1.         Accessibility Statement for Sapperton Parish Council

This statement covers the website run by Sapperton 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 (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

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

Accessibility Help

You can control the look and functionality of this website, depending on your computer settings. Most computers will have accessibility settings you can change including;

·      the way the screen looks (e.g. changing; fonts, sizes, colours, etc)

·      the way the keyboard or mouse works

·      speaking and listening to commands as well as a range of other features.

Your browser will also usually have controls which you can use to enlarge the text on your screen or change the colour scheme.

Viewing documents in ‘web view’ instead of ‘print view’ can fit the information to the screen.

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

 

My Web My Way produced by the BBC is a comprehensive website with accessibility information and useful links.

How accessible this website is

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

·      the text will reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window or view it on a mobile phone

·      Content on main webpages adequately adjusts when magnified to above 200% (WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.4.10)

·      Web pages have titles that describe the topic or purpose (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2)

·      Colour is not used as the only visual means of conveying information, indicating and action, prompting a response or distinguishing a visual element (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1)

·      The visual presentation of text and images has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1, except for text or images of text which are incidental in as much as they form part of a picture that contains significant other visual content, or are purely decoration. Text that is part of a logo or brand name has no contrast requirement.

·      Content can be presented without loss of information or functionality for vertical scrolling content at a width of 320 pixels (WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.10).

·      Except for captions and images of text, text can be resized without loss of content or functionality.

 

However:

·      you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text

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

·      documents such as the Minutes of Parish Council Meetings have to be in PDF format for uploading to our current website but prior to September 2019 were not produced using the accessibility controls available when converting a word document to PDF format. They may not therefore be compatible with some screen readers

·      Images of text do not scale as well as text and may pixelate. It is harder to change background, contrast and colour of the content in images of text which may be necessary for some users.

·      We are unable to provide a mechanism to adjust foreground and background colours in images of text.

·      Some content will not reflow adequately and may require scrolling in two dimensions

·      In future we will supply images of a higher resolution which may help some users however, if low resolution/low contrast colours are needed this may be customisable from within your browser settings

Feedback and contact information

If you cannot access information on this website and would like it in a different format, please contact the Parish Clerk, Babs Maloney.

·      email SappertonFMPC@gmail.com

·      call 01285 760 276

It will be helpful if you can provide the document name or URL of the page where you are encountering issues. We will consider your request and try to respond to you within 5 working 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 are not meeting accessibility requirements, contact the Parish Clerk via the contact details shown above.

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, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

2.         Contacting us by phone

Sapperton Parish Councillors can be contacted by phone. Their contact details are available on the ‘Parish Council’ page of this website.

 

3.         Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Sapperton 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 listed below.

4.         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 are currently adding text alternatives for all images and hope to have completed this by 23 September 2020. When we publish new content, we will make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Older pdf documents e.g. Minutes of Meetings prior to 2020 were not created using the Accessibility options available within Microsoft Word and are therefore unlikely to support assistive technologies. We are currently in the process of updating PDFs and Word documents from 23 September 2018 onwards so that they will be as fully accessible as currently possible.

Disproportionate burden

The Parish Council is making every effort to comply with the Accessibility Regulations in the interest of providing good customer service to all users of our website.

We are committed to endeavouring to meet the criteria in the areas where the website is currently failing, as quickly as possible. If you can help us, we would love to hear from you. Please contact the Clerk on 01285 760 276.

Navigation and accessing information

There is no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option). This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1 (bypass blocks). We are currently updating each webpage to include links at the top of each page to each area of the content.

It is not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.4 (orientation).

It is not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4 (resize text).

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

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they are accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value). We intend to fix those that were published after 23 September 2018 in accordance with the accessibility regulations.

Some of our PDFs are essential to providing information that we are required to publish by law. For example, we have PDFs with information submitted for the Annual Governance and Audit Return.  We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages but in the meantime, these can be provided in an alternative format on request. Please contact the Clerk on the details provided above under heading ‘Feedback and Contact Information’.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential. For example, we do not plan to fix the Agendas and Minutes of Parish Council meetings held before that date.

Any new PDFs we publish will be created from Word documents which meet accessibility standards for contrast, use of colour, reflow, clarity of magnification and include a navigation pane.

Third party content that we did not pay for or develop ourselves, that is under someone else’s control, is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

5.         Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 6 June 2020 and was last reviewed on 14 September 2020. This website was last tested on 14 September 2020.  

The Parish Council put training in place for the Clerk to conduct the testing undertaken to date and further advice and guidance will be sought as we continue to improve the accessibility of this website.

How we tested this website

The estimated cost of a detailed audit of the website is roughly between £1,300 and £4,000 according to information and advice provided on the Gov.UK website 

We are a small Parish with limited income and the cost of such an audit is something that we cannot reasonably afford to pay. We therefore carried out our own testing on the content published on the main pages of the website and conducted the basic checks for accessibility that are within our technical knowledge.

The website is relatively small and as we do not access analytics to determine which pages are most viewed, our approach was to test the pages that carry the most information, images and links.

We tested:

·      our main website platform, available at www.sapfmpc.uk.

·      Reflow of text when website is viewed on a mobile phone,

·      Individual webpages

·      The Parish Council Home page

·      The Financial Information page

·      The ‘posts’ pages

·      The Notice Board

Text and links on the above pages were analysed for contrast using Colour Contrast Analyser (CCA).

 

If you use assistive technology and encounter any problems with accessing information on this website please let us know. We would very much appreciate any assistance you can provide in identifying issues. We will do our best to fix the problem or provide the information in an alternative format where possible. Thank you.