Accessibility statement for www.essexdesignguide.co.uk

This accessibility statement applies to Place Services website located at www.essexdesignguide.co.uk
This website is run by Place Services, a traded service of Essex 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:

• 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)

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 do not know how accessible the website is currently as we have not yet been able to test the website due to limited resource for testing against accessibility compliance.

However, we are aware of the need for compliance and we plan to test the website by 31 January 2021. We plan to make all content accessible by 1 June 2021.

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:
Kate.Wilde@essex.gov.uk
03330 137 120

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: Kate Wilde at Kate.Wilde@essex.gov.uk or call 03330 137 120

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
Essex 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.

Compliance status
We do not know the level of compliance the website has with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, as we have not yet been able to test the website against this due to limited resource for testing against accessibility compliance..
However, we are aware of the need for compliance and we plan to test the website by 31 January 2021. We plan to make all content accessible by 1 June 2021.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
Most of our older PDFs and downloadable documents do not meet accessibility standards. However, we plan to ensure that moving forward all PDFs meet WCAG 2.1 Accessibility standards.
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 documents that are essential to providing our services, such as: -

• Information on how users can access our service
• Forms published in word documents and PDFs

We are developing a strategy to ensure that they are made accessible.
The strategy prioritizes PDFs that are opened/used regularly or have information that is a statutory requirement. We are also developing training and guidance to help all document creators develop accessible documents.
Our plans are to ensure that all essential PDFs meet accessibility regulations by 1st June 2021.

Live Video
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 14 October 2020. It was last reviewed on 14 October 2020.
This website has not yet been tested.