Accessibility statement for Devon County Council websites

This website is run by Devon County Council (DCC). We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website, and we want this site to be as accessible as possible. For example, that means you should be able to:

change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser settings
zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen using browser settings
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

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

The My Computer My Way guide from AbilityNet is a step-by-step guide to help you make your device easier to use if you have a disability.

Translation

If you would like information on our website translated into another language, you may find one of the services listed below meets your needs. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of any external website or free website translators.

Under some circumstances, for example, if you cannot read the information easily in English, you can request information in a different language from us. This includes British Sign Language, easy read or a foreign language. Please contact our customer service centre for advice.

How accessible is this website?

This website has been developed to be as accessible as possible. We are confident that this main ‘parent’ website is accessible. All new sites that we have published since September 2018 are accessible. However, we know some parts of the wider family of Devon County Council websites aren’t fully accessible, including:

older sites may be difficult to navigate using screen reader software
some PDF, Word and PowerPoint documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
some videos are not captioned
some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information
some third-party systems that provide services on our behalf are not fully accessible

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

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact us using the contact details at the end of this statement.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, contact us using the contact details at the end of this statement.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Devon 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.

We are confident that this main ‘parent’ website is fully compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. However, some parts of the wider family of Devon County Council websites are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

Non-accessible content

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

older sites may be difficult to navigate using screen reader software
some PDF, Word and PowerPoint documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
a few videos are not captioned, or may rely on autogenerated captions and may not be completely accurate
some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information
a few third-party systems that provide services on our behalf are not fully accessible
You may have to scroll pages from side to side to be able to read all content if viewing on a phone with a small screen (e.g. iPhone 5)

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

A few PDF documents published since September 2018 aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Some images published since September 2018 do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We plan to add text alternatives for all images as soon as possible. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden

We do not believe there is any content on this site for which we need to claim a disproportionate burden.

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

The Devon County Council parent website was published before September 2018; as such it is required to be fully accessible by September 2020. We are also working to review all code, content and third-party systems across our wider family of websites to ensure we are compliant as soon as possible.

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader.

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. We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

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.

Videos

A few of our older videos lack captions and do not meet accessibility standards. The accessibility regulations do not require us to add captions to videos produced before 23 September 2020 if they’re not essential to providing our services. Any new videos we publish will meet accessibility standards.

External links

This website links to third-party, external websites or services that may not be fully accessible.

Facebook and Twitter posts

This website includes content from third-party, external websites or services that may not be fully accessible.

How we are testing our websites

We tested this website in the following ways:

using the NVDA screen reader
WCAG 2.1 compliance using a third-party automated service
regular testing using a suite of browser-based accessibility reporting tools
colour contrast checkers were used during the design phase and re-tested once launched

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are undertaking a comprehensive review of all Devon County Council websites and services to test, identify and fix accessibility issues. Our aim is to ensure that all of our priority services websites are compliant by September 2020. We also have a plan in place to review and update any of our older websites to ensure they are compliant as soon as possible.

We are providing training to all content authors to ensure new content is accessible. We will be reviewing our websites on a regular basis and updating this statement accordingly.

Contact us

For general enquires to Devon County Council please search this website or find details on the contact us page.

For any enquiries about the accessibility of this website, you can contact us by:

emailing webteam@devon.gov.uk
calling 0345 155 1015 and asking for the ‘Digital Communications Team’
post at Digital Communications Team (G59), County Hall, Topsham Road, Exeter, Devon EX2 4QD

British Sign Language users can contact us using an online interpreter who will relay your conversation with an appropriate member of Devon County Council staff, and then sign back to you their response to your questions.

This statement was prepared on 20 September 2019. It was last updated on 9 September 2020.