Accessibility Statement

Page updated: 2 November 2021

Accessibility statement for n-kesteven.gov.uk

This accessibility statement applies to the website at n-kesteven.gov.uk

This website is run by North Kesteven 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:

• 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’re also making 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 are not fully accessible:

• you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
• most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software and some PDF do not specify a language
• not all embedded YouTube videos have captions
• some of our online forms are difficult to fill in using just a keyboard
• interactive maps are not accessible using a keyboard alone
• our ‘online payment’ system is not fully accessible
• our ‘Democracy’ site is not fully accessible
• our ‘Jobs’ site is not fully accessible
• our ‘Planning online’ site is not fully 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:

• online form – general enquiries
• call – 01529 414155

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 14 days.

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, contact us using our general enquiries 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

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

• Contact us

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

North Kesteven 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.

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

• The "How would you rate the site's navigation?" and "Overall, based on how you've used the website today, what do you think of the experience?" form fields on the 'New website feedback' page do not show have any indication that they are in focus. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 (Focus Visible)
  We are looking at resolving this issue (or removing the fields) by December 2023
• Our ‘online payment’ system is not fully compliant; this is due to limitations in the payment portal supplied by our provider. The system currently fails on a number of WCAG 2.1 success criterion, including 1.1.1 (Non-text Content), 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)), 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels)
  We plan to work with our supplier to resolve these issues.
• Our ‘Democracy’ site is not fully compliant; this is due to limitations in our governance & meeting management system. This system fails on a number of WCAG 2.1 success criterion, including 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels), 4.1.1 (Parsing).
  We plan to work with our supplier to resolve these issues.
• Some PDF documents created prior to 16 September 2021 on our ‘Democracy’ site may not have the language set; this was due to limitations in our governance & meeting management system. This failed on WCAG 2.1 success criterion, 3.1.1 Language of Page.
  This issue was resolved on 16 September 2021 and any PDF documents created on our on our ‘Democracy’ site after this date will have the correct language set.
• Our ‘Jobs’ site is not fully compliant; this is due to limitations in our HR and payroll system. This system fails on a number of WCAG 2.1 success criterion, including 1.1.1 (Non-text Content), 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), 2.1.1 (Keyboard).
  We plan to work with our supplier to resolve these issues.
• Our ‘Planning online’ site is not fully compliant; this is due to limitations in our planning system. This system fails on a number of WCAG 2.1 success criterion, including 1.1.1 (Non-text Content), 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels), 4.1.1 (Parsing).
  We plan to work with our supplier to resolve these issues.
• A number of our downloadable documents, including PDFs, are not fully compliant.
  We will be working towards replacing these documents with either compliant versions or converting the content into webpages.
• We provide access to a number of third party documents, such as Neighbourhood Plans, many of these may not be compliant, however as these have not been created by North Kesteven District Council we are unable to resolve the any issues they may have.

Disproportionate burden

Pre-recorded videos

Pre-recorded videos of committee meetings do not have captions, nor do they have full transcriptions.

Audio recordings

Audio recordings of committee meetings do not have full transcriptions.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with pre-recorded videos and audio recordings. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

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

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word 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 documents. By September 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

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 we will endeavour to have them meet the required accessibility standards. We also provide access to a number of third party documents, such as Neighbourhood Plans, many of these may not be compliant, however as these have not been created by North Kesteven District Council we are unable to resolve the any issues they may have.

Live video

Live video streams do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live).

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

How we tested this website

The n-kesteven.gov.uk website is tested and reviewed on a continuous basis. These tests are a combination of automated and manual checks using the Monsido Web Accessibility tool and additional manual checks using the Wave Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool.

You can read the full Monsido accessibility checks report: North Kesteven Accessibility Checks Report.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23 July 2020. It was last updated on 7 June 2023. It was last reviewed on 7 June 2023