Stirling Council search Emergency Closure Home Council, Democracy & Elections Access to Information Accessibility Statement for Stirling Council Accessibility Statement for Stirling Council In order to provide our citizens with clear and transparent information regarding accessibility, we have a single accessibility statement that covers a number of sites. This accessibility statement refers to our primary domain, subdomains website and satellite sites as listed below. www.stirling.gov.uk (primary domain) www.investinstirling.com www.yourstirling.com www.conference.yourstirling.com Stirling Council and its services also manage and provide other websites. If they are not listed here, you should be able to find localised accessibility statements on the individual sites. If you have any issues finding them, please do not hesitate to let us know and we can support. These websites are run by Stirling Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use them. For example, that means you should be able to: Zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen Navigate our website regardless of device/screen size used Navigate all forms using just a keyboard Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard Listen to most of the websites using screen reader software Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software 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. How accessible this website is We know some parts of this website are 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 most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software live video streams do not have captions some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard 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 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: email: digital@stirling.gov.uk call:01786 404040 Visit: Customer First, 1-5 Port St, Stirling, FK8 2EJ We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 days. Reporting accessibility problems 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, contact Stirling Council's Digital Team by emailing digital@stirling.gov.uk. This will enable you to provide report issues to Stirling Council, and the team responsible for dealing with this site. 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 Find out how to contact us visit our contact us page. Technical information about this website’s accessibility Stirling 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 (WCAG) version 2.1 AA standard, due to the “non-compliances” listed below. Maintaining this standard is an exercise in continuous delivery. Stirling Council uses the third party, and World Wide Web Consortium (w3c) partner, SiteImprove to continually analyse and improve our website. Non-accessible content The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons. Non-compliance with the accessibility regulation: stirling.gov.uk We are aware of the following accessibility issues on stirling.gov: Colour contrast is not always sufficient throughout the site. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum). We plan to ensure that the colour of text and elements on the site meet the required contrast ratios by December 2021. Some page content does not have landmarks. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships). We plan to ensure this is rectified by the introduction of our new website that is currently in the beta stage and plans to go live in February 2022. Some pages lack correctly applied headings. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.5 (Headings and Labels). With the introduction of the new site, we have implemented content governance and the correct use of headings will be enforced by the new CMS policy. This will be in place by February 2022. Tables have been applied incorrectly at times. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships) and 1.3.2 (Meaningful Sequence). With the introduction of the new site, we have implemented the Government Digital Standards table pattern and design, and this will be enforced by the new CMS policy. This will be in place in February 2022. On the header of the site, the magnifying glass icon hover border (when selected by keyboard) does not have sufficient contrast. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.4.3 (contrast ratio thresholds). With the introduction of our new site, our search function does not have this icon. We plan to ensure that this is rectified by the introduction of our new website that is currently in the beta stage and plans to go live in February 2022. Some code has not been applied correctly (aria roles and unique ids). This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1 (Parsing) and 4.1.2 (Name, role, value). We plan to ensure that this is rectified by March 2022. There is a lack of sufficient and consistent visible focus of all interactive elements. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 (Focus Visible). We plan to ensure that this is rectified by March 2022. Any page with a google maps element requires CSS to function correctly. This fails US 18F Accessibility Guide C (Minor) number 4. This is a known issue out of our control and will not be fixed. When we launch our new site, we will no longer use Google Maps. This will be rectified by February 2022. Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations: Invest in Stirling We are aware of the following accessibility issues with our Invest in Stirling site and have requested them to be fixed by our site supplier. We have asked that these issues be resolved within the next three months. The site has elements that do not use allowed Aria attributes. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value). Various elements in the site have insufficient colour contrast ratios. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.4.3 (contrast ratio thresholds). Some frames do not have accessible names. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 2.4.1 (Bypass blocks). Some links do not have discernible text. This fails WCAG 2.1 A criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)) Some page content does not have landmarks that fail WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships). Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations: Conference and Event Venues in Stirling We are aware of the following accessibility issues with our Conference and Event Venues on the site and have requested them to be fixed by our site supplier. We have asked that these issues be resolved within the next three months. Some links do not have discernible text. This fails WCAG 2.1 A criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)). Some page content does not have landmarks that fail WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships). Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations: Stirling Events We are aware of the following accessibility issues with our Stirling Events site and have requested them to be fixed by our site supplier. We have asked that these issues be resolved within the next three months. Some images used in the site do not have alternate text. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.1.1 (non-text context). Maximum scale on meta tag set to 1, disabling zooming on mobile devices. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.4.4 (Resize text). The site has elements that do not use allowed Aria attributes. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value) Some links do not have discernible text. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)). The page and some page content do not have landmarks. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships). Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations: (3rd party applications) Stirling Council Tax Portal We are aware of the following accessibility issues with our Council Tax site and have requested them to be fixed by our software supplier. We have asked that these issues be resolved within the next three months. The header text has an insufficient colour contrast ratio. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.4.3 (contrast ratio thresholds). Stirling Council Planning Portal We are aware of the following accessibility issues with our Planning Portal site and have requested them to be fixed by our software supplier. We have asked that these issues be resolved within the next three months. The background colour of the search, my profile, log in and register buttons could not be determined and do not have sufficient contrast. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.4.3 (contrast ratio thresholds). Some page content does not have landmarks. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships). Stirling Council Public Licensing Register We are aware of the following accessibility issues with our Public Licensing Register site and have requested them to be fixed by our software supplier. We have asked that these issues be resolved within the next three months. Form elements do not have labels. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 3.3.2 (Labels or Instructions). The footer text and elements in the menu form tabs have insufficient colour contrast ratios. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.4.3 (contrast ratio thresholds). Some page content does not have landmarks. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships). Stirling Council Minutes & Agendas We are aware of the following accessibility issues with our minutes and agenda site and we are currently working with a supplier to find a solution to address this. We aim to have this resolved by March 2022. The page does not have a lang attribute. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 3.1.1 (Language of page). Capita Pay360 Payment Portal We are aware of the following accessibility issues with our Capita Payment portal and have requested them to be fixed by our software supplier. We have asked that these issues be resolved within the next three months. Some page content does not have landmarks. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships) 3sixty Citizen Live (Parking fines payment) We are aware of the following accessibility issues with our Parking Fine payment portal and have requested them to be fixed by our software supplier. We have asked that these issues be resolved within the next three months. IDs used in Aria and labels are not unique. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 3.3.2 (Labels or Instructions). Maximum scale on meta tag set to 1, disabling zooming on mobile devices. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.4.4 (Resize text). Various elements in the site have insufficient colour contrast ratios. This fails WCAG 2.1 AA criterion 1.4.3 (contrast ratio thresholds). Disproportionate burden As of 10th September 2021, there were 4,423 documents on stirling.gov.uk. The Council is unable to track when these documents were uploaded due to a lack of analytic tracking prior to 30th September 2020. Of these: 2,243 have been viewed fewer than 5 times 3,007 have been viewed fewer than 10 times only 271 have been viewed more than 50 times Estimated costs We have assessed that it could cost Stirling Council between £220,000 and £230,000 for an external expert to do a detailed check (and later re-audit) our website. These costs are based on estimates from our current website supplier that quoted a day rate of £350 for a similar specialist role. Cost of fixing documents It is difficult to know how long it would take to make every document accessible without first reviewing each one. However, if it took one hour to review and fix each document within scope, fixing all 4,423 would take 631 working days to complete. As noted above without undertaking an audit of when the documents had been published, this number may be smaller. However, considering the number of current PDFs, this audit would also require resources and time. Assessment of costs and benefits Our assessment has highlighted that the cost of paying for a detailed audit and check of our website and then fixing all documents would be a disproportionate burden on our organisation. Stirling Council is dedicated to