Accessibility statement for eppingforestdc.gov.uk

This statement applies to the www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk domain.

Epping Forest District Council (EFDC) is fully committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability. We are constantly working to improve the accessibility and usability of our website by adhering to AA Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2.

We aim to improve our accessibility to remove barriers and maximise inclusion.

This website is run by Epping Forest 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:

  • Change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings
  • Zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
  • Navigate most of the website using a keyboard or 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.

  • Some pages and document attachments are not written in plain English
  • PDF’s published before 23 September 2018 may not be accessible. Those published after this date will be accessible
  • Subtitles are provided for some live video and audio content
  • Audio description is not provided for pre-recorded video content

Website testing

We continually test the website using various automated tools such as siteimprove, axe tools, WAVE and accessibilitychecker.org. This website was tested on 20 July 2019 by Shaw Trust, both technically and manually to ensure the highest possible standards of accessibility are maintained.

The website was tested by a team of experienced pan-disabled testers. The team is made up of individuals with different disabilities to cover the widest range of accessibility barriers as possible. Each testing team consists of the following:

  • Keyboard only user
  • Voice activation user
  • Screen reader user
  • Low vision user
  • Colour blind user
  • Deaf or hard of hearing user
  • Learning difficulties user

Amendments to the website have been made in conjunction with our website hosts CIVIC.

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 10 working days.

Accessibility regulations

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).

Epping Forest 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 statement was prepared and reviewed on 25 April 2023.

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:

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 are open Monday to Thursday between 9am and 5.15 pm, and on Friday between 9am and 5pm.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Epping Forest 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.

Compliance status

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

  • PDF’s published before 23 September 2018 may not be accessible. Those published after this date will be accessible
  • Subtitles are not provided for some live video and audio content
  • Audio description is not provided for pre-recorded video content

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Target size

WCAG 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) (Level AA) – some of the links in the footer do not meet a minimum size or have sufficient spacing around them. This will be fixed by January 2025.

ARIA roles

WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships – certain ARIA roles require child roles to contain them and some elements with an ARIA role require parent roles are contained by them. This will be fixed by January 2025.

Tabindex

WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships – Ensure tabindex attribute values are not greater than 0. This will be fixed by January 2025.

Audio description

We do not provide an audio description for prerecorded videos. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.5 (Audio Description Prerecorded). We aim to add audio descriptions to prerecorded videos by May 2025.

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

PDFs

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.

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 ‘Statement of accounts 2012-2013’.

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

Live video

We are not able to add captions to live video streams on YouTube because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We have engaged the Shaw Trust to assess our website to ensure we meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 A and AA criteria. You can view progress on the Shaw Trust website.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 20 July 2019. It was last reviewed on 11 October 2024.

This website was last tested on 11 October 2024. The test was carried out by our corporate communications team using our Siteimprove software, Axe dev tools, WAVE, and accessibilitychecker.org. A sample of different page templates were tested.

Third party supplier sites

More information