Accessibility

This accessibility statement applies to Brickhill Parish Council (https://brickhillparishcouncil.gov.uk) only.

This website is run by Brickhill Parish Council and we want as many people as possible to be able to use it. 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 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. Here are some quick links that may help you get the most out of this and other websites:-

• make your mouse easier to use (opens in new window)
• use your keyboard instead of a mouse (opens in new window)
• talk to your device (opens in new window)
• make your device talk to you (opens in new window)
• make text larger (opens in new window)
• change your colours (opens in new window)
• magnify the screen (opens in new window)

How accessible this website is;

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 aims at making web content more accessible. The core foundation of this website is 100% WCAG 2.1 compliant and should be fully accessible.

Being WCAG 2.1 compliant allows us to reach a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these, and is extremely important in making this website content more usable.

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact the Clerk by: –

• email clerk@brickhillparishcouncil.gov.uk or
• call (01234) 271 708
• write to us at St Mark’s Church & Community Centre, Calder rise, Brickhill, Bedford, MK41 7UY
• use our contact form on the ‘contact us’ page

We’ll certainly consider your request and get back to you within 14 days.

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 let us know immediately so that we can investigate and wherever possible, correct the matter. Our contact details can be found on the ‘contact us’ page

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).

You are always welcome to visit. There is accessible car parking, toilet facilities and a ramped entrance. Just contact us first as the office is not always manned.

Refer to our ‘contact us’ page to learn where to find and contact us.

Brickhill 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

Despite the core foundation of the website meeting all requirements, certain elements that are included do not. As a result we feel that this website is only partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. The areas that we consider non-compliant are listed below.

• Older PDF files such as Meeting Minutes and Agendas published before 23rd September 2018.
• Scanned documents eg Audits or documents that may include signatures.
• Video content
• Content produced by third parties or using third party software.

Third party software includes but is not limited to:

• Facebook & Twitter Feeds
  Integration of these live feeds may fail on certain devices and as such is deemed not to meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose).
• Google Maps
  The Google Maps that are embedded in the website are not accessible for screen readers. The pages on which these maps appear are the Contact and Education pages. The maps do not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). However, to reduce the impact of these maps being inaccessible to some readers, written addresses are included.

PDFs and other documents

Many of the older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they are accessible to screen readers. This fails to meet:

• WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).
• WCAG 2.0 success criterion 2.4.5 Multiple Ways
• WCAG 2.0 success criterion 2.4.8 Location

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services. For example, we do not plan to fix documents such as agendas, minutes and financial documents prior to 2018.

The Parish Council are required, by law, to upload a number of documents that have been approved and signed (the end of year audit for example), this is done by scanning the document and uploading as a PDF filetype. The very nature of a scanned document is not accessible and often OCR conversion of the document is not perfect. This will be reviewed, likely in 2025 to see if technology or regulations have changed.

We have no control over the accessibility standards adopted by third parties. Examples include the Borough Councillor Reports, Bus Timetables and other articles, posters and advertising material designed and submitted by members of the public or business community for inclusion either here on our website or the Newsletter.

Any new PDFs or Word documents the Council publish will aim to meet accessibility standards, unless these documents are in a format which cannot be made accessible easily. If you are unable to access any document on this website due to its format, please contact the Clerk via the methods mentioned above.

We will be running regular accessibility checks and ensure that new content added to the website meets accessibility requirements where possible.

This statement was prepared on 29th October 2020.

This website was last tested on 29th October 2020.

The test was carried out via Brickhill Parish Council (self-evaluation) on representative pages following the Government accessibility checklist and using the Wave Accessibility Evaluation Tool.

We focused on the most popular website pages to test, including the latest News, Minutes and Agenda pages.

This Accessibility Statement is approved by:

Brickhill Parish Council
Sue Bottoms
Clerk to the Council