Accessibility statement | Sevenoaks District Council

Accessibility statement

We make every effort to ensure our website is easy to use and accessible for everyone.

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Accessibility statement for Sevenoaks District Council’s websites

Our websites provide information and allow people to access our services.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use our websites. For example, on our main website, 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.
 

The accessibility of this site

We know that some parts of this website are not fully accessible and we are working on these issues:

  • Many older PDFs documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software and do not specify the natural language
  • Some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
  • You cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader on some of our sites. It is also difficult for screen readers to accurately read descriptive lists.
  • Labels are needed on some MyAccount forms to help understand what input is expected.


What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format such accessible PDFs or large print, please contact us:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days or sooner.

If you cannot view any map on our sites, please call us on 01732 227000 or email information@sevenoaks.gov.uk for help.
 

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re 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, please contact communications@sevenoaks.gov.uk.
 

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 in person

Our offices have audio induction loops.

Find out how to contact us.
 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

We are committed to making our websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
 

Compliance status

Website testing is ongoing, but we know some of our sites are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Our main website (www.sevenoaks.gov.uk) is compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

Our MyAccount website has the following issues:

  • The structure of some descriptive lists (WCAG 1.3.1 info and relationships) and variations in coding (WCAG.4.1.2)
  • The colour contrast on some webforms. This fails WCAG 1.4.3 contrast minimum.

We will be replacing My Account services from the autumn of 2022.
 

PDFs

Some PDFs may not meet accessibility standards. Most of these were published before September 2018 and we don’t need to fix these if they’re not essential to providing our services. The natural language of the document is not always specified in older documents. (WCAG 3.1.1 success criterion 1.1.1 non-text content).

If you have difficulty accessing any PDFs, please contact us for assistance.

We aim to ensure any new documents published on our website meet accessibility standards.
 

Accessibility of our other websites and online services

We use some third party online services and websites to allow customers to interact and transact with us. These include (but are not limited to): paying for Council Tax, applying for licenses, viewing and commenting on planning permission and jobs at the Council.

Not all of these sites and services meet the standards for accessibility and we are engaging with our suppliers to rectify this.

When procuring new online systems, meeting accessibility standards is included in the specification.
 

Disproportionate burden

At this time, we have not identified anything that qualifies as disproportionate burden and we continue to work towards making the website as accessible as possible.
 

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

Many of our older PDFs, Word and Excel documents do not meet accessibility standards, for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

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 and PDF documents.

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 on our main site will meet accessibility standards.
 

What we are doing to improve accessibility

  • Training everyone that publishes to the web in creating accessible content
  • Providing guidance to services on creating accessible multimedia content
  • Moving away from PDF documents to web pages
  • All new web products are tested for accessibility
     

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 30 December 2019, when it was first published. It was last reviewed in March 2022.

This website was last tested in February 2022 by the Central Digital Data Office (part of the Cabinet Office) as part of its monitoring of how well the public sector are meeting the WCAG 2.1 AA standards.

A sample of pages were tested for accessibility. A mixture of simple manual checks and automated tests was used to find only the most common barriers to users with accessibility needs.

Tests were completed using different settings in the Google Chrome browser on Mac OSX with a 15-inch screen.
 

Testing our websites

Our websites below were tested in February 2022 and were found to be partially compliant with WCAG 2.1 level AA.

Accessibility of third party systems

Accessibility statements from third-party systems used on the Sevenoaks District Council website.

Civica Modern.Gov Council and committee meeting agenda and minutes; Council, councillor and town and parish contact details https://cds.sevenoaks.gov.uk

  • The majority of their pages were compliant for AA standard accessibility under WCAG. There is one exception regarding the third-party jQuery-ui date picker, which is detailed as non-accessible
  • These improvements are available to customers in B1505 and are available as a hotfix for customers who are on B1504. It is their preference that customers upgrade to B1505 as the hotfix for 1504 will not be made available until after a review of current customer versions.

Public Access for Planning, Building Control and Licensing

Online planning, building control and licensing applications are provided by Idox’s Public Access product, version 3.2, which is currently WCAG 2.1AA compliant

Our websites are:

Parking Gateway to pay or challenge a Penalty Charge Notice

Citizen Space (Delib) to comment on the Local Plan and other Council consultations. This site is currently WCAG 2.1AA compliant.

Jobs go public for job vacancies and access to online job applications.

Council Tax and benefits self-service to register for an account to pay council tax, business rates or apply for housing benefit or council tax support.

EventApp to apply to hold a public event in the district

Victoria forms for Licensing

State their online forms are fully compliant with the web content guidelines version 2.1AA standard https://www.victoriaforms.com/formsaccessibility

This statement was last updated March 2022.