Buckland Newton Parish Council Accessibility Audit

Checklist for compliance with the Accessibility Regulations (from gov.uk website)

This Accessibility Audit was commenced on 27th September 2019. It was last updated on 16th September 2020. It was carried out by the Parish Council’s volunteer website designer/ maintainer. The checklist specifies that: “To meet WCAG 2.1 to level AA you must be able to answer YES or Not Applicable to all of the following questions. Answering NO means that you are not meeting WCAG and your content will have barriers that will prevent some users, especially disabled users and older people from accessing it.”

Perceivable

• Do all images have an appropriate text equivalent? Is essential visual information also available as text? Rights of Way / Footpath Maps and Village Maps have no text equivalents; The Parish Plan and Neighbourhood Plan have a large number of images with no or limited text explanation that would satisfy accessibility needs. (Disproportionate Burden) • Do all audio files have a transcript? Is essential audio information available as text? N/A • Do all videos have captions that are synchronised with the audio? N/A • Does video that includes important visual information have an audio description? N/A • Is all content structure that is communicated visually available to assistive technologies? In part; screen readers (either inbuilt or freely available) should be capable of communicating the content structure • If styling is removed is the content in a logical order? N/A, styling cannot be removed by Users. (Disproportionate Burden) • Have you avoided using visual characteristics to communicate information? Yes • Have you avoided using colour as the only way to convey some information? Yes • Can users stop audio that auto plays? N/A • Does all text have sufficient contrast against the background colour? No, some pages require adjustment • Is the content fully usable when text is enlarged up to 200%? Yes • Have you avoided using images of text? Some documents such as official accounting forms and Land Registry documents are JPEG graphical images – no alternative possible. (Disproportionate Burden) • Can users flip the content horizontally and vertically? This is dependent on the device being used – tablets/smartphones can flip, most desktop/laptops cannot. (Disproportionate Burden) • Have you added HTML autocomplete tokens to any forms collecting information about the user? N/A • Does the page content resize to a single column with no horizontal and vertical scrolling? No • Do all important graphical objects, interface components, and states have a colour contrast of 3:1? Yes, subject to not being able to measure this quantitively • Can line height, spacing between paragraphs and letter and word spacing be changed without breaking anything? No • Where extra content is shown or hidden on focus, can it be dismissed, interacted with (and not disappear when the user moves to it) and will stay visible until dismissed by the user? No; dropdown menus will disappear when mouse is moved away. (Disproportionate Burden)

Operable

• Can all menus, links, buttons, and other controls be operated by keyboard? Yes, requires User to use numeric keyboard in mouse mode • Do pages that have time limits include mechanisms for adjusting those limits? N/A • Can any content that moves or auto updates be stopped? N/A • Have you avoided using content that flashes or flickers? Yes • Can blocks of links and other interactive elements be bypassed by keyboard users? Yes • Does each page have a unique title that indicates its purpose and context? Yes • When using a keyboard to move through a page does the order make sense? Not always • Is the purpose of every link clear from its link text? Yes • Does the website have two or more ways of finding content, such as a navigation menu, search feature, or site map? Yes • Are headings and labels clear and descriptive? Yes • When using a keyboard to move through a page can you tell where you are? See above re keyboard operation • Do you have shortcuts triggered by only one letter or character? If so can they be turned off or remapped by the user? No • Does some of your site functionality need several fingers or complex gestures to operate it? No If so, can the same functionality be used with just single taps or clicks? • Does some of your site functionality work using a single point (e.g fingertip)? If so, have you ensured it doesn’t get triggered the moment it is touched? Possibly on touchscreen / touchpad. (Disproportionate Burden) • On forms and other components is the accessible name or label the same as any on-screen text? Yes • Does your site respond to motion or movement? If so, can responding to motion or movement be disabled, and your site still be fully usable? N/A  

Understandable

• Has the language of the web page or document (or individual parts of a multilingual document) been defined? Yes, English only • Have you avoided links, controls, or form fields that automatically trigger a change in context? Yes • Does the website include consistent navigation? Yes • Are features with the same functionality labelled consistently? Yes • Do forms provide helpful, understandable error and verification messages? N/A

Robust

• Is the web page coded using valid HTML? Yes, as far as is known; web-authoring software is WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) – No HTML visible. (Disproportionate Burden) • Do all interactive components have an accessible name and role, and when required state? Has the correct ARIA markup been used and does it validate? Unknown, see above. (Disproportionate Burden) • Are status messages and updates given appropriate roles that can be understood by AT (Assistive Technologies), without receiving focus? N/A In summary, the existing BN Parish Council Website meets a lot of the requirements for accessibility. The Checklist above fulfils most of the Accessibility Audit requirement and identifies the areas where the website is non-compliant. Some areas would be difficult or impossible to fix and to do so can be argued as a ‘disproportionate burden’.

