Accessibility

Accessability Statement for Castle Point Borough Council website

This accessibility statement applies to the www.castlepoint.gov.uk website which has been developed for and is managed by Castle Point Borough 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
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and Voiceover)

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

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

What to do if you can't access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, you can:

We’ll consider your request and respond back to you in ten working days

How accessible this website is

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

  • We have a small number of embedded videos on our site. Some of these do not have captions
  • Some of the images on our site do not display appropriate alt text
  • Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
    • PDF documents are not correctly titled
    • PDF documents do not contain a page language
  • Page heading do not fall within a content section.
  • The scrolling banner on the leisure page does not have text equivalent content.

 

Feedback and contact information

 

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: Richard Macaskill at rmacaskill@castlepoint.gov.uk, alternatively, you can leave us some Website Feedback

All pages have a rate this page feature, this will better ebable editors to link comments with specific pages that may have a issue. 

 

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).

 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Castle Point Borough Council is committed to making our website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

How we tested this website

We tested this website using the automated testing tools on SiteImprove, which reports its findings to us every week.

SiteImprove checks across the whole of our site on a regular basis and reports on:

  • pages that conform to WCAG A, AA or AAA standards 
  • issues with CSS validation
  • issues with HTML validation
  • PDF accessibility including problems with tagging, language definition, headings and labels

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.

Issues with technology

  • Many of our older PDFs don't meet accessibility standards. For example, they may not be marked up so they are accessible to a screen reader.
  • We have taken care to make sure our PDFs are not essential to providing our services such as making sure the information contained in them is provided in another way.
  • We understand that the 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. 
  • We aim to ensure that any new PDFs or Word documents we publish from 23 September 2020 onwards will meet the accessibility standards.

 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 29/09/2020. This statement was last reviewed on 30 September 2021.

We continuously monitor our website’s accessibility unsing on automated testing tools. We have developed, and stringently follow, a style guide to ensure all our content is easy to read and is written in an accessible way.

We are working with suppliers to resolve any identified accessibility issues where we do not have direct control over their product.

 

Additional Assistance

British Computer Association of the Blind have a number of links to software solutions for the visually impaired.

Free screen readers

  • The Thunder Screen Reader talking software is compatible with XP or later and will be immediately usable by someone who can't see to read the screen. You will have a talking computer which will speak as you press keys and read out to you what is on the screen.

  • NV Access Empower lives through non-visual access technology

  • SoundlinksSpecialists in audio and speech access.