Accessibility

This accessibility statement applies to the website www.southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk.

This website is run by Broadland District Council and South Norfolk 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 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 forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
• some pages contain heading tags with no text content
• we have links to some of our systems operated by third party suppliers which are not fully accessible at this time

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: council@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk
• freephone: 08003 896 109

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.

If you cannot plan your journey using the google maps link on our ‘contact us’ page, call or email us for directions.

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 page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, you can contact us by:

• email: council@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk
• or select the 'website' option on our general enquiry form

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

Information about contacting Broadland District Council or South Norfolk Council can be found on this page: Find out how to contact us.

Our office reception and Yare Rooms (council chamber) both have audio induction loops

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Broadland District Council and South Norfolk Council are committed to making their 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 2.2 AA standard due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below

Non accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Microsoft Forms

As this is a product supplied by Microsoft, the non-compliances listed below cannot be fixed by the councils. The Microsoft accessibility conformance reports describe how their products support WCAG.

Customer Satisfaction Survey

The Customer Satisfaction Survey is partially compliant to WCAG 2.2 AA standards due to the non-compliances listed below.

• On the ‘Other’ fields, a form label is present but doesn't have any content. This means information about this control won't be presented to the user. This fails WCAG criteria: 1.1.1 Non-text Content, 1.3.1 Info and Relationships, 2.4.6 Headings and Labels and 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions.
• Some ARIA attributes are used that are either not supported or prohibited, which may not deliver the intended user experience. This fails WCAG criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.

Broadland missed bin form

The Broadland missed bin form is partially compliant to WCAG 2.2 AA standards due to the non-compliances listed below.

• Some ARIA attributes are used that are either not supported or prohibited, which may not deliver the intended user experience. This fails WCAG criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.
• There are broken ARIA references which means that labels and descriptions won't be presented to assistive technology users. This fails WCAG criteria: 1.3.1 Info and Relationships and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.

This Microsoft Form is in place whilst we develop a form in-house that will provide a better user experience for all customers. We have taken every step we can to make the form accessible but if you require this in an alternative format, please contact us by email wasteadmin.bdc@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk

Assisted bin collection form

The Assisted bin collection form is partially compliant to WCAG 2.2 AA standards due to the non-compliances listed below.

• There are broken ARIA references which means that labels and descriptions won't be presented to assistive technology users. This fails WCAG criteria: 1.3.1 Info and Relationships and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.
• The visible label and accessible name on the question one drop-down field 'Which district do you live in?' do not match. This fails WCAG criterion 2.5.3 Label in Name.
• Some ARIA attributes are used that are either not supported or prohibited, which may not deliver the intended user experience. This fails WCAG criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.
• On the ‘Other’ field, a form label is present but doesn't have any content. This means information about this control won't be presented to the user. This fails WCAG criteria: 1.1.1 Non-text Content, 1.3.1 Info and Relationships, 2.4.6 Headings and Labels and 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions.

This form has replaced the pre-populated emails that were linked on the Assisted collections page. This Microsoft Form is in place whilst we develop a form in-house that will provide a better user experience for all customers. We have taken every step we can to make this form accessible but if you require this in an alternative format, please contact us:

• Broadland residents email wasteadmin.bdc@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk
• South Norfolk residents email wasteadmin.snc@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk

Request to get a smaller bin/lower amount of bins form

The Request to get a smaller bin/lower amount of bins form is partially compliant to WCAG 2.2 AA standards due to the non-compliances listed below.

• Some ARIA attributes are used that are either not supported or prohibited, which may not deliver the intended user experience. This fails WCAG criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.
• There are broken ARIA references which means that labels and descriptions won't be presented to assistive technology users. This fails WCAG criteria: 1.3.1 Info and Relationships and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.
• The tables contain roles that are missing their nested elements, which means assistive technology may not convey the right information to users. This fails WCAG criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.

We have taken every step we can to make this form accessible but if you require this in an alternative format, please contact us:

• Broadland residents email wasteadmin.bdc@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk
• South Norfolk residents email wasteadmin.snc@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk

Broadland District Council Sharps Collection

The Broadland District Council Sharps Collection form is partially compliant to WCAG 2.2 AA standards due to the non-compliances listed below.

• Some ARIA attributes are used that are either not supported or prohibited, which may not deliver the intended user experience. This fails WCAG criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.

