Staffordshire Connects website is run by Staffordshire County Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. We realise that the accessibility of the website is important to this.  

How accessible this website is

On the website you can:

• 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
• 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. 

Areas for Development: 

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
• some live video streams do not have captions
• you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

• Email - digital@staffordshire.gov.uk

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 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, please email us: 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).

Find out how to contact us - view our contact us page.  

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. 

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 older videos may not have captions
• Some of our images may not have an "alt-tag"

If you find a document you are unable to access and would like it in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

• Email - digital@staffordshire.gov.uk

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. 

• Geographical Information Mapping (GIS)
• Web Tendering Portal
• Pay links pages
• Secure online payment sites
• Forms

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
• NHS widgets
• Google widgets

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 SocITM and Sitemorse to carry out an accessibility assessment and suggest remedial actions for us to undertake. 

We had an accessibility audit and addressed the actions.

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. 

How we tested this website

This statement was prepared on 15th September 2020. 

This website was last tested on 15 August 2020 by Idox Web Development Team

The site was tested for conformance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA Standard.

Testing tools used:

• Axe testing tool plugin for Chrome
• Wave evaluation tool plugin for Chrome
• NVDA screen reader for Windows

Manual review carried out using:

• iPad using Safari
• iPhone using Safari
• Android phone using Chrome
• PC using IE, Edge and Chrome

Accessibility Statement Review

We will review the accessibility of this website every 12 months.