Accessibility statement for www.cheshireeast.gov.uk

This accessibility statement applies to www.cheshireeast.gov.uk.

This website is run by Cheshire East 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 colours, contrast levels and fonts
• zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen (we have 21 pages where content may spill off the page)
• 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 have made most of the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

The website has a "Listen and translate" toolbar which can be used to read content aloud and/or translate it into other languages. The ReachDeck toolbar also works on PDF documents.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

• most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
• live video streams do not have captions
• some of our online forms may be difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
• some third party applications may be difficult to navigate using just a keyboard

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 webteam@cheshireeast.gov.uk
• call 0300 123 5500

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 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, you can:

• fill in the form at the bottom of the webpage to say how we can improve the page
• fill in the feedback form on the contact us page
• email webteam@cheshireeast.gov.uk  or
• email Equalityanddiversity@cheshireeast.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

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.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Cheshire East Council is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Technical specifications

Accessibility of Cheshire East Council website relies on the following technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and any assistive technologies or plugins installed on your computer:

• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript

These technologies are relied upon for conformance with the accessibility standards used.

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 issues listed below show that we are not fully accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Disproportionate burden

Interactive tools and transactions

Some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag.

Our forms are built and hosted through third party software and ‘skinned’ to look like our website.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with PDFs 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 supplier contracts are up for renewal, likely to be in over the next two years.

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

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and some forms published as Word documents.

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 leisure walking leaflets.

We check all new PDFs and Word documents and make them as accessible as possible before we publish, unless making the document accessible is a disproportionate burden and would cause us to fail other legal requirements.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are constantly trying to improve the accessibility of our website. 

We have a subscription with Silktide who run automated reports on the pages (except media releases) on our website.  This highlights instances that require attention.  We deal with priority 1 issues first and then work through the list as capacity allows. We review the report regularly (weekly) as the web site is added to daily.

We have recently revised our page templates for most of the site.  We plan to revise the templates and navigation for the Live Well sections of our website in the next six months.

We are working with suppliers of applications we link to from our website to make improvements to accessibility and functionality.

Measures to support accessibility

Cheshire East Council takes the following measures to ensure accessibility of Cheshire East Council website:

• provide continual accessibility training for our staff
• assign clear accessibility targets and responsibilities
• employ formal accessibility quality assurance methods
• accessibility is discussed and supported at our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Board.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 28 January 2022. It was last reviewed on 6 November 2023.

This website was last tested on 6 November 2023. The test was carried out by our web team using a combination of automated checks from Silktide, axe and WAVE and a manual check of pages we revisited.

Page last reviewed: 12 January 2024