Accessibility statement

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

This website is run by Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council.


How accessible this website is

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website and have made every effort to ensure it is accessible. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts (using your browser settings)
  • 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.


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:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.


Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are 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 email your comments to enquiries@lisburncastlereagh.gov.uk


Enforcement procedure

The Equalities Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) 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, please contact the ECNI.


Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Lisburn & Castlereagh City 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

We know some parts of this website are not yet fully accessible and we continue to work on this:

  • most of our PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • embedded videos, livestreams and audio recordings do not have captions or transcripts
  • some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard


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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Images

Some images contain text, so people using a screen reader will not be able to read the information. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.5 (Images of Text). When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards and include relevant ALT text where approriate. We plan to resolve this issue by October 2023.

Links

On some pages the purpose of each link can't be determined from the link text alone. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context). When we publish new pages we’ll make sure link text meets accessibility standards. We plan to resolve this issue by October 2023.

Tables

On some pages tables do not have a description set using the caption element. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. When we publish new tables we’ll make sure they meet accessibility standards. We plan to resolve this issue by October 2023.

Forms

On some pages the label for the form control is not explicitly connected to anything, since it refers to an element ID that does not exist on the page. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Information and Relationships. We plan to resolve this issue by October 2023.

PDFs and other electronic documents

A large proporation of our PDFs and other electronic documents are not accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, role value). 


Disproportionate burden

This website currently contains a large number of PDFs and other electronic documents which do not meet the regulations - the majority of which are rarely accessed by visitors to the site.

Since 23 September 2018, 3,227 PDFs have been uploaded to this website. 

It is estimated that:

  • at a minimum of 5 minutes per file, it would take at least 269 hours (34 working days) to check all PDFs
  • it would take between 30 minutes to half a day per PDF to fix or recreate, depending on the availability of the original source material.
  • allowing an average of 1.5 hours per PDF, it could take 645 working days to fix all 3,227 individual PDFs.

We have assessed that considering the time and cost involved in fixing these documents, it would be reasonable to apply a claim of disproportionate burden.

By October 2023 we plan to remove all non-essential or outdated documents and to fix the most regularly accessed documents. We will aim to meet accessibility standards for any new PDFs or electronic documents we publish or provide accessible alternatives where possible.


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

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


Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 14 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 15 May 2023.

This website was last tested on 12 September 2023. The testing was carried out in-house using both automated and manual testing methods.