Accessibility Statement
This accessibility statement applies to the Dover District Council website hosted on the domain www.dover.gov.uk
This website is operated by Dover District Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
- Change most foreground and background colours zoom-in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
- navigate most of the website using a keyboard
- listen to most of the website using a screen reader (tested using NVDA screen reader)
The wording of the website is intended to be as simple as possible to understand.
AbilityNet has guidance on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
Contents
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible yet, this includes:
- Some downloadable files, such as PDF documents, may not be as accessible as they could be to screen reader software
- When increasing the font size significantly, this may adversely affect the positioning and sizing of surrounding content, such as images and icons
- Colour contrast for text that is displayed using images cannot be modified
- If printed, information from the website such as URLs of hyperlinks will not be visible
- Some pre-recorded video or audio media may not have a text equivalent such as subtitles or transcript.
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 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, please contact us with a description of the problem. The Digital Services department will be the first point of contact to handle accessibility issues submitted via this online form.
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).
We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.
Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.
Find out how to contact us.
Dover 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
- Some non-decorative images may 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). At time of writing, we are adding alternative text for all non-decorative images across the website and putting processes in place ensure all new non-decorative images published are compliant with this criterion.
- Some images of text may not have sufficient contrast between text and background colour and may pose difficulties for people with low vision. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)) and 1.4.5 (Images of Text). At time of writing, we are in the process of replacing images of text with accessible text equivalent.
- Some pre-recorded video or audio media may not have a text-based equivalent such as subtitles or transcript, posing difficulties for people with sight or hearing difficulties. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.1 (Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded)). At time of writing, we are in the process of implementing text-based equivalents for media content.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other downloadable documents
Where essential to providing our services, PDF (Portable Document Format) files will be replaced with accessible HTML website pages. 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, nor heritage collections such as scanned manuscripts.
Any new PDFs or Word documents, that could not be published as a HTML web page, will be published meeting the allowed accessibility standards of those formats.
Live video and audio
Live video and audio is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations, and captions may not always be available.
Maps
Maps are exempt from meeting accessibility regulations. Essential information, such as addresses will be made available and accessible.
Third party content
Content controlled by third parties, who are not contractors of Dover District Council, is exempt from accessibility regulations. For example, social media “like” buttons.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
- We recently commissioned an accessibility audit by the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) to report issues identified across the Dover District Council website. This included automated testing, expert manual compliance audit and testing by users with a range of disabilities.
- We use software tools to monitor and identify accessibility issues on the website
- We have allocated website developer resource to address identified issues
- We are implementing processes and guidance to support accessibility best practice for website content
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on Monday 4th October 2021. It was last reviewed on Tuesday 19th October 2021.This website was last tested on 8th June 2020. The test was carried out by the Digital Accessibility Centre.
The sample of pages that were tested in the audit was determined from identifying the most popular services that members of the public accessed through the Dover District Council website.