Accessibility statement
This statement applies to content published on the www.oxford.gov.uk domain. It does not apply to content on Oxford City Council subdomains (for example, consultation.oxford.gov.uk) which generally have their own accessibility statements.
The team behind this website hope that whoever needs to use it, can do so easily. We have tried to make it as accessible as possible. We want everyone who visits our website to feel welcome and find the experience rewarding.
To create this website we used a company that ensure it meets the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and have designed the site to meet the AA standard.
Using this website
This website is run by Oxford City Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. The text should be clear and simple to understand. You should be able to:
- zoom in up to 400% without problems
- navigate the website using just a keyboard
- navigate the website using speech recognition software
- use most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)
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 aren’t fully accessible including:
- embedded Google Maps have several accessibility issues
- many documents are in PDF format and are not accessible and have multiple accessibility issues
We will update the statement when issues are fixed or when we expect them to be fixed.
What to do if you can't access parts of this website
If you need information on this website in a different format please email the Digital Development Team at digitaldevelopmentteam@oxford.gov.uk.
We'll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.
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, please email the Digital Development Team at digitaldevelopmentteam@oxford.gov.uk.
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
Oxford City Council is committed to making its website accessible, in line 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 2.2 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
Accessibility issues with Google Map embeds
- some form controls don't have labels - WCAG 2.0 A 1.3.1
- some controls within the map don't change appearance when they are selected - WCAG 2.0 AA 2.4.7
- some tables within the map don't have headers - WCAG 2.0 A 1.3.1
Plan to assess these issues further and take advice on whether we can fix them or remove embeds altogether.
Accessibility issues with PDFs
- some PDFs don't have a title - WCAG 2.0 A 2.4.2
- some PDFs aren't machine readable - WCAG 2.0 A 1.1.1
- some PDFs are not tagged - WCAG 2.0 A 1.3.1
- some PDFs don't specify headings - WCAG 2.0 A 1.3.1
- some PDFs don't specify a default language - WCAG 2.0 A 3.1.1
- some long PDFs don't use bookmarks to aid navigation - WCAG 2.0 AA 2.4.5
See Disproportionate Burden section below.
Accessibility issues with Power BI embeds
We are aware that some Power BI embeds on our website do not fully comply with accessibility regulations. We plan to provide the data in these reports in an alternative accessible format.
Problems with linked web applications
We use some third party online services and websites to allow customers to interact and transact with us. These include (but are not limited to) viewing benefits and Council Tax account information, taking part in a consultations, booking an event, viewing planning / building control / licensing applications, viewing online maps, paying for something, and viewing committee information.
Not all these sites and online services meet the necessary standards for accessibility, and where they do not we are engaging with our suppliers to rectify this.
When procuring new online systems, meeting accessibility standards is included in the specification, and we work with suppliers to ensure sites meet these standards.
We know that some parts of these web applications aren’t fully accessible. For example:
- Our council meetings and agendas system links to many inaccessible PDFs. We plan to only upload fully accessible non-HTML documents to the system in future
Disproportionate burden
Issues with PDFs and other documents
Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be marked up so they’re accessible to a screen reader.
The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.
Due to the high volume and complexity, it is not practical to make all existing non-HTML documents on our website fully accessible.
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards unless we determine that they represent a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. Ultimately we prefer to provide an accessible HTML version of the information as the primary source and replace non-HTML documents with HTML content where applicable.
See all our Disproportionate burden assessments for digital accessibility.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
Non-HTML documents published before September 2018 do not need to be accessible - unless users need them to use a service.
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 26 January 2024. It was last reviewed on 26 January 2024.
This website was last manually tested on 26 January 2024. The test was carried out by Oxford City Council. We carryout an automated test of the website every 5 days using Silktide software.
How we test this website
We use Silktide software to monitor accessibility issues on our website on an ongoing basis. A new report is produced every 5 days and any new accessibility issues are acted on. We also use the WAVE Evaluation Tool browser extension to test for issues on an ad-hoc basis.
In addition, we also carryout manual tests on a sample of pages on a quarterly basis to check for accessibility issues that can't be picked up by automated software such as how the website reflows when zoomed in and keyboard navigation. We use an Accessibility Audit checklist for this process. To decide which pages to test, we choose a random sample of 5 pages from the top 250 most visited pages on the site from the previous quarter.
What we're doing to improve accessibility
We are working to fix the accessibility issues listed in this statement.
We have put monitoring in place to review the accessibility of the site on an ongoing basis. We use this monitoring to identify and fix any new issues that arise.
We are training our web editors to ensure they are aware of accessibility requirements, and have published internal guidance on how to achieve compliance.
We are also engaging with third-party suppliers to fix accessibility issues found in the web applications that we use to provide our services.
Feedback and contact information
If you had trouble with any part of our website, please get in touch. We'd like to hear from you in any of the following ways:
- use our Comments, Compliments or Complaints form
- email the Digital Development Team at digitaldevelopmentteam@oxford.gov.uk
This statement was prepared on 26 January 2024. It was last reviewed on 21 March 2024.
