Accessibility Statement

Bradford Metropolitan District Council, hereby known as Bradford is committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability. The Bradford Connect to Support website is intended to be accessed by anyone who needs help to continue living independently for longer. This website is run by Bradford Adult Social Care Services.

This website should allow any user to:

• Change colours, contrast levels and size of text.
• Modify the line height or spacing of text.
• Zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the page.
• 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)

This website was launched on 14^th April 2020.

This website was designed to be compliant with the international standard Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 – Level AA.

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

We know some parts of this website 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;
• High Contrast issues with the header menu;
• My Favourites booklet doesn’t work for keyboard only users;
• Some landmark regions are not correctly labelled.
• Links aren’t always underlined and contain “Read More” text;
• Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software;
• Live video streams do not have captions;

Accessible Features

The Bradford CTS website contains several Accessible features that can be used by users with specific requirements. The widget is available on the top right-hand side of the header menu.

The features include: -

Voice Recognition

The Bradford CTS website has been tested using voice recognition software. All form elements on the website have been labelled correctly so that they can be accessed using the name shown.

For example, saying “select Search on Site” and “click Search button” will allow you to access the main search functionality of the website.

Please be careful using the marketplace pages that are linked to the old Bradford CTS website starting /s4s does not have this feature. See Non-Accessible Content for more details.

Contrast & Font Size

Changing the contrast and font sizes of text can increase legibility for some users.

This website has three colour contrast settings, firstly, the “default colour theme” which provides a suitable level of contrast for most users and satisfies the accessibility standards. However, if a user feels the colour contrast is too low in areas the website also contains two “high contrast themes”.

A user can change the contrast settings by clicking on the icons at the top of the screen.  For a user using voice recognition please say, “Switch to colour theme”, “Switch to high contrast theme” and “Switch to dark screen theme” respectively for the same result.

To increase the font size, click on the icons at the top of the screen. For a user using voice recognition please say, “Switch to normal font size”, “Switch to big font size” and “Switch to biggest font size” respectively for the same result. The user can also use the browser’s own zoom facility. The website will work up to 200%

Keyboard Navigation of Search Directory Categories

The Search Directory allows users to search in four areas:- “Information and Advice”, “Education”, “Services”, “Things to do”.  A user can use the TAB key on the Search Results page to navigate through these items.

Navigating the different filter groups (on the left-hand side) a keyboard user must use the UP and DOWN arrow keys. A screen-reader user will have to switch their screen-reader to BROWSE mode from Forms Focus Mode to be able to read the different filter groups.

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 Bradford such as Bengali, Chinese, and Somali.  Please note that the translation is done automatically by the Google software, not by the council.

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

Accessible 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 on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille; Please fill out details in Contact us form or use the appropriate details, below.  

Contact Details for Bradford Metropolitan District Council

connecttosupport@bradford.gov.uk

We will consider your request and get back to you.

Purpose of Links

Bradford CTS will use 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 owned by Bradford Council.

We are always looking for ways to improve the Bradford Connect to Support website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed within this statement, or believe we are not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations please contact us on -

Contact Details for Bradford Metropolitan District Council

connecttosupport@bradford.gov.uk 

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

Bradford 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 2.2 (WCAG) AA standard , due to the non-compliances listed below. (See Non- Accessible Content, Issues With…)

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

During our last review of this website it has come to our attention that there are areas of the website that fail to meet WCAG 2.1: 

• At 400% zoom and in mobile view (320 x 256 pixels), the accessibility button obscures options in the toolbar and the user has to scroll to view content. At 400% zoom and in mobile view (320 x 256 pixels), once the accessibility button has been expanded and 'change settings' expanded, the content does not reflow properly and options are cut off the screen
• When hovering over the menus 'Information' and 'My Favourites', there is no mechanism to dismiss the additional content triggered without moving pointer hover or keyboard focus
• High Contrast issues with Top Menu navigation
• Landmark issues on certain content pages

The above issues are being addressed by PPL, the Bradford Connect to Support staff are not web developers, this role is carried out by PPL. Any remaining issues will be reported in this accessibility statement.

Issues with High Contrast

It has come to our attention that some of our content isn’t displayed correctly with our high-contrast design. This means it will be difficult for visually impaired users who may require this design to see all content. It has been found on our buttons a

This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.4.6 Contrast (Advanced) a Level AAA requirement.

We are currently reviewing the content and our website provider will provide a fix shortly.

This website passes 1.4.3 Colour Contrast (Minimum) which is the standard Level AA requirement.

Issues with Text (and links)

Some link text does not make sense when read on its own (for example, ‘click here’).

We are currently working through all links to ensure they meet WCAG 2.1 standards and read as the following:

We aim to have this work completed by February 2024.

 Issues with Landmarks

Some landmarks that appear on content pages are not appropriately labelled. This may cause issues for some screen reader users. Most landmarks that are used are correctly labelled and appear inside top-level landmarks.

Top-Level landmarks are used correctly on all page templates including the Search Directories

We would advise screen-reader users to use heading levels and bypass blocks to navigate around pages.

We are currently reviewing these pages and providing feedback to our PPL web developers 

 Issues with Third Party Widgets in Mobile view

 Our Third party widgets, Google Translate and Civic Cookie Control are not reflowing correctly in mobile view.

 At 400% zoom and in mobile view (320 x 256 pixels), the accessibility button obscures options in the toolbar and the user must scroll to view content. At 400% zoom and in mobile view (320 x 256 pixels), once the accessibility button has been expanded and 'change settings' expanded, the content does not reflow properly, and options are cut off the screen

Our website provider has discussed this functionality with product owners and they have responded that this is expected functionality

Reviewing the regulations, we believe this is not within scope of the accessibility regulations - Third Party Content that is not under direct control of Bradford or our main website provider, PPL.

Resolutions of Non-compliance with the Accessibility Regulations

Since this statement was last updated the following accessibility issues have been resolved

RESOLVED: JavaScript Issues

The website makes use of JavaScript to deliver certain pieces of functionality such as the Accessibility Widget and Progressive Disclosure menus.

 A message is displayed when telling the user if JavaScript is not enabled in their browser. All Progressive Disclosure menu items expand when JavaScript is turned off. We would advise all users of this website to use a JavaScript enabled browser.

Disproportionate Burden

  There are no issues that are considered a disproportionate burden.

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

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

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.

Live Video

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

The new version of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, WCAG 2.2 were published on 5^th October 2023.

This will replace WCAG 2.1 as the legally required accessibility standard in October 2024.

We have discovered issues with our website against WCAG 2.2 standard.

We are working with our website provider and are proposing to meet this deadline by 30^th November 2024.  

This statement was prepared on 16/08/2023. It was last reviewed on 30th September 2024. 

It will be reviewed every year in accordance with the regulations.

This website was last tested on 8^th February against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

To prepare this statement an accessibility test was carried out by Bradford website team and our website provider. The most viewed pages were tested using automated testing tools by our website team. A further audit of the website was carried out to the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.