Accessibility

Accessibility statement for Hart District Council

This website is run by Hart 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
  • 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

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.

Our website accessibility

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

  • Most older PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
  • You cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader
  • You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • There’s a limit to how far you can magnify the map on our ‘contact us’ page

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

Email: communications@hart.gov.uk
Call: 01252 774460

We’ll acknowledge your request within two days and respond within ten 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 are not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please: 

Email: communications@hart.gov.uk
Call: 01252 774460

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is responsible for enforcing the accessibility regulations. If you are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).    

Technical information

Hart District 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:

  • Many of our PDF documents post 23 September 2018 are inaccessible. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We are planning a new version of our website this year and will fix this problem as part of the development work.

The Central Digital and Data Office (part of the Cabinet Office) monitored the Hart website in July 2021 and highlighted some areas which are not yet compliant. We are working with our third party suppliers, where relevant, and within the Council to fix the issues by October 2021. 
The issues are:

Central Digital and Data Office issue report
Issue and description Where the issue was found

WCAG 2.4.7 Focus visible – No or barely visible focus

A visible focus helps users know which element has keyboard focus and where they are on the page.

When an element gets focus there should be a visible border around it. Highlighting the element that has keyboard focus or is hovered over can provide information like whether the element is interactive or the scope of that element.

Operating systems have a native indication of focus, which is available in many browsers. The default display of the focus indicator is not always highly visible and may even be difficult to see especially on coloured backgrounds.

Cookies notice:
•    There is no clearly visible keyboard focus on the ‘analytics/performance’ slider when the notice is expanded.
•    When the cookies notice is minimised, the user still has to tab through the links and they do not receive visible keyboard focus. This makes it hard for the user to tell where they are on the page.

My area:
•    Keyboard tab focus is not clearly visible on the 'my online accounts' links e.g. 'council tax and benefits'.
 

WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow

Reflow or ‘responsive web design’ helps users with low vision who may need to enlarge text on a webpage and read it in a single column without scrolling in more than one direction. It also helps users who are viewing the page on a mobile device.

If a page does not support reflow it can appear smaller and more difficult to use or content may be cut off.

Navigation menus often collapse into fewer items or into a single menu button to take up less space. All content and functionality must still be fully available.

WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow

Reflow or ‘responsive web design’ helps users with low vision who may need to enlarge text on a webpage and read it in a single column without scrolling in more than one direction. It also helps users who are viewing the page on a mobile device.

If a page does not support reflow it can appear smaller and more difficult to use or content may be cut off.

Navigation menus often collapse into fewer items or into a single menu button to take up less space. All content and functionality must still be fully available.
 

WCAG 2.4.3 Focus order

Users should be able to navigate a web page in an order that makes sense. Keyboard navigation should reflect a navigation sequence that is consistent with the meaning of content. Logical navigation reduces confusion and shows logical relationships between content and components.

The focus order may differ from the visual reading order as long as a user can still understand the web page without sight.

 Cookies notice:
•    When the page first loads and the cookies notice is expanded, the user has to tab through the whole page before getting to the cookies notice links.
 

WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)

Poor colour contrast makes it difficult for someone with sight loss to see the content properly. If there is a big difference between the background and foreground colours it should be much easier to see the difference between them.

All pages except PDF and form:
•    The text in the search bar fails minimum colour contrast requirements against white.

Report a missed bin collection form:
•    All text in the header, including main navigation menu options, fails.

Content that’s 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 forms published as Word documents. We are planning a new version of our website next year and will fix this problem as part of the development work.

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.

How we test this website 

This website is tested regularly by Siteimprove. On 12 July 2021 it scored 99/100 for accessibility. This score is an indication of how accessible the website is based on the site’s performance in automated and semi-automated tests. 

This website was also tested on 19 February 2020 by the Shaw Trust and again on 19 October 2020.

This statement was prepared on 23 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 12 July 2021.