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Accessibility Statement

www.helsbyparishcouncil.gov.uk

This accessibility statement applies to www.helsbyparishcouncil.gov.uk. This website is run by Helsby Parish Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use it. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings
  • zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using a keyboard or 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.

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

How accessible this website is

We know some content uploaded to this website is not fully accessible:

  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams do not have captions
  • 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

Feedback and Contact Information

If you find any problems not listed on this page, you think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements or you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, contact:

  • email clerk@helsbyparishcouncil.gov.uk
  • call 01928 726433
  • write to us or visit us at: Parish Office, Helsby Community Sports Club, Callender Way, Helsby, Cheshire, WA6 0FX

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.

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

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

Helsby 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.

The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.  It is partially compliant, as some content as listed below is non-compliant.

Non accessible content

Some pages may contain attachments which are not currently compliant, such as:

  • Older PDF files such as Meeting Minutes and Agendas published before 23/09/18;
  • Videos;
  • Content produced by third parties or using third party software.

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

We will do all we can to identify content that is non-compliant.

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

We plan to add text alternatives for all images by June 2025. When we publish new content we will make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden

We have not identified any areas that we believe constitute a disproportionate burden.

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

PDFs and other documents

Not all documents on this website are created by us. Some documents and content may be created by third parties or using third party software. Where this is the case we will endeavour, on request, to obtain an accessible copy from the original source or to convey the information contained in the document in an accessible way.

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 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

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 meeting agendas or minutes for meetings which were published prior to 23 September 2018.

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 June 2025, where possible, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

Any new PDFs or Word documents created by us will meet accessibility standards.

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.

It’s not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping.

Interactive Maps (Maps displayed by Google Maps) – we don’t control how Google Maps displays information, but where possible we provide addresses within the web page’s text (via HTML). When Google makes their map output accessible, we will update our technology accordingly

How we tested this website

This website was last tested in December 2024. Tests were carried out by both internal systems and our website provider, Aubergine 262.  The most viewed pages were tested using automated testing tools by our website team. A further audit of the website was carried out to the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

We tested a sample of pages:

  • our main website platform, available at helsbyparishcouncil.gov.uk
  • services based on a different technical platform but ‘skinned’ to look like our website (Meeting minutes and agendas)

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We plan to improve accessibility on this website by addressing non-compliance issues (where possible) by June 2025.

We will provide staff training to ensure that all new content added meets accessibility criteria.

We also run periodic reports to identify and address accessibility issues.

This statement was prepared on 10 October 2024.  It was last updated on 10 October 2024.