Accessibility statement for www.lesnesabbeywoods.org

This accessibility statement applies to the London Borough of Bexley's website at www.lesnesabbeywoods.org

This website is run by the London Borough of Bexley and Tickbox Marketing. 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.

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, for example:

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

 

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:

• use our Request a document in an accessible format service
• email
• call 020 8303 7777

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

 

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 Lesnes Abbey Team

• email 
• call 020 8303 7777

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

If you are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment and need assistance when contacting us by phone or visiting us in person, then please contact the Bexley Deaf Centre:

• email 
• call 01322 351122

For more information, visit the Bexley Deaf Centre website.

 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The London Borough of Bexley 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 and exemptions listed below.

 

Non-accessible content

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

 

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

General PDF files

There are approximately 30 PDFs on this website which are not exempt from the regulations but which do not currently comply with them. These PDFs generally contain readable text content, but have not been tagged or formatted to raise their accessibility up to the required standards. These PDFs therefore typically fail the following WCAG 2.1 success criteria:

• 1.1 (non-text content), where the PDFs contain images which do not have alternative text specified
• 3.1 (info and relationships) and 2.4.6 (headings and labels), where the PDFs do not have tagged heading structures
• 3.2 (meaningful sequence), where the text in PDFs has been created in floating text boxes (e.g. using desktop publishing software) and no reading order has been specified
• 4.3 (contrast (minimum)), where text may have been created in a colour which does not contrast enough with its background colour
• 1.1 (language of page), where PDFs have not had a language specified in them – please read all such PDFs as UK English

There may also be a very small number of PDFs which currently fail success criterion 1.4.5 (images of text), where they contain scanned text which may not have been converted to computer-readable text.

All PDFs which have not been tagged for accessibility are flagged up in a short footnote (usually indicated by * or † symbols) immediately after all links to these PDFs. This footnote includes a link which you can use to request any PDFs' content in an accessible format.

Many of these PDFs are due to be replaced before the end of September 2020 anyway and will be made accessible in their new versions.

We are also working to replace all the other inaccessible PDFs which fall within the scope of the public sector website accessibility regulations with accessible formats and expect to have completed this work by the end of September 2020.

 

PDF forms

The in-year primary and secondary school application forms, the free school meals application form and the financial assessment for community services forms are currently published as PDF forms, designed to be printed out and filled in by hand. These forms fail a number of WCAG 2.1 success criteria – but are also fundamentally inaccessible to anyone unable to print, see and write onto paper forms. We therefore intend to replace these forms with accessible versions that can be completed and submitted online, before the end of September 2020.

 

Disproportionate burden

Licensing application documents

There are a small number of PDFs in the Licensing part of the website which are not currently accessible. These are forms for completion to apply for licences. Our licensing service is provided in partnership with Sevenoaks District Council and while discussions are ongoing around which website will host these forms going forward, it has been assessed that the cost of converting these documents to accessible online forms and other appropriate formats would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations as the resultant forms may subsequently be removed from our site within a matter of weeks. We (in partnership with Sevenoaks) intend to resolve this situation and provide the forms and other documents accessibly by the end of 2020.

 

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. For example, we do not plan to fix around 80 planning strategy documents which were published before this date. However, almost all of these are due to be replaced by 2022 anyway and we will ensure all future strategy documents are produced in an accessible way.

The same exemption applies to a range of around history publications published as PDFs in the Local Studies and Archives part of the website.

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