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Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Statement for Mid Ulster District Council

This accessibility statement applies to www.midulstercouncil.org

This website is run by Mid Ulster District 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’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
Ability Net 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:

  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text

  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software

  • 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.


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 15 working 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, please contact the Council’s Marketing and Communications service which manages the website and its accessibility.

Email: communications@midulstercouncil.org
Call: 03000 132 132

Please tell us what part of the website you are visiting, what you are trying to do and what is preventing you from doing what you need to do. If possible, please tell us what device and which browser you are using. We will get back to you within 15 working days.

Enforcement procedure

In Northern Ireland the Equality 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 Equality Commission.


Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

We have Sign Video for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

Sign Video will also be available for people visiting us in person when social distancing restrictions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic are removed.

Our 3 main council offices have audio induction loops.

If you contact us before your visit, we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter or an Irish Sign Language (ISL) interpreter. Please note that there is a shortage of interpreters and between 2 and 4 weeks may be required to ensure an interpreter can be present.

Find out how to contact us.


Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Mid Ulster District 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

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


Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Some of the fields do not have their purpose identified programmatically. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.5

  • In some places the same link text is used for different destinations, such as in the business directory. This fails WCAG 2 success criterion 2.4.4

  • In some places the link text cannot be read by screen readers, such as in the Business Directory and our A-Z search. This fails WCAG 1 success criterion 4.1.2

  • In some cases, there are duplicate IDs. This fails WCAG 1 success criterion 4.1.1


PDF Documents

The following PDF documents are inaccessible, but if you require them in another format, please email: communications@midulstercouncil.org

We are required by law (Planning (Local Development Plan) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015) to publish documents associated with the development of the Council’s Local Development Plan Strategy (2030). These number some 600 documents. As the vast majority of these documents are lengthy and/or emanate from external sources, they will remain inaccessible as PDFs.

However, if you need to access a document associated with the Local Development Plan in another format, please email communications@midulstercouncil.org


Navigation and accessing information

It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.

It’s not possible for users to change text size without some of the content overlapping.

Interactive tools and transactions: some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag.


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 our financial performance and on key policies (Code of Governance, Customer Services Policy). By April 2022, 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’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we do not plan to fix strategic documents published before 23 September 2018 which can be found in our web page ‘Corporate Strategies, Plans and Policies
 
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.


What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We monitor our accessibility standards on a weekly basis using the third party tool, Silktide, and we take action to address accessibility issues raised.

We address issues either directly via our internal Marketing and Communications service which has responsibility for the website content or, where required, by engaging with our web development company, Simply Zesty, to address technical accessibility issues.


Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 03 February 2022. It was last reviewed on 03 February 2022.

This website was last tested on 30 January 2022. The test was carried out by Silktide.

You can read the full accessibility test report on the Silktide website.