Accessibility statement - November 2021
Introduction
Overview
This accessibility statement applies to the main Wiltshire Council website (www.wiltshire.gov.uk) and the essential external websites which support it, including:
- Civica: Online payments portal (opens new window) (www.civicaepay.co.uk) - specifically the products and services catalogue and the account registration process
- Discretionary Housing Payments (www.northgate-nes.co.uk)
- Wiltshire Council payments (orderlink.wiltshire.gov.uk)
- Wiltshire Council forms (ilforms.wiltshire.gov.uk)
Expected functionality
While using this website, and third-party websites which we rely on to provide our services, 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 (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)
Additional resources
AbilityNet (opens new window) has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
Compliance status
Wiltshire Council is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (legislation.gov.uk).
This particular website is run by Wiltshire Council and has been designed inline with the GOV.UK Design System and Government Design Principles so that as many people as possible can access our content and services. We are currently working with external service providers to ensure that a consistent design and level of accessibility is also experience throughout our third-party apps and websites.
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 (opens new window) AA standard, due to the non-compliances detailed in this statement - visit Non-accessible content for more information.
Compliance timeline
2018
September 2018
The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (legislation.gov.uk) came into effect 23 September 2018, requiring all new public sector websites will need to meet accessibility standards and publish an accessibility statement. Any websites published since September 2018 needed to have a statement by September 2019, while older websites had until 2020 to comply - which was the case for Wiltshire Council.
Visit Public sector website accessibility statements - Government Digital Service (blog.gov.uk) for more information on accessibility statement requirements.
2020
August 2020
Wiltshire Council's main website was migrated to a new platform with a much more accessible layout and style, closely following GOV.UK design.
November 2020
An external auditor (Shaw Trust) was commissioned to conduct an accessibility audit.
2021
January 2021
An elective accessibility audit was carried out on the main Wiltshire Council website by Shaw Trust. A detailed report of issues identified was produced 31 January 2021 - Wiltshire Council accessibility assessment report (January 2021) (PDF) [2MB] (opens new window) .
August 2021
An additional accessibility audit was carried out on five websites (including the main Wiltshire Council website) by the Central Digital and Data Office. A detailed report of issues identified was produced 26 August 2021 - Wiltshire Council accessibility monitoring report (August 2021) (PDF) [1MB] (opens new window) .
December 2021
We plan to have all accessibility issues that have been raised with our internal systems resolved by 31 December 2021, provided that they are not considered a disproportionate burden.
We are also working with service providers to ensure that any external systems that we use are compliant as soon as possible and that those who cannot comply are replaced with accessible alternatives.
Visit the following pages for details on what is not currently accessible and when we expect each issue to be resolved:
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
Disproportionate burden
Some Portable Document Format (PDF) and Microsoft Office documents (DOC/DOCX/XLS/XLSX) are considered to be exempt from accessibility regulations if they were created prior to 23 September 2018, or if making them accessible is considered to be a disproportionate burden to the organisation. This exemption is only applies to specific documents or groups of documents that:
- exist or are produced in exceptionally high quantity
- are overly complicated to make accessible
- are contributed to by multiple parties (with Wiltshire Council mainly collating the information)
- are exceptionally large (sample size of over 10-30 pages)
Each document is assessed on a case-by-case basis. For example, while a single 30-page document of plain text may not be exempt if it's easy to convert, we might consider 10 pages of complicated diagrams, or a large group of smaller documents which are heavily related, to be burdensome to convert when the content is not critical to offering our services or frequently accessed/requested.
The following data (captured 8 September 2021) contains a sample of analysed documents (50% of the all documents uploaded to the main Wiltshire Council website) and highlights the proportion we believe to be exempt:
Status of documents | Count | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Still under review | 1850 | 50% |
Requires disproportionate burden (exempt) | 736 | 19.89% |
Created before 23 September 2018 (exempt) | 425 | 11.49% |
Removed as outdated or no longer needed | 403 | 10.89% |
Replaced with compliant document or HTML webpage(s) | 161 | 4.35% |
Other - mostly forms in development | 90 | 2.43% |
Used as evidence in original format (exempt) | 35 | 0.94% |
On 8 December 2021, we recorded 3295 PDF and Word documents across the main Wiltshire Council website (www.wiltshire.gov.uk), shared between 469 unique pages.
The majority of the documents we consider to be exempt through disproportionate burden fall within the following service areas:
Impact
The following two tables detail the number of users impacted by non-accessible documents over the last 12 months (recorded 8 December 2021).
