Accessibility statement
Our commitment to opening up digital services to everyone.
We aim to make this website accessible to all. We try to ensure all pages conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA in line with the EU Accessibility Directive. Our accessibility statement below sets out this commitment and what we are doing to improve.
This website is run by West Northamptonshire Council’s Digital Services Team. There should be no barriers for anyone who wants to use this website.
For example, you should be able to:
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- zoom in without the text spilling off the screen
- navigate most of the website using just a keyboard (including skip to content)
- navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
- listen to most of the website using a screen reader
- easily understand any content
Accessibility features
AbilityNet provides guidance about how to:
- make your mouse easier to use
- use your keyboard instead of a mouse
- talk to your device
- make your device talk to you
- make text larger
- change your colours
- magnify the screen
Our websites
This is the main West Northamptonshire Council - Northampton Area website.
We host the following microsites that use the same platform and code base:
How accessible is this website?
We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible.
For example:
- some older Word and PDF documents aren’t fully accessible for people using screen readers
- our Planning section contains lots of documents which are not accessible, including scanned documents that won’t work for people using screen readers
There are some issues we are aware of that are difficult to fix because of how our content management system works:
- some HTML pages are styled using inline styles rather than external stylesheets - this means any custom stylesheets you set up may not work on some of our pages
- our expandable images don't display alt text for screen readers - we’re working to fix this
Let us know if you can’t access parts of 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, please email digitalservices.nbc@westnorthants.gov.uk or call 0300 330 7000 and ask to speak to someone in the Digital Team.
How we tested this website
We have carried out user testing with visually impaired people on a number of our most important tasks. If you would like to take part in future user testing, please email digitalservices.nbc@westnorthants.gov.uk.
We also monitor automated tests of our website using Siteimprove.
We work continuously with our developers to resolve issues and improve the accessibility of our websites.
Enforcement procedure
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing 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
Northampton Borough Council is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1. AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
Issues with 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. For example, we do not plan to fix Barrack Road Conservation Area Leaflet 2010.
- Some of our PDFs and other documents are not formatted so they’re accessible for people using screen readers.
- From September 2020 onwards, all new published documents should meet accessibility standards.
If you require a copy of a document prior to September 2020 that we haven't yet made accessible, please contact us at digitalservices.nbc@westnorthants.gov.uk and we will endeavour to send it to you.
Issues with images, video and audio
Some of our images have missing or incorrect labels. We are working to correct this as an ongoing task.
Issues with interactive tools and transactions
We are aware that some internal applications and externally hosted systems may not comply with accessibility and usability standards. Some are old software that we cannot easily change.
We’re working with suppliers to fix what we can ahead of our move to a unitary authority model in April 2021.
Third party applications that we use on our website are -
- Civica eStore online payment application (ICON)
- Civica Planning Portal
- Civica Modern.gov Committee Management Information System (CMIS)
- Northgate Citizens Access Benefits (accessible from the universal credit webpage)
- Northgate Citizens Access Revenues (accessible from the Council Tax Citizen Access webpage)
Some parts of this site link to or use content provided by other websites and these are not always as accessible as our site. Examples of these are:
- YouTube videos
- Embedded tweets and Facebook posts
- Google maps
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We continuously improve our website’s accessibility based on user testing and automated tests. We hold weekly accessibility meetings to measure our progress.
We also run mandatory accessibility training courses for our web content authors and 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.
In April 2021, Northamptonshire’s existing county, borough and district councils will be replaced by two councils – one for the west of the county and one for the north. We will balance our efforts between making our existing website more accessible wherever possible and helping to ensure any new unitary website under our control is accessible to all.
This statement was prepared on 21 September 2020.