Last updated:

19th July 2023

Accessibility statement

Our commitment to providing an inclusive and accessible website for all users

We strive to make our website as user-friendly and accessible as possible. To achieve this, we follow W3C accessibility guidance and the principles of Plain English.

This website is run by Wokingham Borough 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 percent 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
  • Some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • There’s a limit to how far you can magnify our maps

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, email customerservice@wokingham.gov.uk, and provide us with your email address and phone number.

We'll consider your request and get back to you in 3 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 email customerservice@wokingham.gov.uk.

Enforcement

If accessibility issues remain after giving you time to fix them, the Minister for the Cabinet Office will pass the case to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) or Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) to take the complaint further. Public sector bodies must publish an accessibility statement and review it regularly. If the decision is taken that a public sector body has failed to publish an accessibility statement or that the accessibility statement is incorrect, the Minister for the Cabinet Office may publish the name of the body and a copy of the decision. Read more about the enforcement process.

Contacting us 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. Please email customerservice@wokingham.go.uk for more information.

Technical information about this website's accessibility

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

Compliance Status

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

Disproportionate burden

 

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

PDFs and other documents

  • Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be marked up so they’re accessible to a screen reader, We now have governance in place to make replacements in an accessible format. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards unless we determine that they represent a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. 
  • 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 don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

      

Third Party Content

Our website contains third-party content. We do not have control over and are not responsible for the accessibility of this content, but we endeavour to work with the third party to improve its accessibility. This may include:

  • Links to non-wokingham.gov.uk websites.
  • Content/functionality on our website.
  • Content hosted on other websites, such as social media sites.

What we're doing to improve accessibility

We regularly monitor the accessibility of this website using automated Quality Assurance software. We use this software to identify and fix any issues that arise. 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 04 July 2023. This statement was last reviewed on 04 July 2023. 

This website was last tested by Zoocha in July 2023 using automated software and manual testing.  The following technology was used: NVDA screen reader with Firefox, JAWS screen reader with Chrome, Magnification programme, high contrast colour on PC, Voiceover and Zoom with iOS on mobile and a review of selected elements with Switch Control and Voice Control. We tested key journeys across our main website platform, available at www.wokingham.gov.uk. These included: How to pay council tax, rubbish collection day, register a birth and register for housing online. This also incorporated the header, footer, navigation pages and the home page.  This ensured key page templates were covered.  Other pages and functionality tested were: contact us online, make a complaint, the live help chat, compliance banner.