Accessibility statement

How Devon County Council websites are organised

The Devon County Council ‘website’ is made up of many separate websites and services, covering different areas of our work. Each website has its own accessibility statement, to ensure we can properly describe the accessibility for each site or service.

This accessibility statement covers the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion website for Devon County Council at www.devon.gov.uk/equality and does not cover the wider family of Devon County Council websites.

Introduction

This website is run by Devon 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 using browser settings
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen using browser settings
  • 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’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

The My Computer My Way guide from AbilityNet is a step-by-step guide to help you make your device easier to use if you have a disability.

Translation

If you would like information on our website translated into another language, you may find one of the services listed below meets your needs. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of any external website or free website translators.

Under some circumstances, for example, if you cannot read the information easily in English, you can request information in a different language from us. This includes British Sign Language, easy read or a foreign language. Please contact our customer service centre for advice.

How accessible is this website?

This website has been developed to be as accessible as possible. However, we know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible:

  • some older PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
  • captions on some older videos are autogenerated by YouTube and may not be completely accurate

What to do if you can’t access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact us using the contact details below.

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. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, contact us using the contact details below.

Feedback and contact details

For any enquiries about the accessibility of this website, you can contact us by:

  • emailing digitalcomms@devon.gov.uk
  • calling 0345 155 1015 and asking for the ‘Digital Communications Team’
  • post at Digital Communications Team (G59), County Hall, Topsham Road, Exeter, Devon EX2 4QD

British Sign Language users can contact us using an online interpreter who will relay your conversation with an appropriate member of Devon County Council staff, and then sign back to you their response to your questions.

Enforcement

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing 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

Devon 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

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 types listed below are non-accessible for the following reasons.

  • Controls on our cookie banner do not change appearance when they are selected (WCAG 2.0 AA 2.4.7)

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Principle 2: Operable

Guideline 2,4 Navigable (Accessibility problem 2.4.3, 2.4.4)

Some content may be difficult to navigate using a screen reader. This includes online forms.

Users who navigate the website using their keyboard will find it hard to access the cookie banner and the information provided in our feedback tab. Our feedback is gathered using a third-party platform and we have asked our provider to review the accessibility of their service. Intention to fix: 12/2023

A few PDFs and Word documents, that were published before September 2018 and are essential to providing our services, are not fully accessible to screen reader software. Accessible HTML pages have been published as accessible alternatives where possible.

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

Principle 1: Perceivable

Documents

Some older documents are not accessible in several ways including missing text alternatives and missing document structure.

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 in addition to this will meet accessibility standards.

Videos

A few of our older videos lack captions and do not meet accessibility standards. The accessibility regulations do not require us to add captions to videos produced before 23 September 2020 if they’re not essential to providing our services. Any new videos we publish will meet accessibility standards.

External links

This website links to third-party, external websites or services that may not be fully accessible.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We provide training to all content authors to ensure new content is accessible. We monitor this website weekly and we aim to address any issues promptly. We will be reviewing this site regularly and updating this statement accordingly.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 8 February 2021. It was last reviewed on 2 May 2023.

This website was last tested on 2 May 2023. The test was carried out using a third-party automated service called Silktide.

You can read the full accessibility test report.