offering accessible digital services. However, the benefit to users of paying for a detailed check, as well as assigning resources to fix all the relevant PDF documents on our websites, would not be justified and would impose a disproportionate burden on the Council. As part of this review, we have considered: Our organisation’s size and resources COVID-19 has placed a considerable strain on all public sector bodies. Stirling Council has been no different and to respond to the increase in service requests, Stirling Council is managing increasing front-line service demands with a reduced annual budget. COVID-19 has forced us to re-prioritise where we target resources as well as maintain the business continuity of essential community support. Our website is managed by the Digital Team. This team has limited resources and in order to manage this request, considering the estimated time it would take, would require a full-time resource. If we had to reallocate one full-time person as estimated above, this would have a significant impact on our ability to continue to offer responsive digital services. Our organisation The Council are building a new website to ensure that all our content and transactional processes are managed and maintained with accessibility at the heart. As we transition to our new site, the estimated costs and benefits to our organisation and citizens of spending £230,000 on our current site is unreasonable. We believe that maintaining statutory and essential front-line services should be prioritised overpaying for independent website audits. It would be reasonable to suggest that within the meaning of the No. 2 Regulations, carrying out basic checks of our website and using the available budget to fix the crucial issues found on our sites with an aim to addressing and fixing these issues in the new website due to go live by the end of the year. Our services will be assisted in their basic checks by: accessibility monitoring software, Site Improve. The Council pays over £6,000 annually for this software internal guidance and support from the Digital Team Ongoing support from our new website supplier Our Digital Team has been leading on the detailed check of stirling.gov.uk and our digital services. However, the Digital Team are also responsible for the wider digital landscape as well operational support for stirling.gov.uk. The scale of the audit and relevant fixes leading up to 23 September 2020 did mean the team lacked the capacity to address this in advance of the Accessibility Regulations coming into force. Benefits that fixing issues would bring to users We want all the information we publish to be accessible to everyone who accesses our websites. The estimated costs to our organisation in relation to the benefit it will have for our users does not appear proportionate. If users require documentation while we work on addressing this issue, they can contact Stirling Council’s Digital Team who can arrange for an accessible copy to be made available. We are actively working on making our websites and online documents accessible. However, considering we are in the process of moving to a new website that has been built in line with Government Digital Standards and Accessibility Guidance, this would be a beneficial use of resources. We also believe that users will benefit most from us focusing our available resources on fixing the most used documents on stirling.gov.uk and ensuring that new documents are accessible where they are required for essential services or used by people with disabilities. How long do you expect this disproportionate burden to apply Our new site will go live in early 2022. We will provide HTML documents for any new documents added to the site and all older PDF’s will be translated to PDF or the user will be able to request an accessible copy while we work on the backlog. We are actively planning to ensure we are able to offer compliant, accessible documentation to our users. Stirling Council will launch the new website at the end of 2021, this site aligns with Government Digital Standards and accessibility guidelines. We are currently scoping the requirements to source resources so we can plan to start to migrate Council documents to HTML format. Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations PDFs and other 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. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. 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 begin 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. For example, we do not plan to fix minutes and agenda papers that have been published before this date. If you do require an accessible version, we would be happy to support this request. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish following the launch of our new website 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. We publish our video content on YouTube. Maps Our maps are mostly accessible however they are exempt from the accessibility regulations (we do not provide maps for navigational purposes). Preparation of this accessibility statement This statement was prepared on 8th September 2021. It was last reviewed on 2nd December 2021. This website was last tested on 2nd December 2021. The test was carried out by Stirling Council's Digital Team. We used a manual approach to decide on a sample of pages to test. During this test, we used our Guidance for Coronavirus page. Guidance for Coronavirus manually checked against provided 18F checklist. This checklist was signposted via GOV.UK Testing for Accessibility guidance. We selected this page due to the high profile information outlined as the council continues to provide up to date information relating to the pandemic. Two non-unique links were found and fixed. Contrast failed on hover state border on the header search bar magnifying glass icon, this is currently under review and has been added to our list of non-compliant areas of the site in the interim to allow us to identify a fix. Other criteria passed or not applicable. 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