Accessibility Documents Statement

This policy explains how accessible the documents Beenham Parish Council publishes on Beenham.gov.uk are. It covers PDFs, spreadsheets, presentations and other types of document. It does not cover content published on beenham-pc.gov.uk as HTML: the main beenham-pc.gov.uk accessibility statement will cover that.

Using our documents

Beenham Parish Council publishes documents in a range of formats, including PDFs.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use those documents. For example, when we produce a document we make sure to:

  • provide an HTML option where possible
  • tag headings and other parts of the document properly, so screen readers can understand the page structure
  • make sure we include alt text alongside non-decorative images, so people who cannot see them understand what they are there for
  • avoid using tables, except when we are presenting data
  • write in plain English

How accessible our documents are

New documents we publish and documents you need to download or fill in to access one of the services we provide should be fully accessible.

However, we know that some of our documents are not accessible. For example, some of them:

  • are just photocopies and are not marked up in a way that allows screen reader users to understand them
  • are not tagged up properly – for example, they do not contain proper headings

This mostly applies to our audit documents. These types of documents are exempt from the regulations, so we do not currently have any plans to make them accessible. But if you need to access information in one of these document types, you can contact us and ask for an alternative format.

What to do if you cannot use one of our documents

If you need a document we have published in a different format:

email clerk@beenham-pc.gov.uk

call 07919916125

We will consider the request and get back to you in 21 days.

Reporting accessibility problems with one of our documents

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of our documents. If you find any problems not listed on this page or you think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: The Clerk, Beenham Parish Council.

email clerk@beenham-pc.gov.uk

call 07919916125

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).

Technical information about the accessibility of our documents

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

The documents Beenham Parish Council publishes are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non accessible content

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

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

None

Disproportionate burden

Many of our documents relating to the internal and external audit do not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they are accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

These documents are generated by a third party. Beenham Parish Council is requesting that the third parties make these documents compliant from 1st November 2020 but older documents cannot be amended.

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

None except those listed under Disproportionate burden.

How we tested our documents

We last tested a sample of our documents on 8th November 2021. The test was carried out by the Clerk using the online tools available via http://checkers.eiii.eu/en/pagecheck/

We tested:

  • all of our polices
  • all of agendas and minutes
  • some of our audits and reports

What we are doing to improve accessibility

We are working with our internal and external auditors to request that they make the third party documents accessible.

This page was prepared on 1st June 2020. It was last updated on 8th November 2021.