Accessibility Statement

Page updated: 12 January 2023

Accessibility statement for west-lindsey.gov.uk

This accessibility statement applies to the website at west-lindsey.gov.uk

This website is run by West Lindsey 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:

  • 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 the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We’re also making 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:

  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams and pre-recorded committee meetings do not have captions nor audio descriptions.
  • some of our online forms are difficult to fill in using just a keyboard
  • our planning permission search using the map is difficult using just a keyboard – Search our Planning Application Database instead
  • our planning permission documents page is not fully accessible
  • our online payment system (‘eStore’) is not fully accessible
  • our ‘Democracy’ site is not fully accessible
  • our ‘Jobs’ site is not fully accessible
  • our ‘Home Choice’ site is not fully accessible

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:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 14 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, contact our customer services:

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

Our offices have in built audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit, we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter for when you visit us in person

We have a contract with Language Line for customers whose first language is not English for telephone interpretation

Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

West Lindsey 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.

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

Non accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Our online payment system (‘eStore’) is not fully compliant; this is due to limitations in the payment portal supplied by our provider. The system currently fails on a number of WCAG 2.1 success criterion, including 1.1.1 (Non-text Content), 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), 1.4.4 (Resize Text), 1.4.10 (Reflow), 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)), 2.4.7 (Focus Visible)
  • We are due to upgrade to a new (compliant) system by the end of April 2022.
  • Our ‘Democracy’ site is not fully compliant; this is due to limitations in the governance & meeting management system. This system fails on a number of success criterion, including 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels), 4.1.1 (Parsing)
    We are working with our supplier to resolve these issues
  • Some PDF documents created prior to 18 December 2021 on our ‘Democracy’ site do not have the language; this is due to limitations in our governance & meeting management system. This fails on WCAG 2.1 success criterion, 3.1.1 Language of Page.
    This issue was resolved on 17 December 2021 and any PDF documents created on our on our ‘Democracy’ site after this date will have the correct language set.
  • Our ‘Jobs’ site is not fully compliant; this is due to limitations in the HR and payroll system. This system fails on a number of success criterion, including 1.1.1 (Non-text Content), 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), 2.1.1 (Keyboard)
    We are working with our supplier to resolve these issues
  • Our ‘Home Choice’ site is not fully compliant; this is due to limitations in the Choice Based Lettings system. This system fails on a number of success criterion, including 1.1.1 (Non-text Content), 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)), 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels), 4.1.1 (Parsing)
    We will be working with our supplier to resolve these issues
  • The document management system we use to display planning application documents is not fully compliant; it fails on a number of success criterion, including 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)) and 3.1.1 (Language of Page)
    We plan to have a new (compliant) system in place by April 2022.
  • A number of our downloadable documents, including PDFs, are not fully compliant.
    We will be working towards replacing these documents with either compliant versions or converting the content into webpages.
  • We provide access to a number of third party documents, such as Neighbourhood Plans, many of these may not be compliant, however as these have not been created by West Lindsey District Council we are unable to resolve the any issues they may have.

Disproportionate burden

Pre-recorded video
  • Pre-recorded videos of committee meetings do not have captions, nor do they have full transcriptions.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with these pre-recorded videos. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

Our supplier regularly reviews the cost and accuracy of subtitling technology and audio description technology these will be added it to our site as soon as they become feasible, for more details see the Accessibility Statement on our ‘Public-i' website.

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

PDFs and other documents

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

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 forms published as Word documents. By September 2020, 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 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we do not plan to fix Abandoned Vehicles 2017 nor Smoke Control Order - Lincoln Fringe 1990.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish we will endeavour to have them meet the required accessibility standards. We also provide access to a number of third party documents, such as Neighbourhood Plans, many of these may not be compliant, however as these have not been created by West Lindsey District Council we are unable to resolve the any issues they may have.

We can provide documents in braille, if requested, with a typical turnaround time of approximately 10 working days – sometimes more for very large documents.

We can provide documents in larger print and alternative languages on request with a typical turnaround time of 5 working days.

Live video

Live video streams do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live).

We do not have plans to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations, however our supplier regularly reviews the cost and accuracy of subtitling technology and this will be added it to our site as soon as it become feasible to do so, for more details see the Accessibility Statement on our ‘Public-i' website.

Maps

This website contains embedded maps provided by Google, these maps use some images that do not have alternate text. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content)

How we tested this website

This website is tested and reviewed on a continuous basis. These tests are a combination of automated and manual checks using the Monsido Web Accessibility tool and additional manual checks using the Wave Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool and the axe: Accessibility Testing Tool.

We test:

  • our main website platform, available at west-lindsey.gov.uk
  • our microsites, available at planning.west-lindsey.gov.uk and democracy.west-lindsey.gov.uk – these are separate websites built on different technical platforms but ‘skinned’ to look like our main website
  • Our Firmstep form solution, Civica Epay Payment Portal and Home Choices – these are services hosted by third parties using different technical platforms but ‘skinned’ where possible to look like our website

You can read the full Monsido accessibility checks report: West Lindsey Accessibility Checks Report.

Preparation of this accessibility statement 

This statement was initially prepared on 23 July 2020. It was last reviewed and updated on 28 February 2024.