If you require this form in an alternative format, please contact us by email wasteadmin.bdc@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk

PDFs

Our Broadland bin collection calendars (PDF) have missing titles, no tab order, and incorrect heading nesting. This fails WCAG criteria: 1.1.1 Non-text Content, 1.3.1 Info and Relationships, 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence, 2.4.3 Focus Order, 2.4.6 Headings and Labels, 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value. The Broadland digital bin calendar is available on our website, which is supplied by ReCollect. We are working with ReCollect to link to this from property pages on My Area, which will replace the PDF bin calendars. We don’t yet have a timeline for this to be available but in the meantime, customers can request their current calendar in an alternative format by contacting us wasteadmin.bdc@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk

Some of our PDFs do not have document titles and are missing a language definition. This fails WCAG criteria: 2.4.2 Page Titled and 3.1.1 Language of Page. A list of PDFs with this missing information has been shared with our content editor team; the PDFs will be amended and updated on the website by 23 December 2024.

Some of our PDFs are not tagged and do not contain headings, which means content can’t be rendered in a meaningful way for assistive technology users. This fails criteria 1.3.1 Info and Relationships, 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence, 2.4.3 Focus Order, 2.4.6 Headings and Labels, 4.1.1 Parsing and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value. A list of PDFs with no tags has been shared with our content editor team; the PDFs will be amended and updated on the website by 23 December 2024.

My Area

My Area has some non-compliances which we are currently working to fix by 23 December 2024. This includes:

• The incompatible browser error page has two Heading 1 headings. This fails criteria 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.
• The buttons ‘View services and amenities on a map’ and ‘View dashboard’ are styled within a table, which may be identified wrongly to screen reader users. This fails criteria 1.3.1 Info and Relationships and 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence.

Course bookings

Bookwhen is partially compliant to WCAG 2.2 AA standards due to the non-compliances listed below.

• Colour contrast is not sufficient on error messages, some buttons and links, and the 'Cost' table heading. This fails WCAG criteria: 1.4.1 Use of Color, 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum).

We will manually change colours where we have control of this and will fix what we can by 23 December 2024. For the non-compliances that we can’t change, we will provide Bookwhen with the details. If any course details are required in an alternative format, please contact us by email carrowbreck@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk or phone 01603 788950.

Bookwhen has replaced the course bookings system, which was on the legacy 'Toplevel' product. The previous system was partially compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA standards but failed on nine areas across several different WCAG criteria. After conducting an accessibility check on Bookwhen, using a combination of manual and automated testing tools, Bookwhen is much more accessible and provides a far better user experience.

Public Access

The Public Access system at info.southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk is partially compliant to WCAG 2.2 AA standards due to the non-compliances listed below.

• There is a keyboard trap on the 'Trees - map search' page on the map. This fails WCAG criterion 2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap.
• Footer content is not within an ARIA landmark, which fails WCAG criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.
• On the Map search page the link 'Click here for help with using the map' can't be navigated to if you're using keyboard only. This fails WCAG criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard.
• On the search results page the 'Map information' heading misses a heading level, so it jumps from Heading 1 to Heading 3. This fails WCAG criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.
• There are some images of text on application pages, which fails WCAG criterion 1.4.5 Images of Text.
• When zoomed in to 300% and signed in to your account, the username obscures the 'Planning' search menu option. The 'Help with this page' link also obscures the 'My profile - saved searches' heading. This fails WCAG criteria 1.4.10 Reflow and 2.4.11 Focus not obscured (Minimum).
• When zoomed in to 300% and signed in to your account, when using a mouse to select the 'search' drop-down menu the items disappear on mouse-over. This fails WCAG criterion 1.4.10 Reflow.
• On the Alphabetical search results page, there are ARIA attributes that are either not supported or prohibited. This fails WCAG criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.

We are working with the supplier, Idox, to address these issues and we are waiting for confirmation of a timescale for when they will be fixed.

If you require any information in an alternative format, please contact our Planning Team by email planning@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk or phone 01508 53383.

Public Access Land Charges

The Public Access Land Charges system at info.southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk/osm is partially compliant to WCAG 2.2 AA standards due to the non-compliances listed below.

• Buttons and links across the site do not meet the minimum size requirement, for example 'Login', 'Register', 'Forgotten password', and 'Save & exit'. This fails WCAG criterion 2.5.8 Target size (minimum).
• On the registration page, if you submit the form with missing information the error message is not clear. It will only say that no password has been entered, which may not be true. This fails WCAG criterion 3.3.3 Error Suggestion.
• Across the site, when zoomed in to 300% the content isn't responsive so users have to scroll horizontally. This fails WCAG criterion 1.4.10 Reflow.
• No page regions or ARIA landmarks exist, which fails WCAG criteria 1.3.1 Info and Relationships and 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks.
• There is no page language which fails WCAG criteria 3.1.1 Language of Page.
• On the Search Request Online Form, the 'Welcome' heading does not meet the colour contrast ratio requirement. This fails WCAG criteria 1.4.1 Use of Color and 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum).
• On the My Searches page, the delete icon/button does not meet the minimum 3.1 contrast ratio when it is not in focus/on hover. This fails WCAG criteria 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) and 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast.

