This accessibility statement applies to the Tewkesbury Borough Council website including embedded online forms and downloadable documents available on the tewkesbury.gov.uk domain.
This website is run by Tewkesbury Borough Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
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.
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
We’ll consider your request and get back to you.
If you cannot view the maps on our car park pages, call or email us for directions.
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact customerservices@tewkesbury.gov.uk or alternatively complete the anonymous ‘Page feedback’ online form which is available via a link in the footer on all pages on our website.
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).
We provide a text relay service for people who are 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 how to contact us.
Tewkesbury 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 exemptions’ or ‘the non-compliances and exemptions’ listed below.
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Our main website: tewkesbury.gov.uk
Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
We have added text alternatives for all images where it is possible to do so by our website platform. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meet accessibility standards, again where possible to do so by our website platform.
Some PDF documents contain images or other non-text content, such as maps, that doesn’t have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader can’t access the information. This fails success criterion 1.1.1 non-text content.
Some PDF documents do not provide information on the structure or the roles of components to help you navigate, such as headings. This fails success criterion 1.3.1 info and relationships.
The reading order of some PDF documents is not correct, making it difficult to access these using a screen reader. This fails success criterion 1.3.2 meaningful sequence.
Some prerecorded videos do not an audio description, so people using a screen reader can’t access the information. This fails success criterion 1.2.5 audio description (prerecorded).
The garden waste club form has instances of non-unique HTML IDs which may cause an issue with some screen readers, this form will be phased out on 1 November 2023.
Idox Public Access
Public Access is third party software provided by Idox which enables customers to view and comment on planning applications. There are a number of accessibility issues with Public Access which are listed below:
Error messages on some forms contain invalid mark-up, which affects how screen readers parse and announce this content. This fails success criterion 1.3.1 info and relationships.
There are instances of non-unique HTML IDs, which is invalid mark-up, which affects how screen readers parse and announce the page content. This fails success criterion 4.1.1 parsing.
Some image buttons do not have suitable alternative text descriptions, which means visually impaired users will not be informed of the button’s purpose. This fails success criterion 2.4.4 link purpose (in context).
Some form inputs are missing a corresponding label, which affects how screen reader technology announces this content. This fails success criterion 3.3.2 labels or instructions.
Headings on some pages are not in a logical hierarchy order, which can affect how content is announced by screen reader technology and keyboard-only navigation. This fails success criterion 2.4.6 headings and labels.
The re-Captcha widget does not use sufficient colour contrast for some elements and may be difficult to use with the keyboard. This fails success criteria 1.4.3 contrast (minimum) and 2.1.1 keyboard.
The map searching widget sometimes use tables for layout, do not always receive focus, and are not accessible by keyboard navigation. This fails success criteria 1.3.1 info and relationships and 2.1.1 keyboard.
Content is not contained in semantic landmark areas, which affects how assistive technologies interpret and announce the content. Using page landmarks is recommended in success criterion 1.3.1 info 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.
Some of our older interactive forms may be difficult to use with a screen reader. Our forms are built and hosted through third party software and are embedded into our website.
We have started to phase out the platform providing these forms.
Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. We plan to continue to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.
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 will meet accessibility standards.
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
This statement was prepared on 18 September 2023. It was last reviewed on 27 September 2023.
This website was last tested on 27 September 2023. The test was carried out by Tewkesbury Borough Council.
We used this approach to test:
All web pages within this website were scanned using Monsido website accessibility & UX tool, Deque axe accessibility testing tool (version 4.7.2) and WebAIM WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (version 3.1.3). Any findings have been fixed where technically possible within the constraints of our website platform.
A random set of pages were manually tested using desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile devices to test the website’s user interface using a variety of input devices including keyboard only, keyboard, mouse, trackpad, resistive and capacitive touchscreens.
The selected pages were also tested for cross browser support including current versions of Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera.