Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to www.macclesfield-tc.gov.uk.

This website is run by Macclesfield Town Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • zoom in up to 200% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

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:

  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • some newer PDFs are not yet accessible
  • not all pages are fully operable with just a keyboard
  • there are some images that contain text such as the Our Heritage Trail page.
  • some images are missing alt text

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a format that is more accessible contact:

Email: [email protected]
Call: 01625 374142

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 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, contact the Town Clerk at [email protected] or call 01625 374142.

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

Find out how to contact us.

Our offices have audio induction loops. Please advise us in advance if you need a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Disabled parking bays are located close to the Town Hall with access to our council office available by lift.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Macclesfield Town 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

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Images

Some images 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).

Some pages, such as Our Heritage Trail, have images that contain text which would not be accessible to screen reader users.

When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

PDFs

Some PDFs on this website are not compliant for a number of reasons, including missing alt text and incorrect heading levels.  We are in the process of reviewing all PDFs.

Some pdf documents are scanned images of information that the council must provide on its website, for example AGAR reports and Councillor Register of Interests.

We cannot assure the accessibility of third-party PDF documents available on our website.

Keyboard operation

Some sections of the website cannot be fully operated using a keyboard alone so fail WCAG Success Criterion 2.1.1: Keyboard.

The developer has been contacted about this issue.

Meeting recordings

Some council meetings are not captioned so fail WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.2.2: Captions (Prerecorded)

Disproportionate burden

We currently do not consider that any parts of the website fall under this category.

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

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 older agandas and minutes. Any new PDFs we publish will meet accessibility standards or we will provide an accessible alternative.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are in the process of reviewing and converting our PDF documents to accessible web pages.

We are investigating options to caption recordings of live council meetings.

We are in contact with the developer to correct accessibility issues.

We regularly review our website for accessibility issues and are improving processes to ensure that new content meets accessibility guidelines.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 21 September 2020. It was last reviewed and updated on 5th January 2021.

This website was last tested externally in December 2021. The test was carried out by Bude Solutions.

For manual testing, a set of 32 pages was selected based on popularity, different types of layouts and pages with forms or particular functionality. Many common accessibility problems were tested including, but not limited to, keyboard operation, screen reader issues and colour contrast.

In addition to manual testing, all pages on the website were automatically scanned for errors using pa11y / axe.