Accessibility statement for Derbyshire Dales District Council
This accessibility statement applies to www.derbyshiredales.gov.uk.
This website is run by Derbyshire Dales District 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
- zoom in 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)
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:
- most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
- our online mapping tool is difficult to navigate using just a keyboard, is not fully accessible to screen reader software, and cannot be used effectively on small-screen devices
- live video streams do not have captions
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
- email
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - call 01629 761100
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 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:
- complete our website feedback form
- email
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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
Our reception at Matlock Town Hall is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9am to 2pm and on Wednesday from 9.30 to 2pm. If you have access needs, please get in touch before you visit by calling our Customer Service team on 01629 761 100, Monday to Friday, between 9.00am and 5.00pm (except Wednesdays, 9.30am to 5.00pm).
Our Town Hall address is: Town Hall, Bank Road, Matlock, Derbyshire DE4 3NN.
Parking is available in Bank Road car park. Please check our parking web page for current parking charges. Our office is approximately 50 meters up the hill from the car park.
Our main reception area and meeting rooms have audio induction loops and are accessible by wheelchair.
Our reception area, council chambers and committee rooms have audio induction loops.
Contact details for facilities and departments.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Derbyshire Dales District 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
PDFs and other documents
Most of our older PDF and Word documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software; we aim to ensure that all documents produced by us from 1st September 2020 will be accessible and are working on converting any documents back to September 2018, or beyond, where possible.
External Providers
Some parts of our website link to or use content provided by other websites and these are not always accessible as our site. Examples include:
- Online mapping
- YouTube videos
- Google Maps
- Advertisements
Our online forms are built and hosted through third party software and ‘skinned’ to look like our website.
The majority of our Self Service pages are accessible, however, some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard or screen reader;
- Some form buttons cannot be selected using only a keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.1.1 (Keyboard).
- Form screens have zooming and scaling disabled which prevents custom pinch-zoom sizing on mobile. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1 (Resize text).
We have raised these accessibility issues with the providers of our forms software and asked that they work with us to achieve compliance as soon as possible. This statement will be updated with a timeframe when it is known.
Our online mapping tool is difficult to navigate using just a keyboard, is not fully accessible to screen reader software, and cannot be used effectively on small-screen devices.
Advertisements shown across all web pages are provided by a third party, and alternative text for images may not always be present. This fails WCAG 2.0 success criterion 1.1.1 (Alternative text).
Disproportionate burden
We do not intend to claim a disproportionate burden to the work required to make the website fully compliant.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
Some of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards - for example, they may contain images instead of text or 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.
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 planning policy documents.
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
Live video
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
Maps
We do not plan to make any map PDFs in the ‘Documents’ area accessible because they are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We continuously improve our website’s accessibility based on user and automated testing.
We provide content preparation guidelines to our web content authors that focus on improving accessibility for online users, and we promote the importance of accessibility using our internal communication channels.
We are speaking to our third-party suppliers about improving the accessibility of their products.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 23 January 2023. It was last reviewed on 23 January 2023.
This website was last tested on 23 January 2023.
The test was carried out by Silktide Index in partnership with SOCITM.
We conducted further manual/internal tests using a combination of the tools listed below, on a random sample of pages, during development of the site. Ad-hoc tests are conducted periodically on an ongoing basis.
- Silktide Disability Simulator (Chrome extension)
- axe DevTools (Chrome extension)
- Accessibility Insights for Web (Chrome extension)
- Sa11y (Chrome bookmarklet)
- WebAIM WAVE (online tool)
- NVDA (manual testing)
- WCAG (manual testing)
