Accessibility statement

This statement applies to the core websites managed by Buckinghamshire Council:

• buckinghamshire.gov.uk
• aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk
• buckscc.gov.uk
• wycombe.gov.uk
• chiltern.gov.uk
• southbucks.gov.uk

Other websites and tools owned and managed by the council will have their own separate accessibility statements.

As a minimum, you should be able to:

• Zoom in up to 300% without problems.
• Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard.
• Operate most of the website using a screen reader.

For information on how you can adjust your browser settings or use assistive technology to help you use our website, visit AbilityNet.

Our core websites are partially compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA standards. However, we are constantly working to improve both our compliance and the experience of our users.

Parts of our core websites are not fully accessible. For example:

• some pages and document attachments are not clearly written
• some heading elements are not consistent
• some images do not have good alternative text
• some buttons are not correctly identified
• many documents in varying formats are not fully accessible

These include:

• some issues on linked pages
• some content not included in landmarks
• some landmarks as indistinguishable
• some incorrect mark up used to format text
• some duplicate link text
• some duplicated element IDs
• some form elements not grouped
• some iframes missing a title attribute

Specific issues relating to our other core websites can be found on their individual accessibility statements:

• aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk accessibility statement
• buckscc.gov.uk accessibility statement
• chiltern.gov.uk accessibility statement
• southbucks.gov.uk accessibility statement
• wycombe.gov.uk accessibility statement

Issues specific to our payments system (Capita) can be found on our Online Payments Accessibility Statement.

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].

We will consider your request and get back to you within 20 working days.

We are 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, contact: [email protected]

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 contact us with a complaint and you’re not happy with our response contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

If you can't hear or speak on the phone we provide a text relay service: 18001 01296 395000

Or you can contact us.

Buckinghamshire Council 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 following issues:

Where online maps and mapping services appear on our website and cannot be made accessible, we will attempt provide essential information in an accessible digital manner for cases when a map is intended for navigational use.

Some of our PDFs and other 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. We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages as we migrate content over to our new website.

This website contains video content that does not have appropriate text or audio alternatives.

Parts of the website link to old county and district council websites. Some of these websites are not fully accessible.

Some of the header elements that are used for our site alerts and other elements within our templates clash are not distinguishable from one another. We are working to resolve this with help from our developers. (1.3.1)

Content on some of our webpages is not included in the WAI-ARIA landmarks throughout the page. We are working to resolve this with help from our developers. (1.3.1)

There are instances where the <b> tag has been used to format text. We are working to resolve this with help from our developers. (1.3.1)

Link text taking users through to our local area websites is occasionally duplicated. We are working to resolve this with help from our developers. (2.4.4)

Some elements on our webpages do not have a unique ID attribute. We are working to resolve this with help from our developers. (4.1.1)

Elements in some of our web forms have not been grouped correctly. We are working to resolve this with help from our developers. (3.3.2)

Many iframes that are used for video content do not have the appropriate title attribute. We are working to resolve this with help from our developers. (4.1.2)

Not applicable.

Documents published before 23 September 2018

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 other documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. Where we are unable to publish accessible documents we will provide alternative methods to access this information.

Where we choose to feature third party content or functionality on our website, we are responsible for ensuring it meets accessibility standards.

However, we are not responsible for the accessibility of third party platforms or content that is neither funded nor developed by us, or under our control. This includes:

• third party websites that we link to from this website and any of our other digital channels
• social media platforms
• data we supply to national databases

We monitor accessibility using automated checks via Siteimprove and manual checks. We also test this website regularly with real users.

This website has also been tested by the Shaw Trust. We will use this information to develop an accessibility roadmap that will show how and when we plan to make improvements on this website.

As part of the reorganisation of local government for Buckinghamshire, the county and district councils have been replaced by Buckinghamshire Council as of 1 April 2020.

Content currently hosted on the legacy council websites will be gradually transferred over to this website where it will be republished as fully accessible content. Once this is complete, the current area websites for the district councils and county council will be decommissioned.

This is a gradual process and will take place over the next couple of years. In the meantime, we plan to improve the accessibility of our existing content alongside the migration of content to the new website. Furthermore, all new content published will be fully accessible.

This statement was prepared on 31 March 2020. It was last reviewed on 23 September 2020.