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDF Agendas and Meeting Minutes. By the end of 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

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. For example, we do not plan to fix past news updates and other content where PDFs have been used that were published before 23rd September 2018.

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

Live video

We do not currently provide any live video streams.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23rd September 2020.

This website was last tested on 22nd September 2020. The test was carried out by Mark Gracey of Flavourfy Digital on behalf of the Parish Council.

Our approach to determining the accessibility was based on the common parts of the website and where page layouts varied.