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Accessibility

Cherwell District Council Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to Cherwell District Council’s website cherwell.gov.uk

This Council’s website has been developed for and is managed by Cherwell District Council. 

Select the + sign at the end of each heading to expand the content. 

Our aim

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 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:

How accessible is this website?

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

  • You can’t modify the line height or spacing of text
  • Most older PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
  • There is a limit to how far you can magnify the map on our ‘where to find us’ page

Feedback and contact information

Information on this website is available in different formats. These include accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille. If you would like one of these formats, then please contact us.

Request different formats

We will consider your request and respond back to you within 7 working days.

If you can’t view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, you can call or email us for directions, You'll find contact details on our contact us page.

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 email webteam@cherwell-dc.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 by phone or visiting us in person

We provide a SignVideo link on our website. This starts a video link to a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter who will speak to us on your behalf.

We are also able to provide a telephone translation service for those where English is not your first language.

We operate an appointments system at our offices, which enables us to prepare for your visit. For example we have rooms with audio induction loops which can be used for your appointment. We will also discuss with the customer when arranging to find the best solution.

Use our Contact us page to arrange a meeting.

Compliance Status 

Cherwell District Council is committed to making its website accessible. This is in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Website and Mobile Application) (No.2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. This is due to the issues listed below, where we do not comply.

Issues with technology

No ‘skip to main content’ option on any pages.

It’s not possible for users to modify text spacing or line height.

Non-accessible content

Issues with PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards. For example, they may not be marked up so they’re accessible to a screen reader.

We are not required to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 that are not essential to services.

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. By March 31 2022, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages or on-line forms.

Some forms are not possible to replace with electronic forms as they are third party forms not under the control of Cherwell District Council, known forms in this category are:

  • Register of Interests form - for new town or parish councillors
  • Acceptance of Office form - for new and returning Parish Councillors

View accessibility regulations

Due to the vast number of documents on the website, to amend every document would be time consuming and costly. We will assess complexity and cost of fixing certain documents if we are unable to rectify an accessibility issue. If you find any problems with any documents that you think are not meeting accessibility requirements, please email webteam@cherwell-dc.gov.uk.

If we are claiming a disproportionate burden for the document we will share our assessment.

Non-Compliance with the accessibility regulations

Issues with interactive tools and transactions

We are aware that some internal applications and externally hosted systems do not comply with accessibility and usability standards.

We will work with our suppliers to improve the accessibility of these sites as much as possible.

We are aware that Cookiebot that we use for cookie consent management has an issue affecting users requiring assistive technologies. The supplier is reworking the product and are taking this into account for the re-design.

We’re aware that Google Recaptcha, that’s used to authenticate users completing our feedback forms, does not comply with accessibility requirements. This is neither funded, developed by, or under the control of Cherwell District Council.

We are aware that Esri that we use for My Neighbourhood mapping does not comply to accessibility requirements. Esri are working towards the development of WCAG 2.1 compliant products.

Some parts of this site link to, or use, content provided by other websites. These are not always as accessible as our site. Examples include:

  • YouTube videos
  • Google Maps

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We continuously improve our website’s accessibility based on user and automated testing. We hold monthly accessibility meetings to measure our progress.

We also run mandatory accessibility training courses for our web content authors. During these we promote the importance of accessibility using our internal communication channels.

We are speaking to our third-party suppliers about improving the accessibility of their products.

We also use Sitemorse. They have been publishing independent audits of the quality of public and private sector websites for over 10 years.

An INDEX provides a benchmark as to how websites are performing against 8 Assessment Categories:

  • Accessibility
  • Brand
  • Code / HTML
  • Email
  • Links (function)
  • Performance
  • Search (SEO)
  • Spelling.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 28 November 2019 when it was first published. It was last reviewed on 04 March 2022.