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Accessibility statement for www.barnstapletowncouncil.gov.uk

This website is run by Barnstaple Town 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’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 this website is

We know some content uploaded to this website is not fully accessible:

  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams do not have captions
  • there’s a limit to how far you can magnify the map on our ‘Contact us’ page, which is provided by a third party (Google)

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

  • email admin@barnstapletowncouncil.gov.uk
  • call 01271 373311
  • write to us or visit us at: Barum House, The Square, Barnstaple, Devon, EX32 8LS

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

If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, call or email us for directions

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:

Town Clerk
Barnstaple Town Council
Barum House
The Square
Barnstaple
Devon
EX32 8LS

Email: admin@barnstapletowncouncil.gov.uk

Tel: 01271 373311

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

Our reception at Barum House has an audio induction loop and we are looking at introducing this in other Town Council owned buildings. If you contact us before your visit we can try to arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to contact us https://www.barnstapletowncouncil.gov.uk/contact

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Barnstaple Town 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 framework is compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. Some content is partially compliant, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non accessible content

Some pages may contain attachments which are not currently compliant, such as:

  • Older PDF files such as Meeting Minutes and Agendas published before 23rd September 2018.
  • Videos.
  • Content produced by third parties or using third party software.

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

We will do all we can to identify content that is non-compliant.

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

We plan to add text alternatives for all images by September 2021. When we publish new content we will make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden

We have not identified any areas that we believe constitute a disproportionate burden.

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

PDFs and other documents

Not all documents on this website are created by us. Some documents and content may be created by third parties or using third party software. Where this is the case we will endeavour, on request, to obtain an accessible copy from the original source or to convey the information contained in the document in an accessible way.

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).

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. For example, we do not plan to fix meeting agendas or minutes for meetings which were published prior to 23 September 2018.

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 2021, where possible, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

Any new PDFs or Word documents created by us will meet accessibility standards.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested in February 2021. Tests were carried out by both internal systems and our website provider, Aubergine 262.

We tested a sample of pages:

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We plan to improve accessibility on this website by addressing non-compliance issues (where possible) by September 2021.

We will provide staff training to ensure that all new content added meets accessibility criteria.

We also run quarterly reports to identify and address accessibility issues.

This statement was prepared on 20 January 2021.
It was last updated on 10 February 2021.

Modern.Gov

We link to some content which is hosted by Modern.Gov
The Modern.gov accessibility statement is as follows:
“The content of this website has been designed to work towards AA standards of the W3C 2.0 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. We aim to continually make improvements to meet these guidelines. The design and coding of the website has been implemented to support adaptive technologies (such as screen readers and text-only browsers). Maintaining an accessible site is an ongoing process and Civica are continually working to offer a user friendly experience. However, if you have any problems using this web site please let us know via the Modern.gov Contacts page.”
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