Our accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to www.braintree.gov.uk.

It also applies to the third party software systems we use to provide our services including:

  • ARC GIS which provides our maps
  • CMIS for councillors and committee meetings
  • Gov delivery for email newsletters
  • Find your nearest
  • I-trent for vacancies and job descriptions
  • Open portal for Council Tax and Business Rates
  • Our Local Plan consultation portal
  • Public-I for committee webcasts
  • Public Access for Licensing
  • Public Access for planning

It does not apply to:

  • the independent websites we run
  • websites run by partners or associated organisations

Braintree District Council run this website. 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
  • only use a keyboard to navigate most of our website
  • navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader. This includes 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 our website is

We have designed and built our website to meet the Web Content Access Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard.

We have reviewed the content on our website to make sure it is as clear and simple as possible (WGAC 3.1.5).

We will continue to review and update our content to make sure that it is:

  • in plain English
  • jargon free
  • has a year nine reading level

The colour contrast (WGAC 1.4.1) of our site meets AA standard for:

  • buttons
  • images
  • banners

All videos we have published after 1st September 2020 have captions or a transcript.

Feedback and contact information

You should contact us if you need information on our website in different formats such as:

  • accessible PDF
  • large print
  • audio recording
  • braille

So that we give you a quick response, tell us:

  • the web address (URL) of the content
  • your name and email address
  • the format you need the information in

We will reply to your enquiry within one working day.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We're always looking to improve the accessibility of our website.

You should contact us if you find any issues we haven't listed on this page or think we're not meeting the standard.

Enforcement procedure

If you contact us about an issue and you're not happy with our response, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS). 

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) enforces the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

Our offices are open Monday to Friday between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm.

By phone: 01376 552525

In person: You can visit us at Causeway House during our opening hours. We have audio induction loops at our service desk.

Technical information about this website's accessibility

Braintree District Council is committed to making our website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Our website is partially compliant with the WCAG 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed as follows.

Non-accessible content

We know some parts of this website are not yet AA accessible:

  • some pages are not written in plain English. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.1.5 (reading level)
  • some documents are not written in plain English. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.1.5 (reading level)
  • many of our PDF downloads do not work through a keyboard interface. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 (keyboard interface)
  • our forms timeout without warning and do not let the user adjust when this happens. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.2.1 (timing adjustable)

We are working to fix these and any other accessibility issues.

Disproportionate burden

We use third party software systems to provide our services. Our suppliers have branded their systems to look like our website.

Each of these systems has different issues in meeting the WCAG 2.1 AA standard.

We've looked at the cost of fixing the issues. Changing these systems now would be a disproportionate burden.

We will make each system accessible when the supplier contract is up for renewal. We are aiming to complete this work by 2023.

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

PDFs and other documents published before 23 September 2018

We do not have to make PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 accessible, if:

  • they're not essential to providing our services
  • a member of the public has published them (for example planning documents)
  • another organisation has published them (for example another local authority)

PDFs and other documents published after 23 September 2018

We do not have to make PDFs or other documents published after 23 September 2018 accessible, if:

  • a member of the public has published them (for example planning documents)
  • another organisation has published them (for example another local authority)

Live video

We are not planning to add captions to live video streams. Live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

How we tested this website

The Shaw Trust tested our website when we were building it in 2020. They checked our site to make sure it meets the WCAG 2.1 AA standard.

We use Siteimprove to check the whole of our site and report on:

  • pages and content that do not meet the WGAC 2.1 AA standard
  • issues with CSS validation
  • issues with HTML validation
  • PDF accessibility including problems with tagging, language definition, headings and labels
  • readability of content

What we're doing to improve accessibility

We have rebuilt our website on an accessible platform.

We have identified the areas that do not meet the WCAG 2.1 AA standard and developed a plan to address these issues.

PDFs and other documents

When we built our website, we removed all non-essential PDFs and documents

All PDFs on our website can be requested in an accessible format. All new PDFs and documents we publish on our site meet the WGAC 2.1 AA standard.

Content that isn't in plain English

When we built our website we used a detailed guide to write our content to a year nine reading level. There are still pages on our website that do not meet the standard and we are working to fix this.

All new pages and documents we publish on our site will have a year nine reading level or lower.

We will only write pages and documents above this reading level if there is a legal need to do so.

Video

Any videos we publish on our website will have captions or subtitles.

Third party systems

We have a register of the third party software systems we use to provide our services.

Each of these systems has different issues in meeting the WCAG 2.1 AA standard.

We will make each system accessible when the supplier contract is up for renewal. We are aiming to complete this work by 2023.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

We prepared this statement on 1 November 2020. It was last reviewed on 8 March 2022.

Freedom of Information Officer

Address: Causeway House
Bocking End
Braintree
Essex
CM7 9HB

Telephone: 01376 552525

Green and grey text saying tell me more with a white email icon in a green speech bubble

Stay connected

Sign up for our email newsletter to get service updates and the latest news.

Sign up today