The Accessibility Statement for the Stalbridge Town Council website

Accessibility report for Stalbridge Town Council website

This report contains the results of an audit of the accessibility of https://www.stalbridgetowncouncil.gov.uk/ after re-working the layout and content of the homepage, nav and associated linked pages of the site up to and including 20th July 2020.

Our Accessibility Statement

Using this website

This website is run and maintained by Stalbridge Town Council. Our aim is to make this website as accessible as possible to all users, regardless of ability, and to that end we aim to make this website as compliant as possible with guidelines and rules laid down by The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 and the guidelines laid out by Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1

Our Aims for this website

Having re-worked the content and structure of the home page and main navigation on this website our aim was and is to make the whole site accessible to all users by:

• ​navigating most of the website using only a keyboard
• navigating the majority of the content of the site using speech recognition software
• being able to listen to most of this website using a popular screen reader
• ensuring that whenever possible all documents linked to from hyperlinks or button links that are available for viewing or download are accessible documents compliant with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 and the guidelines laid out by Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1

Our Accessibility successes as of 20th July 2020

Having re-structured the homepage on the website we have achieved the following after submitting the site for online testing:

• 96% compliance when tested with SiteImprove, the testing site used by Dorset Council regarding accessibility compliance
• 0% structure errors when tested with an online website accessibility checker
• ​0% contrast errors when tested with an online website accessibility checker
• ​0% Alt text errors when tested with an online website accessibility checker

Our Accessibility failures

Technical Issues

There are a few cases where the Web editor we use to create the website will not permit the changes to be made to achieve 100% compliance with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 and the guidelines laid out by Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. The problems we have identified are as follows:

• The "drag and drop" Web editor for this website does not allow us to distinguish between the Desktop Header page Navigation menu and the "hidden unless used" hamburger menu, engaged when a tablet or mobile is used to access the site. This presents as an error when scrutinised by WebAim accessibility checking software
• The default cookies and options pop up at the foot of the site has contrast errors which disappear after engagement, but remain otherwise. This presents as an error when scrutinised by WebAim accessibility checking software
• The contact form layout cannot be altered to enhance the contrast levels of ghosted input help text nested in the form field areas of the contact form. This presents as an error when scrutinised by WebAim accessibility checking software.

Input Issues

Many PDF files accessible from the button link boxes and text links present on the site are not fully accessible to screen reader software. This results in a lower percentage of compliance score when tested in line with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 and the guidelines laid out by Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 resulting in a score of 96%.

Ongoing work on Accessibility Issues

 ​Some of the documents we publish are not fully accessible by a screen reader. These include PDFs and Word documents. Our aims are:

1. to correct these errors by September 2020 where documents made after September 23rd 2018 are not generally accessible.
2. where documents provided to us by other agencies/bodies/individuals do not comply with accessibility guidelines we aim to rewrite these where possible or provide online accessible HTML pages as an alternative.

Please note that current legislation does not require accessibility compliance for office file formats published before 23rd September 2018, unless such content is needed for active administrative processes relating to the tasks performed by the public sector body.

Accessibility Information for users of this website

​​If you find any problems with accessing content on this website or believe that we are not meeting the requirements of current regulations regarding accessibility please  contact the Clerk 

• If you are not happy with how we respond to issues you have raised with us about the accessibility of this website then please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS). The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for ensuring that websites meet current standards of accessibility
• If you find any difficulties when using accessibility tools or assistive technologies you can find helpful advice and tips from the charity Ability Net​ including advice about adjustments you can make to your computer, laptop, tablet or smart phone to make it easier to use

Accessibility Check Results

After implementing changes to the website stalbridgetowncouncil.gov.uk has attained the following results from accessibility checker sites:

• A score of 96% on SiteImprove
• 0% errors on WebAIM (Accessibility In Mind)