Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to www.breckland.gov.uk

This website is run by Breckland 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 per cent 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 tried to make 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.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF or large print:

• Email: web.team@breckland.gov.uk
• Call: 01362 656870

Once received, we will endeavour to send you an accessible version.

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, complete ourWebsite 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 theEquality Advisory and Support Service (opens new window).

Technical information about this website's accessibility

Breckland 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 2.2 AA standard, due to 'the non-compliances' listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations:

• Ensure pages don't scroll in two dimensions on small screens (WCAG 2.1 AA 1.4.100
• Ensure pages don't require zooming and 2D scrolling on small screens (WCAG 2.1 AA 1.4.100
• Identify the purpose of fields programmatically (WCAG 2.1 AA 1.3.5)
• Ensure controls clearly indicate when they are selected (WCAG 2.2 AAA 2.4.13)
• Ensure focus is not fully obscured (WCAG 2.2 AA 2.4.11)
• Ensure interactive components are far enough apart (WCAG 2.2 AA 2.5.8)
• Ensure focus is not partly obscured (WCAG 2.2 AAA 2.4.12)

We plan to fix these issues by June 2025 by upgrading to the latest version of our web platform and associated templates. We will be reliant on our website providers (Goss) to fix and/or deploy any changes.

Issues with PDFs and other documents

Many of our PDFs and Word documents don't meet accessibility standards for the following reasons:

• Tag all PDFs. (WCAG 2.0 A 1.3.1)
• Ensure PDFs are machine readable. (WCAG 2.0 A 1.1.1)
• Ensure PDFs have a title. (WCAG 2.0 A 2.4.2)
• Specify headings for every PDF. (WCAG 2.0 A 1.3.1)
• Ensure PDFs specify a default language. (WCAG 2.0 A 3.1.1)
• Ensure PDF headings follow a logical order. (WCAG 2.0 A 1.3.1)
• Ensure the first heading in a PDF is a H1. (WCAG 2.0 A 1.3.1)
• Ensure long PDFs use bookmarks to aid navigation. (WCAG 2.0 AA 2.4.5)

From September 2020 onwards, all new published documents will meet accessibility standards.

If you are unable to access any PDF on this site, please email the title of PDF to web.team@breckland.gov.uk and we will endeavour to send an accessible one.

Third Party Software

Our website contains third party content. We do not have control over and are not responsible for the accessibility of this content. This may include:

• Modern.Gov - We have worked on fixing the styling accessibility issues of the Modern.Gov product as these are within our gift.
• Capita Payments - We are working with Capita to fix the accessibility issues of the payment templates as these are within our gift.
• iDox Planning - We are working with Capita to fix the accessibility issues of the payment templates as these are within our gift.
• Breckland Chat Bot - We are working with Ubisend to fix the accessibility issues of the chat bot product.
• Alexa Skills - We have partnered with Ubisend to develop an Alexa Skill that provides users with voice-enabled access to some of our services. We welcome user feedback to help us improve the Skill's
  accessibility further. Visit theAmazon accessibility page (opens new window) to find ways to help you use your Alexa, including information on how to enable accessibility features and connect with support resources.

There are known issues with some elements of these third-party pieces of software. We have been liaising with the suppliers to ensure they are as accessible as possible. These will be reviewed at the end of each contract and form part of our procurement process.

Disproportionate burden

This section addresses issues that we cannot fix right now. After assessing the cost and effort involved, we believe that addressing certain accessibility issues would impose a disproportionate burden (opens new window) under the meaning of the law.

We have categorised the following accessibility issues as disproportionate to fix within the meaning of the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018:

1. PDFs and documents: After a detailed review, we've assessed that fixing all documents published since 23 September 2018 would be a disproportionate burden. As of 10 August 2020, there were 262 PDFs published since that date, excluding documents from our Modern.Gov or Ocella Planning systems.

   The majority of these documents have been viewed by very few users, if at all. Therefore, their impact on users with disabilities is minimal. Fixing each document takes approximately three hours, meaning it would take about 109 working days to fix all documents, with a total cost of around £9,825 in staff time. We believe this cost is not justified, given the limited impact.

2. Third-party documents: Where PDFs are provided by third parties, such as Energy Performance Certificates from Central Government, we are unable to resolve accessibility issues due to security restrictions or lack of control over the content. However, we will continue to make every effort to ensure third-party documents are as accessible as possible.

3. Future changes: Many of the listed accessibility issues, apart from those related to PDFs, will be resolved when we move to a new core theme in December 2024. This will bring the website into full compliance with WCAG 2.2 standards.

Cost of Fixing Documents

We have conducted a sample review of PDFs, which shows that fixing each one takes about three hours. Therefore, addressing all in-scope documents would take approximately 109 working days at a cost of nearly £9,825. This cost, combined with the minimal impact on users, leads us to conclude that fixing all documents represents a disproportionate burden.

Assessment of Costs and Benefits

We believe the costs of fixing all documents on www.breckland.gov.uk/ would impose a disproportionate burden on our organisation. Instead, our focus remains on ensuring the most-used documents are accessible and on making new documents compliant where they are necessary for essential services or are frequently accessed by users with disabilities.

Our Commitment Moving Forward

We remain committed to improving accessibility. We will:

• Continue to prioritise fixing the most-used PDFs.
• Ensure all new documents meet accessibility standards.
• Provide accessible copies of documents upon request.

By focusing our resources on the areas that provide the greatest benefit to users, we aim to ensure our website remains accessible while managing our organisational resources effectively.

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

If non-essential to our services, the accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs, or other documents on intranets or extranets, published before 23 September 2018

Any new PDFs or Word documents we create will meet accessibility standards.

Online maps and mapping services are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. From 23 September 2020 we'll ensure that where maps are intended for navigational use essential information is provided in an accessible digital manner.

What we're doing to improve accessibility

We have monitoring in place to review the accessibility of the site on an ongoing basis. We use this monitoring to identify and fix any new issues that arise.

The accessibility of the website is reviewed every month by us and we fix any issues arising based on the results from our monitoring software.

Web Editors are being trained to create accessible content.

Approvals have been brought back to one central team to be reviewed before being published

The ability to upload PDFs and other documents has been revoked. All documents now go through one central team to be reviewed before being uploaded to our website.

A series of templates have been made to tackle the creation of regular PDFs.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 26/11/2024. It was last reviewed on 26/11/2024.