This accessibility statement applies to the Essex County Council website located at placeservices.co.uk
This website is run by Essex County Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
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.
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
We're always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this age or think we're not meeting accessibility requirements, contact the accessibility team at Accessibility@essex.gov.uk who will consider your request and get back to you within 20 working days.
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).
We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.
Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.
Essex 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.
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Some images have incorrect alt text or alt text that repeats existing content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text content)
We aim to ensure existing images have the correct alt text and new content is added with the correct alternatives by 1 June 2021.
Some embedded videos have no captions making it difficult for user with hearing impairments to understand the content of the video. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.3 (Audio description or media alternative (Prerecorded))
We aim to ensure existing videos have the correct captions and new videos are added with the correct captions by 1 June 2021.
Landmarks are missing, or are incorrectly implemented, some heading levels are in an illogical order and some elements are used incorrectly. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships)
We plan to ensure all elements are correctly implement by 1 June 2021.
Some text has low contrast ratio’s that fall below the required 4.5:1 ratio. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum))
We plan to ensure all items comply with minimum contrast ratios by 1 June 2021.
Some non-text items have low contrast ratio’s that fall below the required 3:1 ratio. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.11 (Non-text Contrast)
We plan to ensure all items comply with minimum contrast ratios by 1 June 2021.
Some items that are activated on hover or focus cannot be easily dismissed and obscures content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.13 (Content or Hover or Focus)
We aim to ensure all popup elements can be easily dismissed by 1 June 2021.
Carousel elements that are time based cannot be adjusted. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.2.1 (Timing adjustable).
We plan to ensure time limits are adjustable by 1 June 2021.
Carousel elements cannot be paused or stopped making it difficult for users to interact with. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.2.2 (Pause, stop, hide)
We plan to ensure all automatic content can be controlled by 1 June 2021.
The focus order of elements is illogical and could be confusing for some users. This fails success criterion WCAG 2.1 success criterion (Focus Order)
We plan to ensure the focus order of all pages is logical by 1 June 2021.
Form inputs with errors are not identified clearly. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.1 (Error identification)
We plan to ensure all errors are clearly identified by 1 June 2021.
Form inputs with errors do not offer clear suggestion on how to overcome form errors. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.3 (Error suggestion)
We plan to ensure all form errors offer clear solutions to overcome the error by 1 June 2021.
Some elements use roles that are not accurate, and some select boxes offer no clear descriptions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value)
We plan to ensure all elements are labelled correctly with the correct name or role by 1 June 2021.
PDFs and other documents
Although some of Place Services older PDF’s are inaccessible and do not meet accessibility standards, we are working towards making as many PDF’s meet WCAG 2.1 AA Accessibility standards as possible.
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.
We are prioritizing PDF’s so that those documents that
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
We are constantly looking in to improving the accessibility of our website. We will liaise with our supplier on how to fix our accessibility issues.
We will continue to monitor accessibility using automated and manual checks.
This statement was prepared on 15 February 2021. It was last reviewed on 15 February 2021.
This website was last tested on 12 February 2021. The test was carried out by Essex County Council.
The sample of pages we tested was based on key functionality and high traffic pages which we discovered by using analytics tools.