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Accessibility Notice

This website is run by Bilbrook 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:

  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • 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.

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

How accessible this website is

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 the text
  • most older PDF documents (before September 2018) are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
  • you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader
  • there’s a limit to how far you can magnify the map on our ‘contact us’ page
  • the Annual Return and the Councillors Pecuniary Interest forms are scanned pdf documents as electronic signatures are not acceptable and therefore do not comply with the Accessibility Regulations 2018. These documents can be provided in an alternative format or on alternative media, on request.

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format, please contact the Parish Clerk to check if this is feasible bearing in mind the Parish Council is small and the Clerk works part-time.

Please note: office opening hours are 10:00 am to Midday Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 30 days.

If you cannot view the map on our ‘home’ page, call or email us for directions.

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 us using the details 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, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

You can contact us as follows:

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Bilbrook 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.

  • Some form elements do not contain a title attribute.
  • Some links do not contain text when used for navigation purposes (e.g. mobile menu uses an icon).
  • PDFs published before the regulations were implemented may not be fully accessible, but are required to be published under the Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities 2015.

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Some links do not contain text: 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (Level A)

We cannot update the source code used by the WordPress template for these issues, however they have been raised with the author for them to be addressed.

Disproportionate burden

There’s 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).

It’s 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).

PDFs and other documents

The following sections of our website contain documents that may not be accessible for all users:

  • Annual governance and accountability return
  • Councillors pecuniary interest form
  • Some PDFs from external organisations which have been added to news articles

These documents can be provided in an alternative format or on alternative media, on request.

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’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2.

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 September 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 minutes and agendas of meetings before this date.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards except the Annual Return and the Councillors Pecuniary Interest forms which must be scanned PDF documents as electronic signatures are not acceptable and therefore do not comply with the Accessibility Regulations 2018. These documents can be provided in an alternative format or on alternative media, on request.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested on 23 April 2021. The test was carried out by the digital team at Staffordshire County Council.

We tested pages of different content types (e.g. landing page, content page, contact page) for accessibility using the WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool by WebAIM.

This statement was prepared on 27 August 2020. It was last updated on 23 April 2021.