Accessibility statement

Overview

This website is run by Staffordshire County 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 500% 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’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.

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 do not have captions
some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader on the homepage only
you cannot change the font colour and size

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

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

Website 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 and non compliance with the accessibility regulations

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

some of our older PDF's, Word, Excel, CSV, PowerPoint documents may not be accessible. 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.
some of our images may not have an 'alt-tag'

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

We plan to add text alternatives for all images by May 2023 {REVIEW}. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Platform specific issues

We are aware that some internal applications and externally hosted systems do not comply with accessibility and usability standards. Some are old software that we cannot easily change. We’ve assessed the cost of fixing all the issues listed below and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations:

web tendering portal
pay links pages
secure online payment sites
e-Services (for example online archive catalogue, online archaeology library)
library services (online catalogue)
school admissions
register a birth or death appointment

Some parts of this site link to or use content provided by other websites and these are not always as accessible as our site. Examples of these are:

YouTube videos
webcasts from Public-i
tweets and the Twitter panels from Twitter
maps from Google
Facebook widgets
council meeting videos
committee minutes and agendas search and display system
adult social care assessment portal

Disproportionate burden

We have assessed the cost of fixing the remaining documents for:

Local transport plans
Annual statements
DPS contact award notices
Expenditure exceeding £500
Residential Design Guide
ModernGov documents - meetings and agendas

We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden. This is due to the large number of documents and the cost of fixing them, and the number of users who are likely to access these documents. We're fixing the core documents in priority order to make sure that the most frequently used and needed documents are made accessible first.

There’s no way to skip the repeated content in the homepage header. There is a skip to content on all other pages.

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

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

Content that's not within the scope of 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 forms published as Word documents. By January 2023 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.

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

Live video

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

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 working with service areas to assure that all newly commissioned third party software complies with the latest accessibility regulations.

We are working to reduce the amount of documents that currently do not meet the accessibility regulations and have governance in place that no further documents are added that don't meet accessibility standards. We plan to provide an accessible HTML version of any new information as the primary source rather than using a PDF.

We are working with Silktide and Deque to carry out an accessibility assessment and suggest remedial actions for us to undertake.

We are working to ensure that all videos have the correct captions and have governance in place to ensure no further videos are added without correct captions.

We are working to remove unnecessary images, and where they are necessary, that they have appropriate alt tags and descriptions.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

Last reviewed on 11/11/2024 and will be updated again November 2025.

This website is tested on a weekly basis. The test was carried out by Silktide and will continue to use this tool to make suggested improvements.

We used this approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test, we tested the following:

Homepage
Landing page
informational page
Newsroom

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, please contact us.

Email: digital@staffordshire.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 about accessibility

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.

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: