Accessibility

This website is run by the Isle of Wight Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

That means you should be able to:

• 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

We have also written our website text to be as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use. This includes how to change colours, contrast levels and fonts.

This accessibility statement does not cover the following:

• Other council websites, such as iow.gov.uk, 1Leisure, Dinosaur Isle and SENDIASS.
• Commissioned services (services that the council pays other organisations to deliver).
• Partner websites and applications.

Please note: This beta website was launched in May 2022. We will continue to make improvements to it. It has been designed to comply with accessibility standards, be customer-centred and provide customer journeys that are simple and easy to use. Some information about our services remains on our current website (iow.gov.uk) and will be linked to from this beta website. This accessibility statement does not apply to iow.gov.uk.

This Accessibility Statement will be updated as we make improvements to this beta website.

The content listed below is not accessible for the following reasons.

• We haven’t included a transcript of our videos.
• You cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader.
• Most PDF content is not fully accessible. We are reviewing PDF documents, making them accessible, and hoping to convert most to web pages.

Please let us know if you have accessibility problems with our website, we welcome your input and are keen to make sure that our information is available to all.

You can get in touch in the following ways:

• Email the digital content team at digitalcontent@iow.gov.uk
• Phone us on 01983 821000

Please provide a description of the problem and, if possible, include the web page address (URL) where the problem happens. If you’d prefer to discuss the problem face to face please let us know when you get in touch.

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).

We are 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 not currently fully compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. As we continue to add information about our services to this website there will still be links to our current website (iow.gov.uk) which are not complaint with Web Content Accessibly Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

Site design and navigation

During ongoing development of this beta website, we test all new site designs, content, layouts and user interfaces against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standards, using toolsets such as the Axe accessibility plugin.

Accessing information

On this beta website, all web pages have a clear, main landmark and a level 1 (<h1> tag) heading. Content header levels also follow a set, progressive path from <h1> to <h2> downwards in a hierarchical format and will not increase by more than one level at a time.

Interactive tools and transactions

Our forms are fully compliant with accessibility standards. They are:

• laid out clearly
• use appropriate landmarks
• are easy to navigate using a keyboard.

Other forms will be improved and launched throughout the development of this beta website.

We have undertaken a review and redesign of the customer 'Account' area of our website, both in terms of making sure all syntax used is compliant and the interface itself is accessible. This includes making sure all buttons have clear text and labels, that the login page is clearly laid out with all buttons and form elements giving enough colour contrast.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing these issues and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

Interactive tools and transactions

Some of our application and forms are built and hosted through third party software where we cannot directly make changes to the applications ourselves. These include:

• Our credit card and bill payment services, Isle of Wight Council Secure Payments, are supplied by Capita. This system is not fully accessible due to:
  • no language attribute on the <html> tag
  • not all images have alternative text
  • some pages use a timed refresh

Where we cannot directly make changes to the applications ourselves, we are currently reviewing these with our providers to try and make improvements going forward where possible.

• Our Public Access Planning system is provided by IDOX on our behalf for online Planning and Regulatory Services and is not fully compliant due to issues with sufficient colour contrast on some sections of this application.
• Our Registrars appointment booking system is provided on our behalf by Stopford, it currently has some minor accessibility syntax failures and we are working with the provider address these issues.

PDFs and other 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.

In January 2022 we began a programme of work to either fix or replace documents published after 23 September 2018 with accessible web pages or accessible PDF documents. This work is ongoing, and it is intended that any documents published after 23 September 2018 and featured on the beta website will be compliant by March 2023.

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.

This beta website was launched in May 2022. It is not currently fully compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines. We use assessment tools to ensure compliance in every stage of the beta website development.

We also use manual testing to check content is compliant and engage with customers to design good online customer journeys during development.

All information on this beta website has been through a content improvement process. 

We aim to:

• Make the website text as simple as possible, following plain English guidance and using natural language to help customers to understand our content.
• Ensure all new content is accessible.
• Provide content in the most appropriate format for customers.
• Ensure online processes support customers and provide them with good customer journeys that allow them to complete their goals quickly and easily.

We are working with our external third-party providers to ensure systems they provide on our behalf are reviewed for accessibility with the aim of ensuring they meet WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines. Improvements will be undertaken on these systems where possible and not deemed a disproportionate burden.

We tested this website in May 2022.

• We tested the main website, available at beta.iow.gov.uk
• The technical accessibility test was based on a subset of pages chosen to reflect the most popular content areas of the website.