Accessibility information

Overview

This website is managed by Shifnal Town 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.
• 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 s screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver).

We have 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:

• Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
• Documents pre-dating September 2018 (and some more recent documents; however these are being reviewed and amended where possible each month).
• Finance documents.
• Some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard or screen reader.
• Some images may not have descriptive alt text.

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

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

• Email : info@shifnaltowncouncil.gov.uk
• Call : 01952 461420
• Write to : Shifnal Town Council, Shifnal Community Hub, Tudor Way, Shifnal, TF11 8DJ

We will consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.

Reporting accessibility issues with the website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact us on 01952 461420 or email info@shifnaltowncouncil.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 are 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

For people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

Our facility at The Old Fire Station has an audio induction loop and we are looking at possibly introducing this in other Town Council owned buildings. If you contact us before your visit we can try to arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

If you do need to visit or ring, we can be located in Shifnal Community Hub, Tudor Way, Shifnal, TF11 8DJ or telephone 01952 461420.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

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

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Pictures of event or information posters, when provided by a third party – where possible we provide the information from the picture, within the web page’s text (via HTML). We will encourage all providers of these pictures to provide accessible alternatives in future.

Some PDFs published since September 2018 are not in an accessible format, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. With our limited resources, where possible, we aim to update one month of documents from the period September 2018 – September 2020 every month, with the aim of completing this by September 2023. However if you require a certain document from this period that is not in an accessible format, please contact us for an alternative format. When we publish new content we will make sure our use of PDFs meets accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden

Some of the services listed on our website are provided by third-party organisations and linked to our website. These include:

• Events

Navigation and accessing information

It is not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.

It is not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping.

Interactive map

Maps displayed by Google Maps – we do not control how Google Maps displays information but where possible we provide addresses within the web page’s text (via HTML). When Google makes their map output accessible, we will update our technology accordingly.

Financial Documents

Our finance reports are provided through a 3^rd party and are therefore not accessible. If you require any financial information, please contact the office to discuss alternative formats.

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Not all documents on this website are created by us. Some documents and content may be created by third parties or using third party software. Where this is the case we will endeavour, on request, to obtain an accessible copy from the original source or to convey the information contained in the document in an accessible way.

Many of our older PDFs do not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they are accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

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 meting agendas or minutes for meetings which were published prior to 23 September 2018.

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. By September 2023, where possible, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible pages.

Any new PDF’s created by us will meet accessibility standards.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested in June 2022. Tests were carried out by both internal systems and our website provider, Aubergine 262.

We tested a sample of pages.

This statement was prepared on 21^st July 2022.

It was last updated on 21^st July 2022