Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy Generator

Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to https://www.stockport.gov.uk/, https://myaccount.stockport.gov.uk, Healthy Stockport and internally built forms from January 2020.

You can find our tool, Recite ME, to help you to personalise this site in the header at the top of the webpage using the 'Accessibility' link.

This website is run by Stockport 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 that some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • some of our online services are hosted by third-party suppliers and you may find navigating these services difficult depending on their level of web accessibility. These include but not restricted to planning.stockport.gov.uk, democracy.stockport.gov.uk
  • live video streams do not have captions - https://stockport.public-i.tv/core/portal/home
  • some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • there’s a limit to how far you can magnify any maps used on our website

What to do if you cannot 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 contact the service directly or:

Make sure you provide:

  • the service area, document name and/or the web address (URL) of the webpage the content is on
  • a description of the format you need. For example; audio CD, braille, BSL or large print

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 webpage or think we're not meeting accessibility requirements contact the web content team:

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

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out where you can go to get information and advice by visiting our advice webpages or ring 0161 474 4949.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Stockport Metropolitan 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.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

PDFs

Many of our PDFs and other document types may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. This fails WCAG success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role Value. We aim to provide an alternative way to access the information in the documents.

Some images in PDFs do not have a text alternative, so the information in them is not available to people using a screen reader - this does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

We have made the top 100 most popular PDFs accessible and as other documents are updated they will be made accessible.

External suppliers:

Adult and children's portals (Liquidlogic)

We provide multiple portals for adult and children's services and these portals will cover transactions such as report a safeguarding concern.

The accessibility issues affecting adult and children's transactions are typically consistent across all portals provided by the same external supplier. The main issues include:

  • text does not always have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background colour - this fails WCAG success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast Minimum
  • user interface components and graphical objects do not always have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 - this fails WCAG success criterion 1.4.11 Non-Text Contrast
  • it is not always possible for someone using a keyboard or touch device to complete all tasks in a service - this fails WCAG success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard
  • it is not always possible for someone to navigate through content in a way that makes sense - this fails WCAG success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order
  • it is not possible for keyboard users to move focus directly to the start of the main content area of the page when there's repeated content at the top of the page - this fails WCAG success criterion 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks

We've carried out some accessibility fixes across these portals, and are working with our supplier to resolve the remaining issues by September 2021.

Pre-recorded videos

Some pre-recorded videos do not have an audio captioning or description, so the information in them is not available to people who cannot see or the hear the video content. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2, 1.2.3, 1.2.5.

Disproportionate burden

Interactive tools and transactions

Some of our old interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag.

Some of our online forms are built and hosted through third party software and ‘skinned’ to look like our website. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (information and relationships).

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

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

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and other documents may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. This fails WCAG success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role Value.

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 old PDF newsletters that might still be published and accessed through our website.

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

Online maps and mapping services are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. From 23 September 2020 we'll make sure that where maps are intended for navigational use essential information is provided in an accessible digital manner.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We’ll continue to work towards meeting WCAG level AA for the current version of Stockport.gov.uk.

In 2019/2020 we have:

  • written an accessibility policy to be agreed by our Council Leadership Team
  • delivered accessibility awareness sessions across the organisation
  • developed 3 different accessibility training courses across the organisation to reflect people’s roles and responsibilities
  • a rolling programme to make old forms accessible
  • fixed accessibility issues across Stockport.gov.uk and Healthy Stockport
  • created an accessibility toolkit for internal staff to use
  • upgraded our accessibility checking tools
  • added RECITE ME, an accessibility tool to Stockport.gov.uk to improve our customers experience
  • had staff pass the EdX Introduction to Web Accessibility course supported by the W3C

In 2021/2022 we will:

  • review all our external Wordpress sites
  • commission an external accessibility report
  • maintain our content guidelines which explain how to create accessible content
  • work with developers and content designers to continue to fix code and content issues with our website
  • continue to monitor our accessibility score using our analytics tool

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 26 July 2019. It was last reviewed on 26 February 2021.

This website was last tested on 20 January 2021. The test was carried out by our Software Development Team. Although the accessibility score and fixes are checked and made on a weekly basis.

We carried out our testing based on a sample of our most used pages, forms, documents and other media.

We use a combination of methods to check this website, including:

  • automated software Siteimprove
  • manual sampling (using WAVE and other tools)