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This statement applies to Neston Town Council’s website – neston.org.uk.

This website is run by Neston Town Council and its community content is managed by community volunteers.

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.

We are in the process of creating a new website (this has been delayed due to the Covid19 Epidemic) that is due to be installed by the end of April 2022. Although this statement relates to our current website, we have noted within this document some of the changes that are being incorporated into our new site that will provide an improved user experience.

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

How Accessible The Website Currently Is

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

  • Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
  • Some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard.
  • You cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader on our current site. This facility is, however, being included within the site that is currently under construction.
  • 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:

If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, call or email us https://www.neston.org.uk/contact-us/ 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, email council@nestontowncouncil.org.uk, telephone 0151 336 3840 or write to Council Manager, Neston Town Council, Town Hall, High Street, Neston CH64 9TR. Please give the page title/document if possible.

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 are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Contacting Us By Phone Or In Person

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

If you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Technical Information About This Website’s Accessibility

Neston Town 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 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

Certain finance information (signed audit reports, expenditure records etc) are scanned documents and therefore fail WCAG 2.1 AA success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We are currently investigating options to produce this information in another format which is accessible.

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We plan to add text alternatives for all images on our new website which will be live by 31 October 2020. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden

Navigation and accessing information.

There’s no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option).

It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/952/regulation/4/made.

It is not possible in a limited number of situations for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping.

Interactive tools and transactions.

Some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag.

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. Accessibility testing is integral to the replacement website currently under construction and we aim to install this replacement website by the end of April 2022.

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

PDFs and other documents

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 inaccessible pdfs or other documents:

  • Created by other organisations/authorities
  • Hosted on third party websites
  • Published before 23 September 2018
  • Where their content is available in another format which is accessible
  • Where their content qualifies as archives under the regulations https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/952/regulation/4/made
  • Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

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

What We Are Doing To Improve Accessibility

Neston Town Council is committed to improving accessibility on this website and will do so by working with the community volunteers and IT consultant to identify and resolve accessibility issues. Neston Town Council is in the process of constructing a new website with improved accessibility and aims for the new site to be available by the end of April 2022.

Preparation Of This Accessibility Statement

This statement was prepared on 23 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 19 October 2021.

This current website was last tested in September 2020. The test was carried out by Neston Town Council in conjunction with our IT Consultant by testing sample pages with screen reader software and speech recognition software. We also tested forms for their ease of navigation using a keyboard. We use the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool.

Testing for accessibility is an integral part of the construction process of our replacement website which is due to be launched before the end of April 2022. We will report on testing as part of our accessibility statement produced for this replacement website following this launch.

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