Accessibility Statement

Rowsley Parish Council Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to www.rowsleyparishcouncil.co.uk.

The website is run by Rowsley Parish Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, this means you should be able to:

  • Modify the text size
  • View content in high contrast colours
  • Skip to the main content using a screen reader
  • Zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • Navigate the majority of website using just a keyboard
  • Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
  • Listen to most of the website using a screen reader

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

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible to all users. For example:

  • The agendas and minutes of past meetings are currently presented in a table.  Screen readers may find accessing this information difficult
  • Some of functionality within the Google Calendar on the calendar page may not be available to keyboard and screen reader users
  • Some functionality with Google Maps used on the Parish Council Meetings and Contact Page my not be available to keyboard and screen reader users
  • The older PDF documents may not be fully accessible to screen reader software

Feedback and contact information

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

email: rowsleyparishcouncil@gmail.com  

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


If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, email the Parish Clerk rowsleyparishcouncil@gmail.com 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 the Parish Clerk, rowsleyparishcouncil@gmail.com

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

Rowsley 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 was 99% compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard when tested. Where the website is not compliant is due to ‘exemptions’ listed below.

  • Word documents and PDFs of the Parish Council’s documentation.

The following statement has now been added to those pages where word documents and PDF downloads are available.

“If you find that you are having difficulty reading or accessing any of the resources in the formats they are currently in, you can order copies that are more accessible by emailing rowsleyparishcouncil@gmail.com . Please make sure you state your preferred accessible format and which resource it is you would like to receive and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible, and within 30 days.

If you are unsure of your preferred accessible format, please add details of what you need to do with the document in you correspondence.”

Non-accessible content

New documents that are published, and documents you may need to download or fill in to access one of the services we provide, should be accessible.

We know that some of our older documents (published before 23 September 2018) are not accessible. For example, some of them:

  • are not tagged properly – for example, they do not contain heading structure
  • are not written in plain English
  • are online forms that are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
  • contain images without a textual description
  • include complex tables
  • are forms which have guidance in a separate PDF to help completion

This mostly applies to these document types:

  • consultations and their supporting documents
  • research and analysis reports
  • statutory guidance
  • forms
  • statistics

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Other than the above exemptions the website appears fully compliant.

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

PDFs and other documents

We use PDF documents for Parish Council agendas, minutes and other documents. By December 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 meeting minutes from before September 2018.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Interactive tools

The website uses the following third party software:

  • Google Calendar  – used to display meeting dates and events
  • Google Maps – to show the location of Rowsley Village Hall

These may be difficult to navigate using a keyboard and for screen readers to read. For example, some of the links within Google Calendar open a new browser window. As such keyboard users would need to navigate back to the Parish Council website using CTRL+SHIFT+TAB.

Alternatives to accessing the information contained within these interactive tools are provided on the website.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We will ensure that PDF or Word document is natively accessible. Additionally, we will inform the user that the link will open a PDF or Word document. Because PDF and Word documents have limitations in accessibility and require a separate program, we will aim to use HTML content in place of or in addition to PDF or Word documents. We aim to do this by Jan 2021.

Parish council meeting agendas and minutes are presented in a table. Some screen readers and keyboard users may find accessing and downloading the content within the table problematic. We will review this periodically, and if necessary present this content differently to ensure all users can readily access the content.

We will continue to monitor the use of third party software (Google Calendar and Google Maps), and will look at alternatives should these applications create barriers to users accessing information on the website.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 4th October 2020.

This website was last tested on September 18th 2020. The test was carried out by S. Cordingley on behalf of the Rowsley Parish Council.

Google Chrome’s Accessibility Insights for Web was used to complete the evaluation. The following page was tested, being representative of the whole site.

You can read the full accessibility test report here: Accessibility Evaluation Report (opens/downloads PDF).

Accessibility

If you find that you are having difficulty reading or accessing any of the resources in the formats they are currently in, you can order copies that are more accessible by emailing rowsleyparishcouncil@gmail.com . Please make sure you state your preferred accessible format and which resource it is you would like to receive and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible, and within 30 days.

If you are unsure of your preferred accessible format, please add details of what you need to do with the document in you correspondence.