Accessibility Statement

 

This accessibility statement applies to the Folkestone Works website.

This website is run by Folkestone & Hythe District Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website, and on a variety of devices. 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 (external link) has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

For information that shows how to customise the accessibility features of your computer setup or web browser, you can visit BBC Accessibility Guides (external link).

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
  • Content and functionality provided by third party suppliers is not fully
  • Live video streams do not have captions
  • Some of our online forms are difficult to navigate and fill out using just a keyboard or screenreader

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 – you can:

  • Call Customer Services 8.30am – 5pm Monday to Friday, except Wednesday 9.30 – 5pm, on 01303 853000
  • Use our Contact us online form or please email communications@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk

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

Reporting accessibility 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, please report the problem using the following link: Report accessibility issues or if unavailable, please use our Contact us 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 (external link). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) (external link).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment. Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to Contact us.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Folkestone & Hythe District Council is committed to making the Folkestone Works website accessible, in accordance with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (external link).

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 (external link) AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below:

Non-accessible content

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

  • Third party applications
  • Some online forms
  • PDFs and other documents.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Third party applications:

We are currently reviewing our third party applications and working with suppliers to improve accessibility by September 2020 or on renewal of their contract if sooner. This is including, but not limited to, the following services:

~    Folkestone Works: We are in discussions with our provider, Pillory Barn, around an accessible version and are due to release an updated version by September 2020.

~    Kent & Medway Growth Hub (Online Chat Link): We are in discussions with our provider, Pillory Barn, around an accessible version and are due to release an updated version by 2020.

We cannot guarantee accessibility standards with third party applications. Accessibility regulations will form part of future procurement requirements.

Online forms

Some of our online forms are provided by third party suppliers. We are currently reviewing these forms and working with suppliers to improve accessibility by September 2020 or on renewal of their contract if sooner.

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

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By September 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

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.

We are currently reviewing our downloadable documents by order of most frequently visited. During this review, we are either changing the documents into webpages or applying accessibility standards as appropriate.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

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 are currently reviewing our website and have developed an accessibility roadmap that shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility.

We carry out weekly accessibility testing applying WCAG 2.1 AA standards. We do a combination of automated and manual testing.

We welcome feedback from all our users through customer service contact and the online feedback form.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 18 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 23 September 2020.

This website was last tested on 23 September 2020, conducted by Folkestone & Hythe District Council web services.

We use a combination of methods to test the accessibility of the website:

CLOSE
CLOSE