This accessibility statement applies to www.bathnes.gov.uk and https://beta.bathnes.gov.uk.
This website is run by Bath & North East Somerset 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 this website is
We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible:
- most older PDF documents on www.bathnes.gov.uk and https://beta.bathnes.gov.uk aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
- live video streams don’t have captions
- parts of www.bathnes.gov.uk may have poorly defined page structures
- parts of www.bathnes.gov.uk may not have alternative text for images
- Older forms may have poor colour contrast or issues with form labels
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 equality@bathnes.gov.uk
- call 01225 47 70 94
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, contact us in one of the following ways:
- Email cis@bathnes.gov.uk
- Fill in our website feedback form
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
Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter, text relays, or a translator or interpreter if English is not your first language.
Find out how to contact us
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Bath & North East Somerset 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 listed below.
Non accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non compliance with the accessibility regulations
Some images don’t have a text alternative, so the information in them isn’t available to people using a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
We plan to add text alternatives for all images as we migrate content from our old website to our Beta website. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.
Some of our older online forms may have poor colour contrast, or may not have form labels.
We plan to replace these forms with compliant ones as we migrate content from our old website to our Beta website.
A number of PDF documents on our View conservation area character appraisals page are not fully accessible. These will be made accessible when we review the conservation area designation.
A number of PDF documents within the Our budgets and spending section are not fully accessible. These are currently under review. The documents that we produce and are responsible for will be made accessible when they are reviewed. However, in some instances, if a document has been produced by a third party, we are unable to make them accessible.
Some documents on democracy.bathnes.gov.uk are not fully accessible.
Documents published through Modern Gov after 23 September 2018.
Issues include:
- Missing headings or headings that don’t follow a logical order - This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships)
- Missing titles - This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 (Page Titled)
- Default language not specified - This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.1.1 (Language of Page)
- Some links to other websites may not be fully accessible - This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose In Context)
- Some images may not have alternative text - This fails WCAG success criterion 1.1.1 (Non Text Context)
- Some tables, including nested tables, may not be easily readable - This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.2 (Meaningful Sequence)
We have assessed the impact of making all of out historic documents produced by Modern Gov accessible, and we feel that this would be a disproportionate burden under the regulations. We have taken steps to ensure documents produced in future are accessible and believe that this meets the requirements of the legislation.
Disproportionate burden
We will not be addressing any accessibility issues with www.bathnes.gov.uk. We are currently migrating to a new Beta website and will address accessibility issues as part of the migration. We will run an accessibility audit on beta.bathnes.gov.uk once the migration is complete and publish the results in this statement.
We’ve assessed the cost of addressing issues with www.bathnes.gov.uk. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We are already migrating all of our content to a new website, and do not have the resources to make 2 sites meet the accessibility standards when we are decommissioning one of them as soon as our migration is complete.
We have also assessed the impact of making all of out historic documents produced by Modern Gov accessible, and we feel that this would be a disproportionate burden under the regulations. We have taken steps to ensure documents produced in future are accessible and believe that this meets the requirements of the legislation.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
Many of our older PDFs and other document attachments don’t meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).
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 some of our planning documents.
Any new PDFs or document attachments we publish will meet accessibility standards.
Live video
Live video streams don’t have captions. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live).
We don’t plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations
How we tested this website
This website was tested on 16 November 2021 by the Central Digital & Data Office (part of the Cabinet Office) and their report identified a number of accessibility issues with https://beta.bathnes.gov.uk. These issues have all now been addressed.
We routinely test pages as they are made live using Axe Dev Tools, and also carry out random sample testing each month. The results are available in our testing record and will be updated each month.
We did not test our old website platform (www.bathnes.gov.uk) as we are in the process of migrating all of the content to https://beta.bathnes.gov.uk, and addressing any accessibility issues as part of that migration.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We will improve accessibility on this website as issues are reported to us, and will undertake monthly random sampling of existing content on the site. The results will be updated on this web page each month.
We have delivered two training sessions for staff on how to create accessible documents, with another one planned for January 2023. The January session will be recorded and we will be making this available to all staff.
This statement was prepared on 14 October 2020. It was last reviewed and updated on 19 December 2022.