Accessibility Statement for Shadwell Parish Council

This accessibility statement applies to the public website of Shadwell Parish Council at https://www.shadwell-parish-council.org.

This website is run by Shadwell Parish 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
  • 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’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 parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text directly from the site, but most modern client platforms have global functionality for this.
  • Some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
  • You cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format:

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

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 clerk using any of the methods in the previous section.

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

Shadwell 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.

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

  • The previous version of the Parish Council’s Standing Orders were non-compliant. This has now been corrected.

Disproportionate burden

  • The Shadwell – Holywell Triangle Area Appraisal and Management Plan PDF document has text with poor contrast. Any similar documents in future will have better text contrast.
  • The Annual Return PDF documents have scanned images of text that are inaccessible to screen readers. Future annual returns will be presented in a more accessible format.
  • Some PDF documents are mostly accessible but have the Parish Council logo image without alternative text. Future documents will be prepared with alternative text.
  • There is no way to skip the content repeated on every page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option).
  • If assistive technologies turn style sheets off, then the entire header is repeated, including the menu.
  • Links to external sites are marked with an indicator that is a background image, which is usually ignored by screen readers and therefore not accessible.
  • The logo and the title in the header are adjacent items with the same link to the home page. A single link would be better, but this is minor and difficult to address.
  • The home page link in the page footer has redundant title text, but this is minor and difficult to address.
  • Some pages have skipped heading levels, but this is minor and difficult to address.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will reconsider all these issues whenever accessibility is re-reviewed.

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

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.

  • The Code of Conduct PDF document has page footnotes, which are difficult for screen readers to deal with. Any future version will have report endnotes instead.
  • The Autumn 2016 Newsletter PDF document has images without alternative text. Any future newsletters will be prepared with alternative text.

Maps are also exempt (unless they are designed for navigation to a location).

  • The Shadwell Parish Boundary map is not accessible, but a textual description of the boundary will be considered.
  • The Speed Regulation map is not accessible but is a reproduction of a Leeds City Council Highways and Transportation document.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Guidance has been produced to help site contributors provide accessible content.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 29/07/2020. It was last reviewed on 29/07/2020.

This website was last tested on 28/07/2020. The test was carried out by Simon Dobson on behalf of Shadwell Parish Council.

Testing was carried out on all the static pages on the site, together with representative recent posts and representative lists of agendas and minutes.