Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to the eastdunbarton.gov.uk website.

This website is run by East Dunbartonshire Council and is designed to follow Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines and standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) [opens in a new window].

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. This means you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in to most parts of the website 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)

AbilityNet [opens in a new window] has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

See the sections below for more detail on the accessibility of this website.

On this page you will find information on:

How accessible this website is

We are currently working with The Shaw Trust [opens in a new window] on gaining an updated accreditation and in making our website as accessible as possible, however some parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:

  • some of our documents published prior to 29 May 2020 and some of our Committee and Board Papers are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • the committee management system is not fully accessible to screen reader software. We are looking to replace this with an accessible system within the next year
  • some of our online forms may contain tables which are not fully accessible.
  • you cannot skip to main content when using a screen reader

We are committed to continually improving our website and to working towards making it fully accessible. We will be launching a new website within the next year which will have accessibility built in from the beginning.

What to do if you can't access parts of this website

Request information in an accessible format

If you can't access information on this website and need it in an alternative format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact the Council on 0300 123 4510 or email customerservices@eastdunbarton.gov.uk and explain what information you need and what format you need it in. We will consider your request and get back to you.

Report accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of our website. If you have trouble using the website or find any problems that are not listed on these pages, please contact our web team by emailing webmaster@eastdunbarton.gov.uk or submit a general enquiry form

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 [opens in a new window] (the 'accessibility regulations').  If you are not happy with how we respond to any complaint or request you make, you should contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASSS) [opens in a new window]

Technical information about this website's accessibility

East Dunbartonshire Council is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 [opens in a new window] 

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 [opens in a new window]  AA standard.  It is only currently partially compliant, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

Non-compliance with accessibility regulations:

  • Some of our videos require the user to select subtitles in order for the captions to appear for screen reader software. We plan to add transcripts where relevant by December 2023. When we publish new videos, we will make sure these meet accessibility standards.
  • Some of our pages are set out using an accordion style format. We know this is not accessible and are working on removing these.
  • Some of our links are not fully descriptive. We plan to fix these by October 2023.

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

Web Forms

Some of our web forms prior to November 2020 may contain a table matrix that fails on WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.3.1 Info & Relationships (H51: Using table markup to present tabular information).

Documents

Some of our PDF and Word documents don't meet accessibility standards. For example some may be scanned PDFs or they may not be marked up so they are accessible to a screen reader. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criteria 4.1.2 (name, role value), 1.4.5 (images of text) and 1.4.9 (images of text - no exception). When we launch our new website by early 2024, we plan to fix these or replace with accessible HTML pages.

PDFs and other documents published before 23rd September 2018 are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations [opens in a new window].  if they are not essential to providing our services. We will work to make sure that any new key documents meet accessibility standards. 

Committee Management System

The Committee Management System on the site does not meet accessibility standards for example; some links don’t make sense when read on their own (for example 'next' or 'previous'). This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose - in context).  Some links may have alt text where it is not required.

The current system is a legacy system.  We aim to replace this system with an accessible alternative, initially due to be implemented by September 2020, however the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted delivery and implementation timescales.

Third Party Software

Some of our services are built and hosted through third party software and 'skinned' to look like our website to help customers to understand that the third party is still delivering a Council service. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (information and relationships).

How we tested this website

A full manual and automated accessibility audit was carried out by the Shaw Trust [opens in a new window] in July 2022. A retest as standard practice to receive the accreditation begins on 27 March 2023.

Automated testing is carried out on a daily basis using SiteImprove to monitor and fix accessibility issues as they occur on the main website, online forms and website publications

Third party websites and forms

We have a range of third party websites and forms. They provide some of our online services and most of them are skinned to look like our main website. We are engaging with our suppliers to assess what is required to make them accessible, Examples include:

  • Council Tax Online
  • Community Lets Bookings System

What we are doing to improve accessibility

We are committed to improving the accessibility of the Council website.  We are working with the Shaw Trust to gain accreditation.  Shaw Trust testing is carried out by users with disabilities and includes three levels of website accessibility testing:

  1. Automated testing
  2. Technical manual review
  3. User testing

As we continue to update our website we will carefully monitor new content to make sure it meets accessibility standards.

Date of statement

This statement was prepared on 24th March 2023.