This accessibility statement applies to the www.portsmouth.gov.uk website.
This website has been developed to comply with the WCAG 2.2 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 400% 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:
- some documents are in PDF format and are not accessible
- some pages and document attachments are not written in plain English
- some information in tables cannot be reached with a keyboard
- Third-party systems are partially or entirely controlled by their suppliers, and not all of them are fully accessible. We require that any new third-party systems procured for the website comply with the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.
Feedback and contact information
If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact the Digital Customer team at Portsmouth City Council:
- email: DCE@portsmouthcc.gov.uk
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 working 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
Digital Customer team 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 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.
Non-accessible content
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
Issues with documents
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.
Some documents have been provided by a third-party therefore may not be accessible.
Occasionally, a set of documents will need to be published where remediating these for accessibility would cause a disproportionate burden to the council. You can view our disproportionate burden assessments here.
- Draft statement of accounts 2023/24 – to comply with legislation, we have published the draft statement of accounts 2023/24 as a PDF – however, we are aware that some tables in the document are not fully accessible. We intend to remediate these tables upon publication of the finalised version of this document.
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.
Issues with colour contrast
Some text does not have sufficient colour contrast when compared with its background, such as links in certain tables with a grey background. Some users may find them hard to read. This fails WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum).
Issues with zoom
At 200% zoom and in mobile view, some of the text is partly cut off and some content style is slightly off. This fails WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.4.10 (Reflow).
Third party systems
We require that any new third-party systems we procure for the website are compliant with the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. Third-party systems are partly or wholly under the control of the suppliers who provide them, and we are aware that not all of these are fully accessible. We are continuing to work with suppliers to ensure the accessibility of all online services.
Third party integrations include:
- Easipermits Parking permits and renewals portal
- Capita payments portal
- OCM Live Penalty Charge Notice portal
- Licensing and planning portal
- School admissions portal
- Council Tax portal
- Synergy Education Portal
- Citizen Portal (MyEducation)
- InTend procurement portal
- My Bus Pass
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
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.
We have been working on remediating some older PDFs, prioritising these based on the number of times they have been downloaded (according to Google Analytics). Any new PDFs (our universal format for documents on the website) that are published meet accessibility standards.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 23 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 21 January 2025.
This website was last tested on 21 January 2025.
The test was carried out by Portsmouth City Council’s in-house development team with in-depth knowledge of the WCAG 2.2 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).