Accessibility Statement

Using this website

This website is run by Buckland Newton Parish Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 mean 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 websites using just a keyboard • navigate most of the websites using speech recognition software • listen to most of the websites using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver) We have 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. • the text will not reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window • content is not fully usable when text only is enlarged to 200% • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text • some older PDF documents may not be fully accessible to screen reader software The accessibility audit began on 25th October 2019.  

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF or large print, please contact us and we will consider your request and get back to you.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or think we are not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations please contact us. 

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing 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

Find out how to contact us

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Buckland Newton 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

Other than those detailed under Disproportionate Burden (below), no issues have been identified 

Disproportionate burden

Navigation and accessing information

Principle 1 – Perceivable (information and user interface components must be presentable to users in

ways they can perceive)

• Users can only flip the content horizontally and vertically on mobile or tablet devices (this fails WCAG 2.1 AA 1.3.4). As the screen on a desktop computer is generally fixed in a landscape form and the website content can already be enlarged up to 200% without loss of information, this is not an issue that we believe needs addressing in respect of desktop devices and to provide a ‘flip’ option for landscape-only devices would represent a disproportionate burden  within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.   • Users cannot modify the line height or spacing of text (this fails WCAG 2.1 AA 1.4.12). The web-authoring software currently used does not allow the User to modify the line height or spacing of text.  To provide this functionality would require the purchase of replacement web-authoring software and complete rewriting of the websites.  In view of the size of the population covered by the Parish of some 600 persons (the principal users of the websites) and the Parish Council’s limited funds, rewriting the websites would represent a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

Principle 2 – Operable (user interface components and navigation must be operable)

• The websites cannot be operated using only the keyboard.  A mouse or other pointing device is required for operability.   (this fails WCAG 2.1 A 2.1.1 – 2.1.4 success criteria). The web-authoring software currently used does not allow for navigation solely by use of the keyboard.  To provide this functionality would require the purchase of replacement web-authoring software and complete rewriting of the website.  It is however possible to navigate using only the keyboard on Windows-based devices by using the Settings/Ease of Access menu to allow the numeric keypad to move the mouse cursor.  In view of the size of the population covered by the Parish and the Parish Council’s limited funds, rewriting the website would represent a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.  • 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). Typically this would be JPEG images of some official documents.  Presentation of these documents in HTML format would not be practical as the format of the documents involved is on an official form.  In view of the size of the population covered by the Parish and the Parish Council’s limited funds, accommodating this requirement would represent a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.   • Content is not fully usable when text only is enlarged to 200% (text overlaps graphics and pictures).  (this fails WCAG 2.1 AA 1.3.4 success criterion). It is possible to enlarge all elements (not just the text) by 200%, which does not cause any overlaps of text and graphics and the whole width of the web page remains visible on the user’s screen.  However, enlargement of text only by 200% or more results in overlapping of text and graphics and pictures.  Again, to provide this functionality would require the purchase of replacement web-authoring software and complete rewriting of the website.  In view of the size of the population covered by the Parish and the Parish Council’s limited funds, it would represent a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.   • Text reflow:  When enlarged more than 200%, text does not reflow - i.e., it is not presented in one column so that scrolling in more than one direction is necessary.  (this fails WCAG 2.1 AA 1.4.10 success criterion). Again, to provide this functionality would require the purchase of replacement web-authoring software and complete rewriting of the website.  In view of the size of the population covered by the Parish and the Parish Council’s limited funds, it would represent a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.   

Interactive tools and transactions

We do not currently have any interactive forms or transactions on our website.

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Some of our website’s content is in the form of  PDF files (Portable Document Format) and Word documents.  For example, we have PDFs with information such as Minutes, some of which do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be marked up so they are accessible to a screen reader. In a number of cases, particularly accounts some legal documents, it would not be practical to replace these by HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) pages, due to formatting issues.  To do so would represent a disproportionate burden on the Parish Council’s resources.  However, NVDA Screen Reader software, producing audio output (free download from www.nvaccess.org ) has been successfully tested under Windows 10 and will read PDF files.  We have also tested Voice Assistant which will successfully read PDF files on Android-based Samsung tablets.  Therefore we do not plan to fix these. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will, as far as we know, meet accessibility standards.    If you are using a Mac or iOS device, you will need to use the built-in VoiceOver screen reader. The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 and we do not plan to fix such documents.

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

Our accessibility roadmap is still under construction but when finished it will show how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 12th September 2020.  It was last reviewed on 15th September 2020.

How we tested this website

The Parish Council’s website designer tests and monitors the website’s accessibility on an ongoing basis. We tested our main website platform, at https://www.bucklandnewtonparishcouncil.org.uk and this linked sub- domain at https://www.bucklandnewtonparishcouncil.org.uk/BN Community Plan/bncommunityplan.htm • This website was last tested on 15th September 2020. The test was carried out by Buckland Newton Parish Council’s website designer. We used this approach to deciding on which pages to test: • All pages were tested • All text was checked to ensure that no unclear or ambiguous links such as ‘click here’ were present.  Where such ambiguity was found, the link text was amended to make the target of the link explicit • All links were checked for correct operation.  Additional navigation bars were added to the bottom of each page so that users did not have to scroll back to the top of the page to find the main navigation bar.  The text in navigation bars and menus was checked for unambiguity.  An additional Site Map page was added.  An additional ‘skip to main text’ link at the top of all pages was checked to ensure that ‘focus’ changed to the start of the main text on each page; this was to avoid unnecessary repetition of recurring material when accessing the website with a voice-output screen reader • All pages were checked for ambiguous abbreviations or mnemonics and changed to include the full text of the abbreviation or mnemonic • Photographs and similar images were checked to ensure that a text pop-up description appeared when the image was clicked, to ensure that screen readers could provide an audio description.  Linked JPEG images such as Land Registry documents do not have pop-up descriptions but the menus or navigation bars from which they are accessed have descriptive text names • The website was checked for operation with voice-output screen readers.  NVDA Screen Reader software, producing audio output (free download from www.nvaccess.org ) was successfully tested under Windows 10, and will also read PDF files.  Voice Assistant was tested on Android-based Samsung tablets.  Mac and iOS devices have not been checked with these websites and will need to use the built-in VoiceOver screen reader. Approved by Buckland Newton Parish Council at their meeting on 29th September 2020 The following documents are associated with this Accessibility Statement: Accessibility Audit and Disproportionate Burden Assessment