Website Accessibility Statement for Bideford Town Council
This website is run by Bideford Town 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
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- 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 have also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
AbilityNet has advice and information on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
Bideford Town Council is committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability.
How Accessible is this website
Things that work well
We have tested our website, and to our knowledge the website works well with:
- Skipping to the main content with the Visible Skip Link when using a screen reader
- Changing background and text colours – using High Contrast plug-ins
- Magnification and zooming with reflow to 300%
- Using with Text to speech
- Consistent heading structure
- Alternative Text on images
We know that some parts of the website may not be fully accessible
- most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
This site is available in three versions which duplicate all textual information:
- Large screen / desktop site, includes graphics and photos. Some pages may require scrolling high zoom.
- Small screen /mobile site, formatted to display on a smaller screen in portrait or landscape format
- Text only site, no graphics, no photos or text formatting. Text fonts, size and background contrast may be adjusted by user browser controls.
What to do if you cannot access parts of this website
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, a printed form for example:
- email info@bideford-tc.gov.uk
- call 01237 428818
- use our contact page
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 7 working days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or you think we not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact the Town Clerk by email or by calling 01237 428938
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 contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Bideford Town 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 on the website pages may not have a text alternative, so the information on them may not be available to people using a screen reader. See WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our use of images meet accessibility standards.
- We plan to add text alternatives for all images during 2024.
Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
Some of our older PDF and Word documents may not need accessibility standards – for example, they may be structured so they’re accessible to a screen read. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value)
Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we may have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. During 2024, we plan to either replace them with accessible documents or accessible HTML pages.
Any new PDFs we publish will meet accessibility standards, except where these are supplied by other organisations over which we have no control. Documents that are supplied to us by other organisations (third party) will not be edited to make them accessible.
The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other document published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.
What we are doing to improve accessibility
Issues with PDFs and other documents
We are aware that some of documents may not be accessible. We are actively working to avoid this. Some of these documents have minimum views; therefore we believe they are not negatively impacting users with disabilities or impairments. For this reason, we do not believe the cost of time, effort and resource to fix all the documents is justified.
We will focus on fixing the most viewed documents, ensuring that new documents are accessible where they are required for essential services.
We want as many people as possible to be able to access our website. We have provided in-house training for Council administration operators to be able to actively and progressively be able to make the necessary changes to reduce barriers for users, on an on-going basis. We will be reviewing this statement annually as expertise and awareness improves.
How we tested this website
This website was last tested on 10 July 2024. The test was carried out by Zonkey Solutions Ltd.
We tested representative templates using ChromeVox screen reader and ace and WAVE ally tools.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 18 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 14 June 2024.
Bideford Town Council shall be responsible for reviewing this statement annually to ensure that it meets legal requirements and reflects best practice.
