Accessibility Statement

Feedback and contact information

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

• email communications@horsham.gov.uk
• call us using our contact the Council page.

We will consider the request and respond within 5 working days.

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 the Digital Communications Team:

• Phone: 01403 215100
• Email: communications@horsham.gov.uk
• Postal address: Parkside, Chart Way, Horsham RH12 1RL

We try to respond to feedback within 5 working days.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has useful tips on contacting organisations about inaccessible websites.

Formal complaints

We aim to respond to accessibility feedback within 5 working days, and to propose a solution within 10 working days.

You are entitled to escalate a complaint to the Council’s complaints officer yoursay@horsham.gov.uk, should you be dissatisfied with our response to you.

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 office at Parkside has disabled access.

We can take calls using the Text Relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

Visit our Contact page to find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Horsham District Council 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, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

We are currently reviewing all of our websites and this list will be updated as more information becomes available. In the meantime, we are working to address all of the issues listed below and will update this statement as necessary.

• Some carousel elements are missing focus when accessed by keyboard. ARIA attributes don’t conform to valid values. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7: Focus Visible and 4.1.2: Name, Role, Value.
• Pre-recorded videos are missing audio description or media alternative. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.3: Audio Description or Media Alternative (Pre-recorded) and 1.2.5: Audio Description (Pre-recorded)
• Pre-recorded video-only missing a text transcript of dialogue, narration, and other meaningful sounds. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.1: Audio-only and Video-only
• Form errors are not automatically detected for screen readers. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.1: Error Identification, 3.3.3: Error Suggestion and 4.1.3: Status Messages
• Forms are not programmatically labelled for autofill. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose
• Images on some pages do not always have suitable image descriptions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1: Non-text Content
• Some PDF documents do not have titles that describe the topic or purpose of the page. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2: Page Titles

Third party content

Our site includes third party content and functionality that is essential to accessing services.

Depending on our relationship with the third party, we cannot always guarantee its accessibility.

We are working with our suppliers and third party software providers to improve accessibility.

Third party content and functionality includes:

• Adelante payments
• Agile Citizen Portal
• BookWhen
• ESRI mapping software
• Freedom of Information catalogue
• Housing Jigsaw
• Information@Work
• Innovem
• MiPermit parking
• ModernGov
• Planning Portal
• Public Access
• SNAP consultations
• Toplevel forms

Bin calendar

Our personalised bin calendar is a separately written component acquired before 2018 which does not meet the accessibility standards. We are working to redevelop this component.

Documents

We have a number of documents on our website such as Word, PDF or Excel files that do not meet the accessibility standards. We are working towards making sure that all documents that are key to service delivery are accessible. We are converting many documents into web pages or online forms.

Any new Word, PDF or Excel files we publish meet the accessibility standards.

When we produce a document we try to make sure we:

• convert to an HTML page where possible
• tag headings and other parts of the document properly, so screen readers can understand the page structure
• make sure we include alternative text alongside non-decorative images, so people who cannot see them understand what they are for
• avoid using tables, except when presenting data
• write in plain English

Some of our documents are not accessible, including some that:

• are photocopies or scans that are not marked up in a way that allows screen reader users to understand them
• are not tagged up properly - for example, they do not contain proper headings
• are not written in plain English
• are provided by a third party. We are working with our third party document authors to ensure documents they submit to us comply with the regulations
• were created and published before 2018 and are not essential to providing our services. The accessibility regulations do not require the Council to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of our documents. If you find any problems that are not included in this statement, or if you need a document that we have published in a different format, you can request an accessible version by emailing communications@horsham.gov.uk.

Disproportionate burden

We have not identified any disproportionate burdens.

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

PDF documents

The accessibility regulations do not require the Council to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services.

Live video

Live video streams do not have captions. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4. We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Third party content

• Google Maps
• Youtube

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Horsham District Council continues to assess the accessibility of Horsham District Council’s corporate website by the following approaches:

• training for staff on how to create accessible pages and documents
• ongoing monitoring of accessibility issues using automated testing Monsido
• putting procedures in place for when procuring or developing online systems

How we test the website

The Horsham District Council corporate website is continually tested using an automated solution Monsido. All pages of the website and PDF documents within the website are tested.