Accessibility statement for Guildford Borough Council

This accessibility statement applies to the following websites in the Guildford Borough Council digital estate:

These websites are run by Guildford Borough Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use our 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 a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

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

How accessible this website is

We are aware of some issues that may affect the accessibility of some parts of the website:

some parts of our online forms may be difficult for people who use screen reader to engage with
some people may find form errors difficult to resolve

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@guildford.gov.uk
call: 01483 505050

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, contact us:

email: webteam@guildford.gov.uk
call: 01483 505050

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).

Technical information about this website's accessibility

Guildford Borough 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

These websites are 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

Page design

Links within the About My Area section are only distinguished by a change in colour, which may be imperceivable to people with visual impairment or colour blindness. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.4.1 (Use of Colour).

We plan to provide an additional visual indication (e.g. an underline) to show that text is a link by October 2023. Any new links with follow this new convention.

Page structure

Heading elements are not used correctly with the About my Area section, which can make it difficult for some users to discern the structure of the webpage. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and relationships).

We plan to review and update all heading elements to ensure they are used correctly by October 2023. Any new pages will use heading elements correctly from creation.

Navigation, links and buttons

Some minor page elements, such as the tooltip available on our login page, are not keyboard operable so will be inaccessible to non-mouse users. This fails WCAG success criterion 2.1.1 (Keyboard).

We plan to make all page elements keyboard operable by October 2023.

Interactive forms

Some forms fields are missing programmatic labels, or the labels are not associated with the interactive page element, so the labels are not announced in a useful way by a screen reader. This fails WCAG success criteria 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value), 1.3.1 (Info and relationships) and 3.3.2 (Labels or Instructions)

We plan to add programmatic labels to our form fields by October 2023. Any new forms will be developed with appropriate labels.

The error messaging on some of our forms is generic and does not describe how to correct the error. This fails WCAG success criterion 3.3.3 (Error suggestion)

We plan to change our error messaging so it accurately describes the issue and how to fix it by October 2023. Any new forms will be added with descriptive error messaging.

The status messaging within the Council Tax section of the MyGuildford website is not announced by the screen reader so blind users will be unaware an error has occurred. This fails WCAG success criterion 4.1.3 (Status Message).

We plan to make the error messaging assertive by October 2023.

Disproportionate burden

Some of the issues above are present on the following parts of our website.

The pages are built and hosted through third party software and 'skinned' to look like our website. As a result, we have limited ability to make direct changed to these pages to resolve the accessibility issues.

We have assessed the costs of moving to a new, more accessible system and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

We have engaged the providers of these websites to ask them to fix the issues identified. When we come to reassess the suppliers we use we will also make accessibility a key criteria for any third party we engage with in the future.

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

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.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

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

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 21 March 2022. It was last reviewed on 19 January 2023.

This website was last tested on 17 February 2022. This website was tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level A and level AA, and the test was carried out by Web Usability Partnership Ltd.

We used the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test.