Accessibility Statement

This is the Accessibility Statement for the West Sussex Connect to Support website - https://www.westsussexconnecttosupport.org/

 This website is run by West Sussex County Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

This website should allow users to:

• Change contrast levels and size of text.
• Modify the line height or spacing of text.
• Zoom in up to 200% 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).

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

This website was launched on 9th April 2020. It has been updated on the 7^th August 2024 to be compliant with the international standard Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 (WCAG) – Level AA.

How accessible is this website?

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;
• Older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software;
• Live video streams do not have captions;

 

How to use this website?

Accessible Features

This website uses a widget that 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.

These features include: -

Contrast & Font Size

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

This website has two colour contrast settings, firstly, the “default colour scheme” 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 a “high contrast scheme” which satisfies all accessibility standards for colour contrast.

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

To increase the font size, click on the icons at the top right 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%

 

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 Feedback and contact information section for further details.

 

Purpose of Links

West Sussex 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 part of council website.

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems that are not listed within this statement, or believe we are not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations please contact us.

Contact details for West Sussex County Council

 

Email: WestSussexConnectToSupport@westsussex.gov.uk  or use the feedback form on the bottom of every page.

Alternatively, you can contact Adults’ CarePoint.

Email: socialcare@westsussex.gov.uk

Phone: 01243 642121

NGT Text Relay: 18001 01243 642121 (available as a downloadable app for computer tablets and smartphones. Helps people with speech and hearing difficulties.)

Write to: West Sussex County Council Adults’ CarePoint, Second Floor, The Grange, County Hall, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1RG

We will consider your request and get back to you in 5 days.

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).

 

 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

West Sussex are 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 2.2 AA standard, due to the following non-compliances and exemptions listed in the following chapter.

Non-accessible content

This chapter lists issues that fail the current accessibility regulations.  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.

• Non-HTML documentation - some of these documents are inaccessible with certain accessibility technologies. These include the document heading structure, use of tables and insufficient alternative descriptions. We will implement these changes in future documentation where possible. Where these documents cannot be made fully accessible, we are committed to providing an HTML alternative.
• The pages hosted on the Shop4Support content management system (CMS) are not compliant. We are resolving this by moving them onto the Umbraco CMS by December 2024. These include the care homes and care at home listings
• Older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
• Live video streams do not have captions.

 

 

Disproportionate burden

There are no issues that are considered a disproportionate burden.

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.

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.

 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

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 this website.

We are working with our website provider to ensure we meet this deadline by 30^th December 2024.  

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 9^th April 2020. It will be reviewed every year in accordance with the regulations. It was last reviewed on 7^th August 2024.

This website was last tested on July 24^th 2024.

To prepare this statement an accessibility test was carried out by People Places Lives QA Team. 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.