Updated 1st February 2021
This accessibility statement applies to the Sibson cum Stibbington Parish Council website.
Note this accessibility statement has been prepared using the basis of the Guidance from the UK Government (which is referred to by the NALC guidelines) The guidelines can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sample-accessibility-statement/sample-accessibility-statement-for-a-fictional-public-sector-website
This website is run by Sibson cum Stibbington 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 using the browser features
- 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 made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
If you have a disability AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use.
How accessible is this website?
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
- Some documents have been loaded as images and as such are inaccessble to a screen reader. Most older PDF documents (pre-2018) are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
- The online contact form can be navigated using just a keyboard, but may omit some accessibility information.
- There may be a limit to how far you can magnify the map on our ‘front’ page
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, please Email the Parish Council’s Clerk (see form below). We will consider your request and get back to you in 30 days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We are 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: the Parish Clerk and the webmaster.
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
To contact us Email the Parish Council’s Clerk (see form below).
Coming to Parish Council meetings:
You are welcome at Parish Council meetings. If you have a particular access issue, please email Parish Clerk and they will ensure the issue is addressed.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Sibson cum Stibbington 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 documents have been scanned and loaded as images. As of 1st February 2021, these do not have a text alternative. This means people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.
Council documents created as a pdf before 2018 are likely to be inaccessible to some readers.
The Parish Council Minutes and Agendas have been loaded as word documents. Whilst the links to these documents name the document, they do not explain that the link will open a separate word document.
There are minor accessibility issue with the contact form and the cookie buttons.
Disproportionate burden
The Accessibility tests showed up a small number of issues associated with the underlying theme of the website and the components used to construct the website. We have 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 supplier contract is up for renewal, likely to be in 3 years timing.
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 PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By April 2021, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible pdfs or 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 [example of non-essential document].
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
This is our accessibility ‘road map’:
- Change underlying theme to improve overall accessibility. Rerun detailed accessbility tests. correct any accessibility issues (Jan 2021) Completed.
To be completed
- Documents loaded as scanned images: Update scanned image descriptions so that all contain Alt image descriptions (Target: end April 2021)
- Essential pdfs: identify and revise these so they are accessible (Target: end April 2021)
- Minor issues: Review minor issues with components to see if suppliers have addressed issues (Dec 2021)
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was initially prepared as aprt of an accessibility review in 6th June 2020. The website was upgraded and the accessibility and accessibility statement were last reviewed at the end of Jan 2021. This website was last tested on 30th Jan 2021. The tests were carried out by the webmaster on behalf of the Parish Council. Following that review the website was substantially improved and updated to implement accessibility improvements. These were implemented in by 1st February 2021.
We used this approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test:
- Make sure that the front page was accessible, as that links to the most recent Parish Council notices, publications and village news.
- Identify the most visited pages underneath the main page
- Check the accessibility of the posts about minutes and agendas on the basis that these are most commonly accessed.
- As this website is one of a set of website with common tools, design, and components, the tests were run on one version and any issues found repaired on all of the set. This ensures compliance across the suite of websites. Confirmatory tests were conducted at the end to ensure nothing was missed.
The following tests were conducted. To assess compliance with https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ a number of web accessibility tools and tests were run. Four web accessibility tools that evaluate the underlying code and design.
- Wave Web Accessibility evaluation tool https://wave.webaim.org/
- Web accessibility by Level Access https://webaccessibility.com/
- Accessibility Insights for Web https://accessibilityinsights.io (An extension to the chrome browser), run as both
- Overview automated tests, and
- Detailed tests applicable to website
- Total Colorblind Web Page Filter https://www.toptal.com/designers/colorfilter
The website was also tested on multiple browsers
- For PC: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge
- For Mobile; Android and Apple devices
The accessibility test reports can be obtained on request.