Accessibility

Accessibility statement for Portsmouth City Council

This accessibility statement applies to the primary domain: portsmouth.gov.uk and its satellite sites.

These websites have been developed to comply with the WCAG 2.1 AA standard for accessibility as a minimum.

This website is run by Portsmouth City 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, and aim to adhere to the national average reading age of 9.

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:

• most older PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
• live video streams do not have captions or transcripts
• some of our online services are hosted via third parties and you may find them difficult to navigate using just a keyboard

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:

• Email: DCE@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

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

If you cannot view the map on our ‘Civic Offices’ page, call or email us for directions.

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, contact:

• websitefeedback@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

If you’re not satisfied with how we’ve dealt with your problem, you can find information on a making a complaint here.

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

Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Portsmouth City 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.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

1. Issues with PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents

Many of our older PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint don’t meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be marked up so they’re accessible to a screen reader.

The Accessibility regulations 2018 – PDF’s don’t require us to fix these or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

Any new PDFs (our universal format for documents on the website) that are published will meet accessibility standards.

Some of our resource documents, such as posters, are designed to be downloaded and printed, so these may not be fully accessible.

Some documents that are essential to providing our services, such as forms published as PDF and Word documents, may not yet be accessible. We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

2. Issues with video and audio

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

3. Issues with third-party websites (interactive tools and transactions)

We are assessing the cost of fixing accessibility issues with interactive tools and transactions hosted on websites and portals commissioned by the council from third party suppliers. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

The following services are hosted on a third-party website, but designed to look like part of our website. As part of our accessibility roadmap we plan to audit these websites and portals with a view to bringing them in line with the WCAG 2.1 AA standard for accessibility by the end of 2021.

Our main website platform, is available at:

• https://portsmouth.gov.uk

The following satellite sites use a WordPress Web Content Management System – content is the responsibility of our partners. These satellite sites are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the listed non-compliances:

• Careers portal
• Foster Portsmouth
• Community Learning Service
• Portsmouth Local Offer
• Imagine Portsmouth
• Tipner West
• Play Youth Community
• Travel Portsmouth
• EAL Portsmouth
• Invest Portsmouth
• Records Office site
• Health and Care Portsmouth
• South East Hampshire Rapid Transit
• Switched On Portsmouth
• Interconnector Portsmouth

These satellite sites are non-compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard:

• Portico Shipping
• Southsea Coastal Scheme

The following satellite sites use bespoke Content Management System – content is the responsibility of our partners. These satellite sites are non-compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard:

• Portsmouth International Port
• Visit Portsmouth

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 23 September 2020 and will be reviewed every 6 months to ensure continual compliance with the WCAG 2.1 AA standard for accessibility.

This website was last tested on 23 September 2020. The test was carried out by Portsmouth City Council’s in-house development team with in-depth knowledge of the WCAG 2.1 AA standard and completed using assistive tools such as the Chrome extension – WAVE Evaluation Tool.

We tested a sample of pages, including the website’s most popular pages (informed by Google Analytics).

You can read the full accessibility test report here. The website scored 100% for accessibility on Google Lighthouse.