Accessibility
This accessibility statement applies to the www.iow.gov.uk, also known as www.iwight.com
This website is run by the Isle of Wight 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 are also working towards making the website text as simple as possible to understand.
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
This accessibility statement does not cover the following:
- Other council websites or systems on other domains (or sub domains) such as 1Leisure; Dinosaur Isle; SENDIASS.
- Commissioned services (services that the Council pays other organisations to deliver).
- Partner websites and applications.
- Our Intranet – Wightnet.
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Please note:
We are currently developing a new Isle of Wight Council website.
Our new website will be designed to comply with accessibility standards, be customer centred and provide customer journeys that are simple and easy to use. During this change, some functionality and content will be on our current (old) website and some will be on our new website.
This Accessibility Statement will be updated throughout the new website roll out. We aim to start rolling out the new Isle of Wight Council website as BETA website in March 2022.
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How accessible this website currently is:
While recent developments have improved the responsiveness (for mobile devices) and accessibility for some areas of the website, we are aware that the majority, of this website is not fully accessible:
- The text will not reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window.
- You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text.
- Our videos do not contain captions.
- We haven’t included a transcript of our videos.
- Some content uses inline frames (iframes) and not all of them have titles.
- Some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard.
- Our applied page and section headers do not conform to a set order, for example we use H1 and H3 but not H2.
- You cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader.
- There’s a limit to how far you can magnify the map on our ‘contact us’ page.
- Quite a few of our images do not contain alt tags.
- The natural language used by customers has not been incorporated into the current content.
- Some of the colour contrasts used are below accessibility ratios.
Feedback and contact information
If you have difficulty understanding information on this website an need it in a different format, please contact us on 01983 821000 and we will do our best to help you.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any accessibility problems not listed above or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please email digital.content@iow.gov.uk
Please provide a description of the problem(s) and if possible, include the web page address (URL) where the problem happens.
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 contact us by telephoning our contact centre on 01983 821000.
Due to COVID-19 most of our services are being delivered remotely and our offices are not open to the public. We will aim to speak to you by telephone or email while our offices remain closed to the public. If you cannot speak to us in either of these ways and wish to arrange an appointment to meet face to face please email digital.content@iow.gov.uk
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
The Isle of Wight 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 not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.
The non-compliances are listed below.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
Site Design and Navigation
- It’s not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping.
- On some pages the <html> tag does not have a lang attribute .
- There is insufficient colour contrast on our overall site design elements that are therefore present on our home page, hub pages and content pages.
- On our transactional hub pages, such as www.iow.gov.uk/counciltaxonline, not all <Form> elements have labels.
- Not all custom controls used on the website have ARIA roles or associated labels.
The site design and navigation issues are currently being addressed in the development of a new Isle of Wight Council website. Our new website will be fully responsive and focused on being fully accessible across traditional desktop, tablet and mobile phone interfaces.
During development, we will be testing all new site designs, content, layouts and user interfaces against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standards, using toolsets such as the Axe accessibility plugin. Our aim is for our new website to fully meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. Our new Isle of Wight Council website will be rolled out from March 2022 onwards.
Accessing Information
- Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
- The home page for our website does not have one main landmark or a level one heading (<h1> tag)
- The home page for our website does not have a content landmark
- On our homepage, links with the same name have a similar purpose
- On some content pages main landmarks are not present and content is not always contained by landmarks
- Some site or page links with the same name have a similar purpose
- On our section hub pages such as www.iow.gov.uk/residents, not all pages have a main landmark, and not all content is contained by landmarks.
- On our transactional hub pages, such as www.iow.gov.uk/counciltaxonline, not all documents have a <title> element to aid in navigation
- On our transactional hub pages, such as www.iow.gov.uk/counciltaxonline, the <html> element does not have a lang attribute
- On some content pages, header levels increase by more than one e.g. an h1 is followed by an h3. Our use of headers does not follow a hierarchical format in order to aid accessibility.
These landmark, title, header and page flow issues identified here, are being addressed in the development of our new Isle of Wight Council website. All website page syntax and layout design on our new website will fully meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standards. This new site will be rolled out from March 2022 onwards.
