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Website Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Statement for Oursouthdowns.co.uk


This accessibility statement applies to the oursouthdowns.co.uk website:


This website is run by the South Downs National Park Authority. 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 (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 parts of this website are not fully accessible. You can see a full list of any issues we currently know about in the Non-accessible content section of this statement. Through Google Chrome’s accessibility checker, our homepage was given an accessibility score of 95%.  

 

Feedback and contact information


If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please email enterprise@southdowns.gov.uk, alternatively you can call us on 01730 814810 from 9:00 am – 4:30 pm, Monday to Friday, and from 9:00 am – 2.30pm on Saturdays (August) and Bank Holidays.
We will consider your request and get back to you in seven 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 accessibility requirements, contact us by telephone: 01730 814810, or email; enterprise@southdowns.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


Our main office is at the South Downs Centre in Midhurst, West Sussex.

Here are the ways to contact us:
Email enterprise@southdowns.gov.uk or call us on 01730 814810 from 9:00 am – 4:30 pm, Monday to Friday.

 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility


The South Downs National Park Authority 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 2.1 AA standard. The non-compliances and exemptions are listed below.

Review process

• Conformance tested for WCAG 2.1 Level AA 
• URL: https://www.oursouthdowns.co.uk 

Testing tools:


• Google Lighthouse – Browser extension 
• Monsido – Website accessibility tool

Based on this evaluation, the Our South Downs website is close to meeting WCAG 2.1 Conformance Level AA guidelines. A review of the results from a cross-section of the page is available below. 
The issues and tasks are broken down into responsibilities for: Content Editor and Developer.

 

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Level A (Items needing addressed)

Responsibility: Content Editor

• Alt text for all img elements that are not used as source anchors conveys the same information as the image.
o WCAG: 1.1.1
o 65 pages
o Details: Alt text must be appropriate and meaningful for image.
• User interface for script must be accessible.
o WCAG: 2.1.1
o 66 pages
o Details: Make programmatic elements such as scripts and applets directly accessible or compatible with assistive technologies.
• Colour alone should not be used in the script
o WCAG: 1.4.1
o 67 pages
o Details: Ensure that all information conveyed with colour is also available without colour, for example from context or markup.

Responsibility: Developer

• Visited link text colour must contrast sufficiently with its background colour.
o WCAG: 1.4.3
o 66 pages
o Details: The visual presentation of visited link text must have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1, except for large-scale text, which must have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 as determined by a contrast algorithm specified by WCAG2.0. Large scale text is considered to be at least 18-point (or 14 point when bold).
• The luminosity contrast ratio between text and background colour in all images is at least 4.5:1.
o WCAG: 1.4.3
o 65 pages
o Details: Make sure that users can read text that is presented over a background.
• Form submission data is presented to the user before final acceptance for all irreversible transactions.
o WCAG: 3.3.4
o 65 pages
o Details: Provide users with a way to ensure their input is correct before completing an irreversible transaction.
• User interface components with labels that include text or images of text has the text that is presented visually contained in the name.
o WCAG: 2.5.3
o 65 pages
o Details: This check is important as it allows speech input users who are reliant on speech input to activate controls directly without initiating unexpected changes of focus. Also, text-to-speech users will benefit from the fact that the visible text labels on the screen will match with the labels they hear.
 

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

Portable Document Format (PDF) and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services.
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 historical council meeting minute documents published before 23rd September 2018.
 

Video content

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. We also have some existing pre-recorded video content that was published before the 23rd September 2020. This content is also exempt from the regulations.

 

Online Maps

Our service includes the use of online maps to show certain geographical information. These are not used for navigational purposes and are exempt under the regulations. If you require the information presented in an online map in a different format, please contact us to discuss reasonable adjustments.

 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

The South Downs National Park Authority is doing the following to improve accessibility:
Undertaking a review of all our published content to identify areas where we can change content from being in PDF or Word documents into HTML pages.
We are using an automated testing tool to help us identify areas of our website that do not meet accessibility requirements so that we can fix them.
We will be having biannual audits to help us identify areas of our website that do not meet accessibility requirements so that we can fix them.
 

Preparation of this accessibility statement


This statement was prepared on 30th May 2024. It will be reviewed biannually and when updates to accessibility standard are changed.
This website was last tested on 2nd May 2024. Future tests will be carried out by an external accessibility tester. 

A representative sample of the website was tested along with a sample of documents.