Buckland Newton Parish Council Disproportionate

Burden Assessment

This Disproportionate Burden Assessment was prepared on 16th September 2020 as part of preparing the Parish Council’s Accessibility Statement. It was carried out by the Parish Council’s volunteer website designer/ maintainer. In carrying out the Accessibility Audit and preparation of the Accessibility Statement, a number of points have been identified as not meeting the requirements of “The Public Sector Bodies (Website and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations” (WCAG 2.1). In carrying out this Assessment, the following have been considered: • the burden that making those things accessible places on Buckland Newton Parish Council • the benefits of making those things accessible • the Parish Council’s size and resources • the nature of the Parish Council’s work (for example, are there services aimed at people who are likely to have a disability?) • how much making things accessible would cost and the impact that would have on the Parish Council • how much users with a disability would benefit from making the website(s) fully accessible In making the Assessment, the checklist for compliance with the Accessibility Regulations (from gov.uk website) has been used as a basis for areas where the websites may not meet the WCAG 2.1 regulations. The following areas were identified: • Do all images have an appropriate text equivalent? Is essential visual information also available as text? Rights of Way / Footpath Maps and Village Maps have no text equivalents; The Parish Plan and Neighbourhood Plan have a large number of images with no or limited text explanation that would satisfy accessibility needs. • If styling is removed is the content in a logical order? Styling cannot be removed by Users. • Have you avoided using images of text? Some documents such as official accounting forms and Land Registry documents are JPEG graphical images – no alternative possible. • Where extra content is shown or hidden on focus, can it be dismissed, interacted with (and not disappear when the user moves to it) and will stay visible until dismissed by the user? No; dropdown menus will disappear when mouse is moved away. • When using a keyboard to move through a page does the order make sense? Not always • When using a keyboard to move through a page can you tell where you are? Not always • Does some of your site functionality work using a single point (e.g fingertip)? If so, have you ensured it doesn’t get triggered the moment it is touched? Possibly on touchscreen / touchpad. • Does your site respond to motion or movement? No If so, can responding to motion or movement be disabled, and your site still be fully usable? • Is the web page coded using valid HTML? As far as is known; the web-authoring software in use is WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) – No HTML visible. • Do all interactive components have an accessible name and role, and when required state? Has the correct ARIA markup been used and does it validate? Unknown, see above. In summary, the existing BN Parish Council Website meets many of the requirements for accessibility. After considering the identified failures to meet full compliance, the Parish Council has decided that bringing the website up to full compliance with WCAG 2.1 would represent a disproportionate burden on the Parish Council, for the reasons given below.

The burden that making the above shortcomings accessible places on Buckland

Newton Parish Council

Buckland Newton Parish Council does not employ a full-time website designer and relies on a volunteer to develop and maintain their websites. The web-authoring software used is WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) based and does not rely on a detailed knowledge of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). To employ a commercial website designer to carry out the investigation and modification of the low-level code behind the website and to make the necessary adjustments would be prohibitively expensive for the Parish Council, which has limited funds and could not justify the increase necessary in the precept to cover the cost.

The benefits of making the above shortcomings accessible

The population of Buckland Newton Parish is around 600 persons, which represents the total number of persons likely to access the Parish Council’s websites. The benefits afforded by complete compliance, when compared to the potential cost of modifying or rewriting the websites, would represent a disproportionate burden on the Parish Council.

The Parish Council’s size and resources

The Parish Council has limited funds and because a proportion of the Parish’s population would be unable to afford a substantial rise in the Parish precept, implementation would be a disproportionate burden on both the Parish Council and the users of its websites. Additionally, the Parish Council does not have a dedicated IT (Information Technology) team at its disposal.

The nature of the Parish Council’s work

The Parish Council’s work is primarily the administration of the Parish, and the website comprises largely a repository of records and local information. Where necessary, the Parish Council would be prepared to respond to requests for this information in a different (e.g. printed) form.

The cost of making the website fully accessible and the impact on the Parish Council

As noted under 1) above, the cost would represent a disproportionate burden on the Parish Council’s finances and workload for what is a small Parish.

How much users with a disability would benefit from making the website fully

accessible

The majority of the Parish’s website content is already accessible. As the website content is largely made up of Parish records and local information, which, if requested could be made available as printed documents (with larger font if required), modification to full compliance would represent a disproportionate burden.