Warrington Borough Council website

This accessibility statement applies to warrington.gov.uk

This website is run by Warrington 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:

  • zoom in up to 400% 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:

  • you cannot change colours, contrast levels or fonts
  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams do not have captions
  • some of our online forms may be difficult to navigate using just a keyboard

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:

  • email [email protected] 
  • call 01925 443322 - phone lines are open from 8:30am to 5pm Monday to Friday and charged at local rate.

We’ll consider your request and get back in touch with you. If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, call us on 01925 443322 or email [email protected] 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, please email [email protected] or call 01925 443322 and ask for a member of the communications team who will be able to help you.

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

Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Details of how to contact us are on our contact us page.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Warrington 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.

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:

  • Interactive element does not meet minimum size nor spacing (WCAG 2.5.8) - this means that things like buttons or links, should be large enough or be positioned so they can easily be clicked or tapped by users.
Warrington Borough Council accessibility report - September 2024 (12.43 KB)

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Following an audit by central government, several issues have been raised and any issues were fixed with support of our third party web developers.

Six56 Public Inquiry Core Documents

The core documents are from a variety of sources and some files may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. If you need a version of a document in a more accessible format then email the inquiry team ([email protected])

Disproportionate burden

Our most important content is provided on our main website, warrington.gov.uk, and we’re committed to doing monthly accessibility checks on this. 

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

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. 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’re doing to improve accessibility

  • We carry out a full review of the site and address all WCAG 2.2 AA issues as identified by our Siteimprove testing software once a month
  • Training staff to create accessible documents
  • Make accessibility checks on all new documents
  • Reduce the number of PDFs used on the site
  • Adopted a HTML and mobile first approach to web content

Other PDFs and documents

Where PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services, e.g. we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word or PDF documents. These are being replaced with online forms as part of our Change Delivery programme.

Current PDF report

We have noted some accessibility issues with a number of PDFs on the site including:

  • The document contains untagged content
  • The image has no alternative presentation
  • The document is not tagged
  • The document is missing a language definition

A recent review counted over 5800 PDFs on the website, 77% of them being viewed 50 times or less (49% viewed less than 5 times). To update all PDFs to ensure accessibility we estimate to be 784 working days. This is based on an average PDF taking one hour to assess, update and review. We are also aware that a number of inaccessible PDFs currently on our website are third-party content, such as many hundreds of PDF representations from our Local Plan consultation which we have a duty to make available to the public but which we have not created. Our approach therefore is to focus our efforts on where we can gain the most benefit to the website user and are prioritising updates to those most used. This means that we will continually review our most read PDFs and ensure wherever possible that they are made accessible

 

Warrington Borough Council - PDF report September 2024 (384.77 KB)

If there is a specific PDF you would like to be made accessible or need help in understanding, you can let us know and we will get in touch to discuss your request.

The information you have provided within this form will only be used to answer your request for an accessible document. Your information will not be used for any other purpose by the Council and will only be held to process the request.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was initially prepared on 21 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 25 September 2024. This website was last tested on 19 September 2024. The test was carried out by Warrington Borough Council web team using Siteimprove software and live user testing.

You can read the full accessibility test report.

25 September 2024