Website accessibility statement for South Oxfordshire District Council

This accessibility statement applies to the South Oxfordshire District Council website (southoxon.gov.uk)

On this page you can find out how accessible our website is, how to report issues and what to do if you can’t access parts of it.

This website is run by South Oxfordshire District 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 per cent without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using Browsealoud, our screen reader and accessibility software
• 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.

We have designed this website with features that make it easier to use by everyone, including those with visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, or neurological disabilities. We aim to reach the level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These are the international standard for accessible websites and content.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible, for example:

• some heading elements are not consistent
• some images do not have good alternative text
• many documents are in PDF format and are not accessible

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: communications@southandvale.gov.uk

Call: 01235 422400 (Text phone users add 18001 before dialing)

Address:

Abbey House, Abbey Close, Abingdon, OX14 3JE

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as we can – this may vary depending on your method of communication. You can find out more information about our customer service standards.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility and usability of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact the Communications Team by emailing communications@southandvale.gov.uk

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018. 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

Please note – our offices are currently closed as a result of the pandemic. Our staff are working from home, so please contact them via email or phone. Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

South Oxfordshire District Council is committed to making this 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 listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

• Some online forms do not reflow when zoomed in on mobile view. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1.
• Some online forms do not have sufficient colour contrast. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3.
• Some online forms do not resize the footer text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4.

We plan to fix these issued by September 2023. All new online forms meet accessibility standards.

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

PDFs and other documents

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, which doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value), and/or they do not have a set default language, which doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criteria 3.1.1.

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. For example, we don’t plan to fix old PDF newsletters, posters or campaign materials that might still be published and accessed through our website.

We believe that it would be a disproportionate burden to change all historic PDFs and other documents to meet accessibility standards given the number on the website. However, any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden

We believe that the cost required may be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. There are more than 6,500 PDFs and other documents on the site and they would all need to be checked to see if they meet the accessibility standards, and amended if not. The majority of these documents have never been viewed, therefore they are not negatively impacting users with disabilities or impairments. For this reason, we don’t believe the cost of time, effort and resource to fix all the documents is justified.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We’re working to fix the issues outlined in The Shaw Trust accessibility report.

We continually monitor the accessibility compliance of our site and have weekly automated updates. Improving our site is part of the Communications Team’s daily work. We are creating a training programme for colleagues and web editors to ensure content for the website meets accessibility criteria.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 2 February 2020. It was last reviewed in 27 June 2023.

This website was tested on 20 November 2020. The test was carried out by The Shaw Trust. You can read the full accessibility test report (PDF).

This website was last tested on 9 March 2023. The test was carried out by the Central Digital and Data Office. You can read the full accessibility test report (PDF).