Accessibility statement

We want everyone who visits the newforest.gov.uk website to feel welcome and find the experience rewarding, going above and beyond The Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This statement applies to content published on this website,  https://www.newforest.gov.uk/

This website is run by NFDC Digital, a team that is part of New Forest District Council. It is designed to be used by as many people as possible. The text should be clear and simple to understand. You should be able to:

• zoom in up to 300% without problems
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• use most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

How accessible this website is

Currently parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:

• many documents are in PDF format without a HTML alternative
• some tables contain non-data content
• some of our content is not written in plain English
• some external links are not as descriptive as they can be
• some images do not have ALT text

Each department and agency which publishes content on newforest.gov.uk is responsible for making sure it meets the accessibility regulations. We will update the statement when issues are fixed or when we expect them to be fixed.

Feedback and contact information

Tell us if you need information in a different format by emailing digital@nfdc.gov.uk

In your message, include:

• the web address (URL) of the content
• your email address and name
• the format you need - for example, plain text, braille, BSL, large print or audio CD

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or you think we're not meeting the accessibility requirements, email us digital@nfdc.gov.uk

Enforcement procedure

If you contact us with a complaint and you're not happy with our response contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

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').

Technical information about this website's accessibility

New Forest District Council are committed to making our 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.

What we are doing

We have just commissioned the charity Scope to do a sample audit of our website, eforms and applications.

We will update this statement with the findings of the audit.

We were also assessed by the Central Digital and Data Office in November 2021 who raised a few points for us to address.

Any we haven't fixed yet are included in the Non-accessible content section of the statement.

We have done a previous audit in September 2020 with Content Design London, who identified 10 key themes to make our web content more accessible for all.

These were:

• using sentence case for headings and page titles
• using clear language, plain English and active tense
• including external site names in the link text and making sure links open within the same browser tab
• writing content for a user needs first perspective
• making content more concise
• applying content design techniques to present content in an optimal way for users
• ensuring PDF content has HTML text alternative
• ensuring tables are only used to present data content
• removing hyphens for uses other than hyphenating words
• presenting contact information consistently

We have addressed most of these issues and themes and continue to implement the recommendations from this audit.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

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

1. The keyboard tabs through background content before filtering through the cookie policy. This box covers content across the webpage. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.3 (Focus order). This issue should be resolved by 31 October 2022.
2. Some PDFs do not have a language set on them. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.1.1 (Language of page). 
3. Images on some pages do not always have suitable image descriptions. Users of assistive technologies may not have access to information conveyed in images. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content). We are reviewing this and hope to have all images meet the criteria by 31 October 2022.
4. Many documents are in less accessible formats, for example PDF. Non-HTML documents published on or after 23 September 2018 must have an accessible format.

If you are unable to access any content on our website because it is not accessible, please get in touch with us. We may be able to offer the information in an alternative format.

Let us know what you think

If you enjoyed using the newforest.gov.uk website, or if you had trouble with any part of it, please get in touch. 

• email us at digital@nfdc.gov.uk
• call us on 023 8028 5742

If you contact us with a complaint and you're not happy with our response you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This accessibility statement was prepared on 23 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 18 October 2022.