Views | Percentage | |
---|---|---|
Any pages on Wiltshire Council website (www.wiltshire.gov.uk) | 9,378,384 | 100% |
Planning pages (www.wiltshire.gov.uk/planning*) | 900,244 | 9.59% |
Highways pages (www.wiltshire.gov.uk/highways*) | 92,489 | 0.98% |
Licences and permits pages (www.wiltshire.gov.uk/licences*) | 42,311 | 0.45% |
Accessibility statement (www.wiltshire.gov.uk/accessibility) | 2,906 | 0.03% |
Downloads in the last 12 months | Users | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Downloaded any document | 391,112 | 4.17% |
Downloaded a document from Planning pages | 55,418 | 0.59% |
Downloaded a document from Highways pages | 12,105 | 0.13% |
Downloaded a document from Licences and permits pages | 8,797 | 0.09% |
Costs
Increasing the rate in which new and historic document files are converted to an accessible format in order to comply with accessibility regulations to WCAG AA standard would require adding additional technical resources to the core web team or service teams affected. At a time when budgets are being reduced across the council, we cannot afford to provide additional support to convert documents.
In an effort to increase the conversion rate of PDF forms specifically, we are in the process of recruiting an additional Web Operations Officer, which would double the number of technical resources dedicated to creating forms on this website. This position has been advertised at a salary range of £32,910 - £34,728 on five occasions in the last 24 months, three of which were advertised externally and once offered to agencies. As this role requires specialist technical knowledge, there are no additional existing resources available internally.
Duration
We do not currently foresee a point where a disproportionate burden no longer applies but plan to review this on a yearly basis.
We currently have less than 12 months left until our contract with our current platform provider expires, however, moving platform would not help to resolve the issue as it is related to the files attached.
Progress
We have made an 11% reduction in files by removing 407 outdated documents in the last two months (8 September 2021) and plan to regularly review to ensure content remains up to date and relevant across all websites.
Requests
Accessible alternatives of any content can always be provided on request - visit Requesting alternative formats for more information.
Accessibility of internal services
We know that some parts of this website are not fully accessible, including some third-party systems/services which it relies on. Accessibility issues identified on our internal services are detailed on this page.
Third-party systems
Some third-party systems that this website links to may also have non-compliant mark-up and/or functionality - visit Accessibility of external services for more information.
Accessibility of external services
Third-party systems that this website links to may also contain non-compliant HTML mark-up and/or functionality. External websites affected include:
- Civica eStore (civicaepay.co.uk) - used to browse products/services (opens new window) and process online payments
- Northgate (Northgate-nes.co.uk) - council tax options (opens new window) and discretionary housing payments (opens new window)
Testing details
This website was tested for accessibility by Shaw Trust (opens new window) in Q4 2020 and by the Central Digital and Data Office (opens new window) in Q3 2021.
Tools used in these audits include:
- axe: Accessibility Testing Tools and Software (opens new window)
- The W3C Markup Validation Service (opens new window)
- Colour Contrast Checker (opens new window)
- Adobe Acrobat Pro DC (opens new window)
Wiltshire Council's internal web developers and content team continuously to utilise tools (such as axe DevTools) to self assess and is in the process of procuring a digital governance management service (Silktide) to help editors to identify and prioritise issues across all websites.
Previous external audits
January 2021 - Wiltshire Council accessibility assessment report (January 2021) (PDF) [2MB] (opens new window) (conducted by Shaw Trust (opens new window)).
August 2021 - Wiltshire Council accessibility monitoring report (August 2021) (PDF) [1MB] (opens new window) (conducted by the Central Digital and Data Office (opens new window)).
Requesting alternative formats
If you need any content from this website provided in a different format, please contact the relevant service.
Alternative formats include:
- accessible digital document
- large print
- easy read
- audio recording
- braille
Alternative digital file formats include:
- OpenDocument Text (ODT)
- OpenDocument Spreadsheet (ODS)
- Microsoft Word (DOC/DOCX )
- Microsoft Excel (XLS/XLSX)
- Portable Document Format (PDF)
Contact details can be found on individual service pages or the main Contact page.
Reporting issues
We're always trying to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed in this statement, please provide your feedback using the links at the bottom of this page or contact us directly.
Enforcement procedure
Equality and Human Rights Commission EHRC (opens new window) is responsible for enforcing the The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (opens new window) (the 'accessibility regulations'). If you're not happy with how we respond to your complaint, please contact the Equality and Advisory Support Service (EASS) (opens new window).
Preparation of this statement
This statement was prepared on 21 August 2020 and was updated on 20 July 2021.
Wiltshire Council accessibility assessment report (January 2021) (PDF) [2MB] (opens new window)