Accessibility

Cocking.org  is run by Cocking Parish Council, which is responsible for the accessibility of web pages served by the website.  The Council is not however responsible for linked pages where it has no control or influence over either content or technology.   Linked pages include those accessed using hyperlinks found on cocking.org pages or accessed via the website's menus.

Using this website

 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% 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 (for example, the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We have also made the website text as straightforward as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

[Note: In this section we attempt to provide information that a user can act on - for example, by avoiding a particular section of the website, using an accessibility tool to enhance the experience or requesting an alternative version rather than wasting time trying to make it work with their assistive technology.  We have tried to list the issues in order of most impact to least impact.]

We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible:

  • you can change the text size, but you can’t modify the line height or spacing of text

  • some older PDF documents may not be fully accessible to screen reader software

  • you can’t skip to the main content when using a screen reader

  • the output from the Broadband Speed graphic may not be readable with all screen readers

  • contrast may not be adequate for all users on all pages, but you can use the tools at the top of the page to change the contrast settings.


What to do if you can’t 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 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or go to the Contact Page and send us a message..

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 7 days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website.

If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, please contact us via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing 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 do not currently have any offices where you can visit us.  If you want to meet someone in person, please contact us to arrange a venue and time.

Find out how to contact us via our contact page.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Cocking Parish 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.

Issues you may find

In each subsection below, we aim to say:

  • what the accessibility problems are

  • when we plan to fix them

  • if we don’t plan to fix them, why not (for example, the type of content is exempt from the regulations, or we believe that ‘disproportionate burden’ applies)

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing these issues and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when we next do a major redevelopment of the website.

Issues with text

  1. No ‘skip to main content’ option on any pages.
  2. It’s not possible for users to modify text spacing or line height.

Issues with PDFs and other documents

  1. Some of our older PDFs don’t meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be marked up so they’re accessible to a screen reader.
  2. Some of our PDFs are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on 'transparency' that we are obliged to publish.  By September 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.
  3. Note: The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services although we don't think we have many of these apart from past Council Papers.
  4. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Issues with images, video and audio

We do not currently publish any video material. If we do so in the future, we don’t plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Issues with interactive tools and transactions

The colour contrast on error messages may sometimes be too low.

We plan to work with our supplier to fix the issue with colour contrast by September 2020.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigating the forms using a keyboard and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment at a later date.

Issues with the mobile version

Viewing the website on a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet may present similar problems to viewing it on a personal computer.  However there may be additional navigation problems which we are attempting to address after the main website has reached an acceptable accessibility standard.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested on 9th October 2019. The test was carried out by ourselves using the WAVE online tool from AIM (Accessibility in Mind), and by manual checking against standard World Wide Web Consortium (W3C ) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Evaluation Methodology Reporting Tool (WCAG-EM Report Tool).

We tested all pages on our website platform, available at https://cocking.org.

Please contact us if you are interested in further details.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are continually working to improve accessibility on this website and will publicise any changes or plans as they occur.

This statement was initially prepared on 30th September, 2019.

 

Last updated: 07 Aug 2020