The accessibility regulationsaim to help make sure online public services can be used by as many people as possible. This includes those with impaired vision, motor difficulties, cognitive impairment or learning disabilities and deafness or impaired hearing.
People may not have a choice when it comes to using council websites, so it's important they work for everyone.
Common accessibility problems often include websites that are not easy to use on a mobile or cannot be navigated using a keyboard, inaccessible PDF documents that cannot be read out on screen readers or poor colour contrast that makes text difficult to read.
Our websites
In line with the regulations, this means that all our council websites must:
Accessibility monitoring
The cabinet office monitor all public sector websites and will routinely review our websites for accessibility issues. Any issues identified can then be reported to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Updating our websites
To continue to meet the regulations all updates to derbyshire.gov.uk, Our Derbyshire or any other council website will need to meet the accessibility standards. This includes updates to documents, adding an image or video, or updates to the web design and text.
Wherever possible, information should be created as web pages. This makes sure the content meets accessibility regulations. It's also easier for people to find, particularly when using the search.
We don't add new or replacement Microsoft Office documents to our websites as they can have accessibility issues for some people. Documents that cannot be made into accessible PDF or CSV files should be stored elsewhere, like EDRM.
The digital communications team will be able to advise if the updates need any changes to be made accessible. Please send web updates to the team by email: econtent@derbyshire.gov.uk
Guidance for creating accessible websites
There is a range of free support, tools and guidance for creating accessible content, including an introduction to web accessibility.
There is support available to help make your online service accessible, write for web accessibility, design for web accessibility and developing for web accessibility.
Guidance is available to help test and evaluate web accessibility and you can also read a sample accessibility statement.
There is also guidance on how to publish accessible documents, and support for making audio and video accessible.
If you need any further support or guidance on web accessibility please get in touch with the digital communications team, email econtent@derbyshire.gov.uk