Accessibility statement for Walsall Council SEND Local Offer

This accessibility statement applies to https://send.walsall.gov.uk/

This website is run by Walsall 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 using browser or device settings
  • zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using a keyboard or 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:

  • some of the videos on the website have automatically generated captions
  • captions of some of the videos do not include sounds to provide additional context
  • videos on this website do not have a descriptive transcript or an audio description
  • on zoom in some of the text is difficult to read
  • some of the PDFs are hard to read due to low colour contrast or missing titles

Feedback and contact information 

Tell us if you need information on this website in a different format. In your message, include:

  • the web address (URL) of the content
  • your name and email address
  • the format you need (for example, BSL, large print, accessible PDF, audio recording, easy read or braille)

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.

We are working on our content and will continue to make this more readable. All of our pages let you provide feedback to us and we encourage you to tell us what you think.

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, let us know via:

  • feedback buttons on pages
  • feedback button on a BETA banner at the top of the page to report how you find the look and feel and navigation of our pages · email: webproject@walsall.gov.uk
  • phone: +44 1922 650000
  • visitor address: Walsall Council, The Civic Centre, Walsall, WS1 1TP

We will respond to feedback within 5 working days.

Enforcement procedure

If you contact us with a complaint and you’re not happy with how we respond, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

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’).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Walsall 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 

The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard. 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

YouTube videos

  1. Captions. Captions are automatically generated and are not checked for errors or spelling. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2: Captions (Prerecorded). We plan to amend this by November 2024.
  2. Transcripts. Transcripts are automatically generated and are not checked for errors or spelling. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.3: Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded). We plan to amend this by November 2024.
  3. Audio description. Some videos have significant visual content that is not included in captions or narration. To remediate this, an audio description is needed. This is currently missing. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.5: Audio Descriptions (Prerecorded). We plan to amend this by November 2024.
  4. Incorrectly used code. An iframe element used for YouTube videos is incorrectly formatted. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, role and value. We plan to amend this by November 2024. 

PDF documents

Some of our PDFs are not formatted so they’re accessible to a screen reader. Some errors may include, missing:

  1. Non-text content. All non-text content presented to the user should have a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose. If these are missing, this doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-text content. We plan to amend this by September 2024.
  2. Colour contrast. Some parts of PDF’s do not have sufficient contrast between the text and background colours. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast minimum. We plan to amend this by September 2024.
  3. Page titles. PDF documents should have titles that describe the topic or purpose of the page. If these are missing this doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criteria 2.4.2. Page Titled. We plan to amend this by September 2024.
  4. Headings and labels. Headings and labels describe the topic or purpose. If these are missing this doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criteria 2.4.6 Headings and Labels. We plan to amend this by September 2024.
  5. Name, role, value. For all user interface components, some of which are essential to providing our services (for example, forms published as Word documents). If these are missing this doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, role, value. We plan to amend this by September 2024.

Webpages

  1. At 400% zoom,  when accessing a cookie banner, some content spills over and overlaps on smaller screens, making it difficult to read or scroll using a mouse. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.4.10 Reflow. We plan to amend this by November 2024.
  2. At 400% zoom, some content is low contrast making it hard to read on smaller screens. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum). We plan to amend this by November 2024.
  3. At 400% zoom, keyboard focus is not visible on some parts of the website on smaller screens. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criteria 2.4.7 Focus Visible. We plan to amend this by November 2024.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 31 October 2023. It was last reviewed on 22 March 2024.

This website was last tested on 07 March 2024. The test was carried out by the accessibility team in Walsall Council. The tests included:

  • a mixture of simple manual checks and automated tests to find only the most common barriers to users with accessibility needs
  • manual checks using each page without a mouse, viewing the page at different zoom settings, and simulating viewing the page on a small screen

The automated tests were completed using the latest version of Axe and WAVE.

Tests were completed using different settings in the Internet Explorer browser on Lenovo ThinkPad with a 13-inch screen.