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Accessibility statement for basildon.gov.uk

This accessibility statement applies to www.basildon.gov.uk

This website is run by Basildon Borough 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 is this website

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

  • Most older PDF and Word documents and spreadsheets are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Some live video streams do not have captions
  • Some of the images on our site do not display appropriate alt text
  • On some web pages or online forms the keyboard tab focus order may be incorrect
  • We have no top level heading on our homepage
  • The colour contrast on our cookie notice is not sufficiently defined. This affects any page when the site is first viewed

 

Feedback and contact information

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

Or

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

Basildon Borough Council
The Basildon Centre
St. Martin's Square
Basildon
Essex
SS14 1DL

We'll consider your request and get back to you within ten working  days.

 

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) (opens new window) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (opens new window) (the 'accessibility regulations'). If you're not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) (opens new window).

 

Technical information about this website's accessibility

Basildon Borough Council is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the  Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (opens new window).

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 (opens new window) AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

 

Non accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • We have a small number of embedded videos on our site. Some of these do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded).
    • We plan to add captions to all embedded videos that we produce moving forwards and using suppliers such as YouTube to provide automated captions for our other video
  • Some of the images on our site do not display appropriate alt-text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
    • We will add appropriate text alternatives to our images when we upload new images and fix images we find in our manual audits currently being completed.
  • Some of our PDFs and other document do not declare their language correctly. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.1.1 (Language of Page).
    • We will define the correct language for our PDFs when adding new PDFs to the website. We will add the default language property to existing PDFs when we find them in our manual audits currently being completed.
  • Some of our PDFs and other documents do not declare their title correctly. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 (Page Titled).
    • We will add the correct title for our PDFs when adding new PDFs to the website. We will add the correct title to existing PDFs when we find them in our manual audits currently being completed.
  • Some of our online forms and pages receive focus in the wrong order. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order (Level A)
    • We will amend the focus and tab order of affected webpages and online forms when we find them in our manual audits currently being completed.

 

Disproportionate burden

  • none apply

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

Non-essential historic PDF, word and excel 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 our older committee documents.

We publish all essential service information in an accessible web page and provide contact details for alternative versions.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we create and 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're doing to improve accessibility

Our accessibility roadmap shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website.

 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on the 23 September 2019. It was last reviewed on the 9 October 2023.

The website was last tested on 5 January 2022 by the Cabinet Office, this was not a full accessibility test. 

This website is continuously monitored by Silktide (opens new window)  automated testing for accessibility, quality, and digital marketing.

Silktide checks across the whole of our site on a regular basis and reports on:

  • Pages that conform to WCAG A, AA or AAA standards
  • Issues with CSS validation
  • Issues with HTML validation
  • PDF accessibility including problems with tagging, language definition, headings and labels

We tested:

You can read the full test report here:  Website Accessibility - Basildon Council Report 2022 (PDF) [139KB] (opens new window)