Accessibility
Accessibility statement for lancaster.gov.uk
This accessibility statement applies to the website of Lancaster.gov.uk. This website is run and managed by Lancaster City Council's communications team.
We want everyone who visits the website to be able to find, read and understand our content. 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 some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible:
- Older PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
- Documents published in PDF format by third party systems Idox Public Access (for planning applications) and Modern.Gov (for committee meetings, minutes and agendas) do not have a document title and are not fully accessible to screen readers
- Online maps and mapping services are not accessible
- The Google calendar for council events is not accessible using the keyboard
- Some promotional images contain image text that can cause problems for users who need to adjust how visual content like font size, spacing or colours are displayed.
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
- Email communications@lancaster.gov.uk
- Telephone 01524 582000
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in five 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 accessibility requirements please use the 'Feedback' option at the bottom of every page or contact us by using the contact us form, emailing customer services at customerservices@lancaster.gov.uk or phoning 01524 582000 to discuss the issue with an advisor.
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
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Lancaster City 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.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
Issues with PDFs and other documents
WCAG 2.4.2 Page Titled - Web pages should have titles that describe their topic or purpose. PDF documents published by the third-party systems listed below do not have a document title and may be inaccessible to screen readers and other assistive technologies. We are awaiting accessibility updates from the respective suppliers to ensure all new documents are published in an accessible format. For existing documents in scope of the accessibility regulations and which currently do not meet the required standard, we are awaiting a response from our suppliers in order to either make these documents accessible, or enable us to correctly assess whether doing so would constitute a disproportionate burden. We aim to resolve this issue in full by October 2022.
Third party systems
IDOX Public Access
Planning applications are published at https://planning.lancaster.gov.uk using IDOX Public Access. As yet the IDOX software is not able to create fully accessible PDF documents. This means that they may not be read by a screen reader.
We are in the process of amending our document templates to make them accessible. This means that when the next version of Public Access is released, all future documents will be accessible.
Civica Modern.Gov
Our meetings and minutes publishing system at https://committeeadmin.lancaster.gov.uk is supplied by Civica.
ModernGov software is not able to create fully accessible PDF documents. This means that they may not be read by a screen reader and have issues such as:
- Not PDF Tagged so difficult to navigate and can't be read by a screen reader easily.
- Don't have a default declared language.
- Have a missing document title.
Documents created before September 2018 do not need to be made accessible. However, this leaves in excess of 5000 PDF documents produced from September 2018 to the present date that may not fully meet accessibility requirements, or be read by a screen reader.
If you need information in a different format, please contact us and tell us which document(s) you would like to access, as well as your name and email address.
Disproportionate burden
We have not identified anything that qualifies as disproportionate burden as of yet, but we are still evaluating our sites and may update this when we identify issues.
How we test this website
This website was last tested on 15 August 2023.
The test was carried out using Wave and browser-based accessibility tools.
What we are doing to improve accessibility
- Planning a new accessible-first website
- Ongoing audit of the content - automated and manual testing, monitoring content, accessibility, speed and legal compliance
- We audit each web page to ensure it is written in plain English, links are accessible, images have appropriate alt text and page titles are descriptive
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 29 April 2022. It was last reviewed on 30 September 2022.
This website was last tested on 30 September 2022. The test was carried out by Lancaster City Council.
We used this approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test:
We use a range of sample pages in the website audit to cover all the different types of functionality on the website, including:
- Pages common to many websites, for example the home and contact us pages
- Pages with variations in layout and functionality
- Most visited pages according to our web traffic analytics
Last updated: 04 June 2024