We are working with the supplier, Idox, to address the other issues which have been logged, and we are waiting for confirmation of a timescale for when they will be fixed.

If you require any information in an alternative format, please contact our Land Charges Team by phone 01603 430586 or email:

• Broadland: landcharges.bdc@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk
• South Norfolk: landcharges.snc@southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk

Disproportionate burden

PDFs and other documents

We have prioritised making accessible existing PDFs and other documents (eg in Word) published from January 2021 on www.southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk as well as making any new documents that we publish compliant. All documents (PDF, Word format etc) that are downloadable forms used for active administrative processes will be made compliant irrespective of their original publication date. We want to keep PDFs and other documents on the website for public transparency and will provide alternative versions upon request.

We have undertaken a detailed assessment and estimate in total for both councils (Broadland District Council and South Norfolk Council) that approximately 2,102 PDF documents are non-compliant. It takes approximately 3 hours to review and make a document accessible. To fix the 2,102 documents that are within scope would take approximately 852 working days at a cost of approximately £83,400 in staff costs.

The majority of these documents have not been viewed by a member of the public or have received very few views, however we keep them on the website for public transparency and will provide alternative versions upon request.

We believe that the cost of retrospectively fixing these documents would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the Accessibility Regulations 2018, ie, to fix all documents on www.southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk that have a publication date from 23 September 2018. Furthermore, we believe the benefit to the public in assigning staff or procuring external support to fix these documents would not be justifiable use of the public purse and users would instead benefit most from us focusing on fixing more recent most used documents and ensuring that new documents are accessible.

Web forms, including front-end forms to third party systems

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with the electronic forms. We believe that fixing these issues would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We have instead invested all our time and resources into building a new forms solution to meet all our accessibility needs for the future. We are actively redeveloping our forms into the new platform focusing on those forms which are most frequently used by our customers. For specific form non-compliances please see below.

Third party software and systems

Some online services we offer use software that is built and maintained by third party suppliers on our behalf. We have been working with suppliers to establish timescales and costs for compliance. The following outlines the current status of what has been done and what we believe would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations to fix at this time. We will make another assessment as supplier contracts come up for renewal. We are also reviewing systems as part of a corporate-wide programme of work to align IT systems across Broadland District Council and South Norfolk Council.

Payment portal

We’ve fixed the issues with interactive tools and transactions on our Payment Portal but there are some remaining issues around missing labels and headings, which we are addressing with our supplier. We are aware the Visa and Mastercard verification service used when processing payments remains non-compliant and we are working with our current software provider to understand how this can be addressed.

Other systems

• Planning Portal and Local Land Charges: The third party suppliers do not currently have an accessible version of the software. These systems are in the scope of our review on aligning IT systems across both councils
• Council Tax: The supplier has confirmed their version is compliant but our checks have found otherwise, possibly due to customisation for our site. We are investigating this currently.

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

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 Joint Core Strategy (adopted 2011, amendments adopted 2014). However, we want to keep PDFs and other documents on the website for public transparency and will provide alternative versions upon request.

We are also not required by the regulations to fix documents provided by third-parties that are neither funded nor developed by, nor under the control of the Council.

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

We are not required to fix third party content that’s under someone else’s control, if we did not pay for it or develop it ourselves. For example, social media ‘like’ buttons.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We have worked with our website supplier to ensure that templates used by web content editors are accessible and responsive.

We have trained web content editors on accessible content with bespoke training by AbilityNet and Hassell Inclusion in accessibility awareness and accessible document production for all staff across the council.

We have set up processes so that this website is continually tested.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 27 May 2021. It was last updated on 11 October 2024.

This website was last tested on 12 September 2024. The test was carried out by our Siteimprove automated process producing reports and content editor guidance, and a manual internal audit. We also use Siteimprove and manual testing for satellite sites related to this digital service.

We use this approach in deciding on sample of pages to test where they have been highlighted as having accessibility issues through the automated monitoring and reporting on content accessibility.

We test:

• our main website platform, available at https://www.southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk
• our online forms systems at forms.southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk  (Subdomain name provided for information only. This is not linked to because it would cause an error unless linked to a specific form.)
• My Area at area.southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk
• My Account at account.southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk
• Public Access at info.southnorfolkandbroadland.gov.uk