This accessibility statement applies to the Batcombe Parish Council website - www.batcombe-parish-council-somerset.org.uk

This website is run by Batcombe Parish Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.  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:

• the text will not reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window
• you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
• most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software

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:

email - clerk@batcombe-parish-council-somerset.org.uk
call - 01749 850934

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible, but please be aware the Council only has one employee who works seven hours a week.

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 the Clerk with details of these issues.

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

Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Batcombe 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.

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

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 2020. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Page headings are correctly styled, but subheadings on the page are just normal text in bold.  These need to be styled correctly to allow screen readers to skip to relevant content.  This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.10 (section headings).

We plan to add style all subheading correctly by September 2020.  When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of headings meets accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden

Navigation and accessing information

The pages on the website did not reformat when using zoom meaning the horizontal scroll was required to read the pages. 

Interactive tools and transactions

When clicking on the field labels in our form the cursor does not appear in the corresponding field.  (Our website only has one form with three fields.)

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when the website is reviewed, likely to be in 2022.

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

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and other documents are essential to providing our services.  For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services.  We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23rd September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.  For example, we do not plan to fix Minutes of meetings held before September 2018.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations and there is no live video on our website.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We plan to improve accessibility on this website by:

• providing alternative text for all images by September 2020
• correctly styling subheadings on the website by September 2020
• correctly styling headings in essential PDFs by December 2020
• correctly styling headings in non-essential PDFs published after September 2018 by December 2021

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22nd September 2020. It was last reviewed on 22nd September 2020.

This website was last tested on 17th September 2020.  The test was carried out by the Clerk of Batcombe Parish Council.

We used this approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test - we tested the home page and a sample of additional pages that included separate pages with links, documents to download, tables and a form. 

You can read the full accessibility test report - to download click on the icon below.