On our new site, all web pages will have a clear, main landmark and a level 1 heading. Content header levels will also follow a set, progressive path from h1 to h2 downwards in a hierarchical format and will not increase by more than one level at a time.
When we publish new content, we will make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards and that all image content on our new website will have text alternative tags before it is published.
Interactive tools and transactions
- Some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard, this is because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag.
- On some of our forms main landmarks are not present and content is not always contained by landmarks
- Our ‘My Account’ area is currently not fully accessible.
- Some buttons in this section do not have discernible text
- Some form elements are missing labels
- The login page does not have a level one heading
- Links with the same name have a similar purpose
- Some elements do not have enough colour contrast
- Some ARIA roles are not contained by particular parent html tags.
Improvements are being made to our form system. These improvements will provide most of our transactional forms and form content on our new website.
This will allow our forms, and form-based content, to be fully compliant with accessibility standards. Our forms will be laid out clearly, use appropriate landmarks and be easy to navigate using a keyboard.
Improved forms will be rolled out on our new website during the BETA phase. The BETA phase will be from March 2022.
We are also undertaking a review and redesign of the ‘My Account’ area of our website, both in terms of making sure all syntax used is compliant and the interface itself is accessible. This will include making sure all buttons have clear text and labels, that the login page is clearly laid out with all buttons and form elements giving enough colour contrast.
Disproportionate burden
We’ve assessed the cost of fixing these issues and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.
Site Design and Navigation
- It is not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.
Our new website is being designed to be responsive, with mobile devices in mind. It will therefore automatically adjust the site content layout to respond to both screen size and orientation.
Interactive tools and transactions
Some of our application and forms are built and hosted through third party software where we cannot directly make changes to the applications ourselves. These include;
- Our credit card and bill payment services; Isle of Wight Council Secure Payments are supplied by Capita. This system is not fully accessible due to:
- no language attribute on the <html> tag,
- not all images have alternative text,
- pages should not use a timed refresh.
Where we cannot directly make changes to the applications ourselves, we are currently reviewing these with our providers to try and make improvements going forward where possible.
- Our Public Access system provided by IDOX on our behalf for online Planning and Regulatory Services is not fully compliant due to issues with sufficient colour contrast on some sections of this application.
- Our Registrars appointment booking system is provided on our behalf by Stopford, it currently has some minor accessibility syntax failures and we are working with the provider to get these addressed.
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.
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. In September 2021 we will begin a programme of work to either fix or replace documents published after 23 September 2018 with accessible HTML pages or accessible PDF documents.
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
Due to the age of our existing website, a new website project is currently underway. This new site will be released in stages, with an initial BETA site being released in March 2022.
We will be ensuring that this new site is fully compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines. We will be using assessment tools to ensure compliance in every stage of the new Isle of Wight Councils website development.
We will be using manual testing to check content is compliant and we will be engaging with customers to design good online customer journeys.
Work is also being conducted across the Isle of Wight Council services, to review their digital presence and improve content accessibility as part of the move to a new website.
We aim to;
- Make the website copy as simple as possible, following plain English guidance and using natural language to help customers to understand.
- Ensure all new content is accessible.
- Provide content in the most appropriate format for customers.
- Ensure online processes and back office procedures support customers and provide them with good customer journeys that allow them to complete their goals.
We are working with our external third party providers to ensure systems they provide on our behalf are reviewed for accessibility with the aim of ensuring they meet WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines. Improvements will be undertaken on these systems where possible and not deemed a disproportionate burden.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 18 August 2020. It was last reviewed on 18 August 2021.
This website was last tested on 13 July 2020. The test was carried out by the Isle of Wight Council.
We:
- Tested and reviewed the main website platform, available at www.iow.gov.uk
- Identified where we didn't meet WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines.
- Provided recommendations on how to resolve the issues and are taking these into our new website project that is currently underway.
The technical accessibility test was based on assessing the following sample set of pages, chosen to reflect the main content areas of the website.