Accessibility statement

Accessibility Statement for southend.gov.uk

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

This website is run by Southend-on-Sea City 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)

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

We have upgraded this website to an improved platform that has been designed with accessibility in mind.

We have systematically gone through the content on this website, and continue to do so, to ensure text is in plain English, free from jargon and of a reading level lower than secondary education (WCAG 3.1.5). The majority of this website complies with this, however some policy documents or planning applications do not meet this criteria.

All buttons, images and banners have colour contrast that adheres to the accessibility regulations.

All videos uploaded after 17 June 2020 have captions and/or a transcript.

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

  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams do not have captions

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:

We will consider your request and get back to you within 5 days.

If you cannot view the map on our contact us page, call or email us council@southend.gov.uk for directions.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: webmaster@southend.gov.uk

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 are 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.

Find out how to contact us

Technical information about this websites accessibility

Southend-on-Sea City 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 as follows is not accessible for the following reasons.

  • contrast levels are set and not able to be altered. However in re-designing this website, we have ensured that all navigation and body content has colour contrast compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA
  • many of our pdf downloads are not accessible. We have created a register of PDFs which are essential for service delivery and are working through these to create HTML pages and forms. We have reduced the pdfs on the site by approximately a quarter and continue to reduce these, placing all necessary content on web pages where appropriate. Many documents in the planning section are not accessible and contain legal wording and architect drawings that do not comply
  • there are a number of policy documents that are necessary to have on our website and that are not compliant

Non-compliant pdfs include:

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some text is written in language that is not plain English. We are reviewing all content and by September 2020, all on-page content will comply with WCAG 2.1 AA.

WCAG 2.2.1 (A) Timing Adjustable

There is a 10-minute time limit to complete each page of an online form but no warning when this time is getting near, or no way to extend the time limit. A business decision was made that each form page should have a 10-minute completion time limit in the interest of security, for if a form was being completed in a public place for example. We add the following text to the top of each online form: “Each page in this form has a 10-minute time limit. If you think you will need more time, write your answers in another document, then copy and paste them into the form. This helps ensure your information won’t be lost.” We realise that this does not adhere to WCAG 2.2.1 Timing Adjustable and options will be explored with our online forms provider in the Autumn of 2024.

More on WCAG 2.2.1 Timing Adjustable

Cookies

The cookie banner company Civic UK has dropped Internet Explorer 11 compatibility and the cookie tool will not show on any Internet Explorer 11 websites.

Google Maps

Microsoft ended Internet Explorer 11 browser support on 15 June 2022, which may affect Google Maps on any Internet Explorer 11 websites.

Disproportionate burden

We've assessed the cost of fixing the following issues. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.  

  • There are no issues that are currently being listed as being assessed as a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other 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 council policies. We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards where possible, if for any reason they can not meet the standards we will add them to non compliant list on this statement.

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

We have already relaunched the website on to an improved and accessible platform.

The roadmap to becoming fully accessible is as follows

  • relaunch site to fix back-end accessibility issues (complete)
  • making sure body copy of web pages are in plain English (partially compliant as at April 2024)
  • removing non-essential pdfs and placing content on web pages where possible (partially compliant as at April 2024)
  • making sure new pdfs created after September 2020 are accessible where possible, and adding them to non compliant list on this statement where not
  • making sure new videos have subtitles

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 15 June 2020. It was last reviewed on 2 July 2024.

This site had a formal external accessibility audit by The Shaw Trust on 27 April 2021.

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