Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to this website (www.richmond.gov.uk).

This website is run by Richmond 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 have undertaken an accessibility audit to inform us about areas of the site that may be problematic for disabled users. 

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

• Some of our PDFs do not have titles
• Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
• Skip to content are missing on some pages
• Some embedded content may trap users navigating by keyboard
• Some embedded content is not appropriately labelled
• Some charts and graphs do not have a table or downloadable version immediately adjacent to it
• Some of our images include text
• Navigation is inconsistent on some pages
• Duplicate Id names appear on some pages
• Some of our forms are difficult to navigate by keyboard
• Some of our page elements are not appropriately sized

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, please get in touch by contacting customer services:

• Email: services@richmond.gov.uk
• Telephone: 020 8891 1411

We will consider your request and get back to you within 10 days.

If you cannot view the map on our contact us page, call or email us for directions.

Individual services will be able to give details of the different formats their information is available in:

Adult Social Care and Public Health

If you have difficulty in understanding any of the Adult Social Care publications, and you would like them in a different language or format please call 020 8891 7971 or email adultsocialservices@richmond.gov.uk.

Electoral Services

Electoral Services offer information on voting for people with disabilities.

Registration Services

Registration Services can provide their literature in several accessible formats.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website.

If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or think we are not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, contact the Digital team by emailing web.accessibility@richmond.gov.uk or submitting our website feedback online 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

You can visit our Customer Centre to speak to someone in person about most services, to use our computers to access online services or use our telephones to contact Council departments.

We provide loop hearing systems, and access to lip speakers and signers on request if you visit us at the Customer Centre.

If you are a British Sign Language user, you can use SignLive to contact us through an online professional BSL interpreter from your own device.

See contact details for our services and view our office locations.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Richmond Council is committed to making its 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 2.1 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

We have identified the following issues which affect a small number of pages:

Some embedded content may trap users navigating by keyboard - WCAG 2.1 Level A 2.1.2.

Skip to content links not implemented on all pages. This occurs on a small number of page templates which we aim to resolve by the end of 2024 - WCAG 2.1 G1 2.4.1

Some embedded content is not appropriately labelled. We aim to identify and fix remaining occurrences - WCAG 2.1 level AA 2.4.6

Some charts and graphs do not have a table or downloadable version immediately adjacent to it. We aim to identify items that breach this rule and either create appropriate data or encourage the content provider to provide the information in a more accessible way - WCAG 2.1 standard F19.

Some of our images include text  - WCAG 2.1 level A 1.4.5

Navigation is inconsistent on some pages. We will review navigation across the site by the end of 2024 - WCAG 2.1 level AA 3.2.3.

Duplicate Ids appear on some pages. This happens primarily on third party applications such as forms. We will review and seek to resolve this by the end of 2023 – WCAG level A 2.1 4.1.1.

Some of our forms are difficult to navigate by keyboard. We are reviewing our forms and look to resolve this by the end of 2024 – WCAG 2.1 level A 2.4.3.

Some of our interactive elements do not meet minimum size or spacing, This will be addressed with next site template update - WCAG AA 2.5.8 

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

PDFs and other documents

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23rd September 2018 unless they are essential to providing our services. For those that are essential to providing services, we plan to either fix or replace them with accessible HTML pages by the end of 2022. All new documents will be checked for accessibility at the point of publication.

Videos

Some of our older videos do not meet accessibility standards because they do not have captions. The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix videos published before 23 September 2020. Any new videos we publish will include captions.

Live video

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

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We have undertaken an accessibility audit to discover issues with our site in relation to the The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Preparation of this accessibility statement 

This statement was prepared on 29 November 2019. It was last reviewed on 03 September 2024.

This website was last tested in August 2024. The test was carried out by our Digital Team.

We took a sample of pages across the site that contained the essential functionality of the site; that reflected typical user journeys and the varying technologies in use and tested them against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1.

This test sample included: the homepage, landing pages and a cross-section of content pages containing tables, calls to action, forms, external links, internal links, landing pages, images, charts, videos and unique features.

Each page was tested and checked with different browsers.

We used several tools to assist in the audit of our website:

• SiteImprove
• AxeDevTools
• Wave Evaluation
• Chrome Screenreader
• W3C Markup Validation Service
• Adobe Acrobat Accessibility checker

Following our last audit we have fixed a number of issues and have an ongoing programme of work to resolve outstanding issues.