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Accessible Documents

Accessible documents at Newbold Astbury cum Moreton Parish Council

This policy explains how accessible the documents Newbold Astbury cum Moreton Parish Council are. It covers PDFs, spreadsheets, presentations and other types of document. It does not cover content published as HTML: the main accessibility statement covers that.

Using our documents

Newbold Astbury cum Moreton Parish Council publishes documents in a range of formats, including Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PDF documents.

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:

  • 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’re there for
  • avoid using tables, except when we’re presenting data
  • write in plain English

How accessible our documents are

New documents we publish and documents you need to download should be fully accessible.

However, we know that some of our older documents (published before 23 September 2018) 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
  • are not written in plain English

This mostly applies to our transparency documents, financial reports, meeting agendas, reports and minutes, annual reports, policies and publications. 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’ve published in a different format, contact our Parish Clerk:

1 Overton Meadow
Overton Green
Smallwood
SANDBACH
CW11 2UP

Tel. 01260 641 854
Email: clerk@astbury-parish.org.uk

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

Reporting accessibility problems with one of our documents

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

Parish Clerk
2 Field View Road
Somerford
Congleton
CW12 4UG

Tel. 01260 641 854
Email: clerk@astbury-parish.org.uk

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

Newbold Astbury cum Moreton 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 Newbold Astbury cum Moreton 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

A few of our documents have diagrams. These images do not have a text alternative, so the information in them is not available to people using a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

We plan to add text alternatives for all diagrams included in new documents published after 23 September 2020. When we publish new documents we’ll make sure our use of diagrams meets accessibility standards.

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

Not all documents on this website are created by us. Some documents and content may be created by third parties or using third party software. Where this is the case we will endeavour, on request, to obtain an accessible copy from the original source or to convey the information contained in the document in an accessible way.

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2020 if they’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we do not plan to fix meeting agendas or minutes for meetings which were published prior to 23 September 2020.
Any new PDFs or Word documents created by us will meet accessibility standards.