Accessibility Statement

This Accessibility Statement applies to the Kent PA Portal website. This website is run by Kent Council.
This website is designed to be compliant with the international standard Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG) – Level AA.

The website is currently being updated to be compliant with the international standard Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 (WCAG) – Level AA.

This website should allow a user to do the following:-

• Modify the line height or spacing of text.
• Zoom in up to 200% without the text spilling off the page.
• Navigate most of website using a keyboard.
• Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software

We are aware that there are many parts of this website that are not fully accessible :-

• This website uses JavaScript to deliver certain features. Please make sure you have JavaScript turned on within your browser to deliver full features;
• Interactive forms for the registration process that are provided to us by our website provider are inaccessible to a wide-range of technologies;
• Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software;
• Live video streams do not have captions;

UserWay

This website makes available the UserWay Website Accessibility Widget that is powered by a dedicated accessibility server. The software allows the website to improve its compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1)

To use widget a user must have JavaScript turned on in the browser. Please review other resources for further details on how to do this.

To activate the Accessibility Menu, click the person icon at the bottom left of the page or press the Ctrl+U keyboard shortcut.

The Accessibility Menu will load giving users the following options :-

• 4 different Colour Contrast controls
• Highlight links
• Pause Animations
• Text resizing
• Text spacing

Translation

You can use the Google Translate feature at the top right of the screen to translate the text to any of the available languages, including common community languages in Kent such as Bengali, Chinese and Somali. Please note that the translation is done automatically by the Google software, not by the council.

Other Features

This website provides several ways to access content. A user can search the website using the search bar on the top right of any webpage. For a voice recognition user navigating the website please say “Search Kent PA” to focus on the search field and “Search” to start the search process. If you can’t find what you are looking for a Site Map is available in the website’s footer.

Further information on accessibility options

The RNIB has a webpage with information on options that computers have which can make it easier for people with low or no vision to use them. - RNB Accessibility Options (Opens in New Window)

Accessibility Alternatives

Efforts have been made to create accessible alternatives for content that does not meet standards where possible.

Where appropriate we may be able to deliver content to users in accordance with their needs.

Please see “Make a request for Accessible Content” section for further details

Make a request for Accessible Content

If you need information in an alternative format, such as braille or a language other than English:

• Email: alternativeformats@kent.gov.uk
• Call: 03000 421 553

An English-speaker will take details of what you need and arrange a translation or interpreting service for you. You may need an English-speaking friend or a family member to help you with this.

We may not be able to meet your requirements immediately, but we will try to provide an interpreter (or translation service) to help you as quickly as possible.

Purpose of Links

Kent PA Portal uses links to navigate to content on the website. External links will open in a new window.

Where possible the action of an external link will be described by extra description within the link text, so all users can understand the link’s purpose.  However, in certain areas of the website adding this extra description will become a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

We have provided the following definition for external links: -

External Links will be used for any content that has known limitations with assistive technologies OR navigates a user away from secure platforms. In summary, this means the following items are considered External links –

• Non-HTML Documentation (See “Issues with PDFs and other documents”)
• Redirection away from secure platforms
• External websites that are not part of Kent Council

Please contact the team if you have an accessibility query including:

• If you are experiencing issues with accessing information or using the website
• If you find an accessibility problem not listed on this statement
• If you have positive feedback on the accessibility considerations made.

When you contact us there is a process in place that will acknowledge your contact, tell you who is dealing with it and give you a timescale by which you can expect a reply.

Complaints Procedure

Once you have reported a problem with our website or asked for an alternative format, but you are not happy with our response, you can use our complaints process to register your difficulty. This helps us improve our systems.

Enforcement Procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the accessibility regulations. If you are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Services (EASS)

Kent County 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

The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Whilst Kent County Council strives to adhere to accepted guidelines and standards for accessibility and usability, it is not always possible to do so in all areas of the website.

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

Non-Compliance with the Accessibility Regulations

This sub-section lists issues that fail the current accessibility regulations.

• Some landmarks are not adequately labelled
• Interactive forms for the registration process that are provided to us by our website provider are inaccessible to a wide-range of technologies;
• Non-HTML documentation - it has come to our attention that several of these documents are inaccessible with a few accessibility technologies. These include the document heading structure, use of tables and insufficient alternate descriptions. We have begun to implement these changes in future documentation. Where these documents cannot be improved, we are committed to provide an HTML document alternative.

Content that is not within the scope of the Accessibility Regulations

This sub-section lists issues that are exempt from the current accessibility regulations. For more information see following section, “Exemptions to the Accessibility Regulations”.

Issues with Live Video

Live video streams do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live).

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

Issues with PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they are accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role Value).

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 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 are not essential to providing our services.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Disproportionate Burden

  This sub-section is N/A

Web Content that is not subject to the standards referenced in this policy statement are as follows: -

1. Content that is archived.
2. Content on intranets and extranets published before 23/09/2019
3. Non-HTML Documentation (PDFs, Microsoft Office files) that were published before 23/09/2018.
4. Non-HTML Documentation (PDFs, Microsoft Office files) that are not essential to the services Kent provides.
5. Live Audio and Video
6. Pre-recorded Audio and Video published before 23/09/2020
7. Online Maps and mapping services
8. Third Party Content that is not under direct control of Kent or main website provider – Google Translate, Social Media links

The Kent County Council is fully committed to meeting all the accessibility criteria specified in the regulatory provisions. We plan to identify and fix issues in accordance with the timescales shown for each non-compliance area. Areas of this website that fail to meet these standards will have fixes prioritised according to usage data.

The new version of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, WCAG 2.2 were published on 5th October 2023. This will replace WCAG 2.1 as the legally required accessibility standard in October 2024. We are working with our website provider to ensure we meet this deadline by 30th September 2024.

An accessibility audit will be carried out by our website provider against the new WCAG 2.2 AA standard by 15th July 2024. The most viewed pages will be tested using automated testing tools by our website team.

The Kent County Council will make continuous assessments of this website’s content and update this statement when issues have been resolved.

This statement was prepared on 13/10/2022.

This statement will be reviewed no later than September 2024, due to WCAG 2.2 becoming the legally required accessibility standard in October 2024.

Kent County Council will review this policy every year. This policy was last reviewed on 24/05/2024, by Kent County Council.