Accessibility statement
This accessibility statement applies to somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk, run by Somerset West and Taunton Council.
The content on this website is designed for everyone to find, read, and understand. It is compatible with assistive technologies and developed to meet the accessibility standards outlined in this statement.
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)
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
How accessible this website is
We know that some parts of our website aren't fully accessible:
- you can't modify the line height or spacing of text
- most older PDFs aren't fully accessible to screen reader software
- some of our online services are hosted by third-party suppliers and you may find navigating these services difficult depending on their level of web accessibility, for example, the benefits calculator and West Somerset planning
What to do if you can’t access parts of this website
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
- complete the general enquiries online form
- call 0300 304 8000
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days. Please note: we aim to provide information in alternative formats within this timescale, but there may be a delay in receiving other formats as these are ordered on request and not held in stock.
If you can’t view the map on our ‘council offices’ page, call 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 that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact us:
- complete the general enquiries online form
- call 0300 304 8000
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).
Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
We are able to respond to text relay calls from people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.
Our main offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.
We provide an interpretation service through Language Line for people who speak a foreign language.
Find out how to contact us.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Somerset West and Taunton 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 as listed.
Non accessible content
The content listed is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non compliance with the accessibility regulations:
Perceivable:
- Success criterion A 1.3.1 info and relationships
- Success criterion AA 1.4.3 contrast (minimum)
- Success criterion AA 1.4.4 resize text
Operable:
- Success criterion 2.4.1 A bypass blocks
- Success criterion 2.4.4 A link purpose (in context)
Robust:
- Success criterion A 4.1.1 parsing
- Success criterion A 4.1.2 name, role, value
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.
Our forms are built and hosted through third party software and ‘skinned’ to look like our website.
We are constantly assessing our sites to try and improve and are working with our suppliers to make improvements within the limitations of the platform.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG success criterion 2.4.3 focus order, ensuring correct tab and reading order in PDF documents.
Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By September 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.
The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
To improve the accessibility of our website we are:
- testing web accessibility with an independent assessor
- regularly monitoring the accessibility of our website
- making our PDF documents (created after 22 September 2018) as accessible as possible
- where possible, creating HTML pages rather than PDF documents
- creating online forms rather than PDF documents
- replacing or upgrading third-party applications or systems to include WCAG 2.1 AA compliance
Testing the website
The website is monitored and tested monthly by Siteimprove.com.
Sitemorse also check the site and there is a quarterly report issued, ranking every Local Government website.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 19 August 2019. It was last updated on 23 May 2022.
The main website was last tested on 17 May 2022. The test was carried out by Sitemorse.
We used this approach to test 555 pages of the website for:
- Accessibility - checking content against the W3C WCAG 2.1 and Digital ADA accessibility standards
- Brand - reviewing content and alerting against our own brand rules
- Code quality - checking the code of the page meets W3C and IETF technical standards
- Email - testing that email addresses and infrastructure work and can receive mail
- Function/links - review page content and links to check they are functioning correctly
- SEO and Metadata - reporting improvements relating to Search Engine Optimisation
- Performance - reporting of the web server response time and download speed
- Spelling - check the spelling of site content against standard and custom dictionaries
We tested our main website platform, available at https://www.somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk
Additionally, we manually tested website applications which Sitemorse was unable to scan. This included 3rd party and in-house application software. The AXE tool was used to check pages for AA compliance. The testing took place during the first half of August 2019.