Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to Lancashire.gov.uk, which is managed by Lancashire County 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:

  • some older PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
  • colour contrast on some text elements is not sufficient
  • some image elements do not have alternate text attributes
  • some forms content does not have associated labels
  • some links may not have distinguishable names
  • some of our videos do not have captions
  • some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard

Feedback and contact information

Please contact us if you have an accessibility query including:

  • if you are experiencing issues with accessing information or using the website
  • If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille
  • if you find an accessibility problem not listed on this statement
  • if you have positive feedback on the accessibility considerations made

Complaints process

If you have reported a problem with our website or asked for an alternative format, but you are not happy with our response, you can use our complaints process to register your difficulty.

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Lancashire 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.

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 is non-accessible for the following reasons:

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Older images

Images uploaded to the site before 2018 may not have alt tags or captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

We will correct insufficient or needed alt-text over time as we review sections of the site. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Selective headings

Some web page headings don't cascade inside the features on the page. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.10 (Section Headings).

We correct the incorrect usage of heading as we review sections of the site. Some of the heading are on legacy systems we may replace in the future

Select link text

Some pages use the same link text more than once, but each goes to a different URL. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context)

We will fix these link when review each page.

Tables

Some pages may use tables using incorrect markup or may be used incorrectly. We will correct usage of tables as we review sections of the site.

Insufficient colour contrast

Images

Some images contain text that does not meet minimum colour contrast requirements.

Images with insufficient colour contrast are not compliant with WCAG guideline 1.4.3.

We will correct the contrast on these images over time as we review each page.

Buttons

Some buttons contain text that does not meet minimum colour contrast requirements.

We will remove the buttons as we review each page.

Links indistinguishable from text

On some pages links may not be underlined and only identifiable by colour: Users with visual impairments cannot see these links.

This is not compliant with WCAG guideline 1.4.1.

We will correct these links over time as we review each page.

System specific issues

Forms - Granicus forms

We use Granicus forms, a third-party product to create and host some of our forms.

There are the following accessibility issues with the forms:

  • Error message boxes cannot be dismissed with the keyboard only
  • Some error messages have low contrast
  • On mobile phones, buttons in the forms are activated when pressing down on the button and not releasing the button
  • Fields as forename, surname, address, telephone number and email address do not autocomplete

We have contacted the supplier to resolve these issues. We aim to resolve these issues by June 2023.

Forms - Book a van or trailer appointment

We have identified the following issues with the 'Book a van or trailer appointment' form:

Input fields do not have autocomplete attributes

The email field on the first page of the form has autocomplete turned off.

Page automatically scrolls when selecting centre

On the 'select appointment' page, upon selecting a centre and choosing an appointment using a radio button, the screen immediately scrolls to the 'Continue' button at the bottom. This makes it hard to either check times or scroll back up and amend details.

Parsing - 'Legend' is not the first child of 'fieldset' for the appointment times

On the 'select appointment' page, select appointment' page, the 'fieldset' containing the appointment times radio buttons contains a 'legend' element of 'Select an appointment'.

We are currently resolving these issues. We plan to resolve these issues by April 2023.

Advertising cookie consent options

The buttons and links in the cookies banner 'partners link, buttons for More Options, Disagree and Agree' do not receive the correct visible keyboard focus.

We have asked the supplier of the cookie banner to resolve this issue. We aim to resolve this issue by June 2023.

Disproportionate burden

We are aware that some legacy, third party tools and externally hosted systems do not comply with accessibility and usability standards. We are replacing or reviewing these systems. We believe that fixing them now would be disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. Replacements for these systems will meet the accessibility regulations. 

Schools admissions

Our school admissions system has a number of issues, including:

  • The Lancashire County Council logo does not have any alternative text for screen readers
  • Incorrect HTML is used
  • Buttons have low contrast
  • Links have low contrast
  • The page heading has low contrast on mobile and tablet devices
  • The page title is not descriptive

Report it

Our report it system has a number of issues, including:

  • Start page does not support text spacing making it hard to read text when the font size is increased 
  • Location search bar does not announce to screen readers 
  • Find location text has low contrast
  • It is not possible to tab forwards past the fault location map using the keyboard
  • Buttons do not have visible keyboard focus
  • Pothole size sliders do not have accessible labels
  • Error messages are not read to screen readers
  • Incorrect HTML is used

Pages in our older content management system

Some pages in our older content management system have content that is not accessible. We are reviewing these pages and will delete the content or move it to our current content management system.

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

PDFs and other documents

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

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.

Video

Video content embedded on our website before August 2019 may not meet accessibility standards: They may not feature subtitles, audio-description or offer a written transcript.

Any video added to our site since August 2019 meets accessibility regulations.

We use YouTube and Vimeo to embed videos onto our webpages. We are not responsible for the accessibility of the YouTube or Vimeo platforms.

Third party content

Our website contains third-party content. We do not have control over and are not responsible for the accessibility of this content, but we endeavour to work with the third party to improve its accessibility. This may include:

  • links to non Lancashire.gov.uk websites
  • content/functionality on our website
  • content hosted on other websites, such as social media sites

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 1 June 2020. It was last reviewed on 29 December 2022.

This website was last tested September 2022. The test was carried out by staff at Lancashire County Council using manual testing and Siteimprove software.