Accessibility statement for Hart District Council
This accessibility statement applies to Hart District Council website. 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
- 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
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
Feedback and contact information
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 let us know via the contact us by email at communications@hart.gov.uk or call 01252 774460.
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).
Technical information about this website's accessibility
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 and exemptions listed below under non-accessible content and content outside the scope of the accessibility regulations.
The Central Digital and Data Office (part of the Cabinet Office) monitored the Hart website in July 2021 and highlighted some areas which were not complaint. We fixed all issues highlighted in the report in September 2021. These were:
- Ensuring our Cookies notice has visible keyboard tab status and appears at the beginning of the tabbing navigation function
- Ensuring My Area has visible keyboard tab status
- Ensuring correct view at 400% for mobile across the site and keyboard access on the home page at 400%
- Ensuring our search bar icon meets colour contrast rules
- Ensuring our Reporting a missed bin collection form meets colour contrast rules
- Ensuring keyboard access to content and functionality
- Inserting alternative text to non-text content on a job description pdf
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons - they're legally required.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
- 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.
Disproportionate burden
Some of our services are provided by third-party software and 'skinned' to look like our website. We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the accessibility issues with some of our suppliers and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when supplier contracts are up for renewal or when an upgrade is planned, likely to be in summer 2022.
The affected areas are:
- Online payment portal supplied by Capita
- Maps supplied by Austun (iShare)
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.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 23 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 28 October 2021.
This website is tested regularly by Siteimprove. On 28 October 2021 it scored 98.1/100 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.
