Accessibility Statement
Introduction
This accessibility statement applies to localoffer.eastsussex.gov.uk
East Sussex County Council runs this website. 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 the website using only a keyboard
- navigate the website using speech recognition software
- listen to most of the website using a screen reader. This includes the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver.
We've also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
Tips for Using This Website
You can use the Accessibility toolbar on this site to:
- change the website colour / contrast
- change the font size
If you would like to read this website in another language, please use Google Translate.
If you are having any problems using this site, please contact us on:
We use all feedback to help us make further improvements.
Enlarge text
There are various ways in which you can change the size of text on this site:
- You can click on the different 'A' letters in this sites' accessibility toolbar. Try the different options until you find a size that best suits you
- Using a mouse with a scrolling wheel, you can zoom in and out of each web page. You can zoom in by holding down the Ctrl key while rotating the mouse wheel forwards. To reduce the zoom, hold down Ctrl and rotate the wheel towards you
- Change your zoom or magnify settings via your internet browser
- Use your keyboard to zoom in (press Ctrl and +), or zoom out (press Ctrl and –)
- Change the settings on your computer or laptop. Go to the Settings / Control Panel on your computer or laptop to make the changes.
Screen readers
NVDA is a free non-visual desktop access tool. Please visit the NV Access website for more information:
Narrator is the screen reader software built into the Windows 10 operating system. Please visit the Microsoft website for more information:
Useful websites for accessibility
If you have a visual impairment, you'll find helpful advice on the RNIB website:
You can visit AbilityNet for guides on how to make web pages easier to read:
Some smartphones also have their own accessibility options. For example, Apple, Samsung and Huawei. Please visit their individual sites for more information:
All non-text content on this site has a text alternative.
How Accessible This Website Is
Most of our website should be accessible. It should work well when used with access devices such as:
- Screen readers
- Braille readers
- Smartphones and other devices
We know some content on this website is not fully accessible:
- some old PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
A detailed list of known accessibility issues and how we plan to address them is available further down this statement. We regularly review the site and add further issues to this statement as they are identified.
Feedback and Contact Information
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We are 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 email:
It would be helpful if your email contained:
- The link of the page(s) that you are having difficulties with
- The nature of your disability, if applicable
- A description of the problem
If you have a solution to suggest, please feel free to do so.
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, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS). You can find their contact details, by visiting their site:
Technical Information About This Website's Accessibility
We are committed to making this website accessible. This is 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. This is due to the non-compliances listed below. You can learn more about these guidelines on the W3 website:
Non-accessible Content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
PDF and Word documents
Some documents in PDF and Word format may not be accessible. For example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. Issues within PDFs include:
- Some headings do not follow a logical order.
- Long PDFs do not always use bookmarks. This would help aid with navigation.
This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.0 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).
We’ve trained all our web authors in how to produce accessible PDF and Word documents, including how to use automated accessibility checkers. We conduct regular audits and manual checks of accessibility issues with documents and work with web authors to improve the accessibility of documents. All new documents should be accessible.
We are currently making documents more accessible, before re-uploading them.
This was last tested on 31 January 2024. The test was carried out manually and using Silktide.
These issues will be fixed by 31 July 2024.
Text contrast
The colour of text must strongly contrast with its background colour. This is to comply with the strictest accessibility standard (WCAG AAA). This make it easier for people with significant visual impairments to read it.
The contrast ratio must be at least:
- 7:1 for body text, and
- 4.5:1 for large text.
We understand some of the text on this site does not meet these standards.
We are currently reviewing this. We aim to improve the contrast and make text easier to read.
This was last tested on 31 January 2024. The test was carried out using Silktide.
These issues will be fixed by 31 July 2024.
Content that's not within the scope of accessibility regulations
- Some 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.
The accessibility regulations also do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents provided by third-parties that we have no control over.
You can read more on the main Government website:
Disproportionate burden
We are not claiming disproportionate burden on this website.
What We’re Doing to Improve Accessibility
We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. This section will outline recent improvements we have carried out.
Menu / Accessibility toolbar
In December 2023, we changed the way our menu and toolbar function. Improvements we made include:
- The accessibility toolbar is now locked to the header. This prevents it from covering text when zoomed in.
- When users click the menu button, it no longer fills the whole screen. This makes it easier for users to either close the menu, or scroll past it.
This took place in December 2023.
Speaker symbols
This site had speaker symbols next to all text. These symbols allowed for text to be read out loud. We added this feature to make it easier for those who need text reading out. Unfortunately these speaker symbols created issues such as:
- At 400% zoom, the user has to scroll both horizontally and vertically to view the full page content. This was often caused by the speaker icons next to a heading.
- At 400% zoom, the speaker symbol often overlapped with other site elements.
- Screen readers often read the symbols out as the word ‘Play’.
- Search results on the site include the symbols as the word ‘Play’.
Due to these issues and to improve accessibility, we removed the speaker symbols. This took place in January 2024.
Website readability
We use plain English to make the text easy to read. We aim to create content for a reading age of 11. In November 2023 we went through all the text content on this site. We aimed to improve the reading age. It was a reading age of 13.4, but as of December 2023 it is now 12.85.
We will continue to check and improve the reading age. It is not always possible when using legal terms, official names or phrases.
Hyperlinks
All hyperlinks on this site open in the same window, unless stated otherwise. We show most links on this website with underlined text or as a button.
In November 2023 we reviewed all hyperlinks. This included making sure:
- Links were longer. This makes it easier for users to select them.
- We made the wording of links more appropriate. This informs users the purpose of the link.
- It was more clear when links were sending users to a different website.
- Links with the same name, no longer send users to different places.
We will continue to follow these rules when adding further hyperlinks.
Tables
Some of the tables on this site may not have been accessible for screen readers. We decided they were not essential, so we removed all tables. Instead, we embedded the text on the site in a more clear and accessible way.
Where possible, we will aim to avoid re-adding tables moving forward.
This took place in January 2024.
PDF and Word documents
We made changes to the PDF and Word documents used on this site. We:
- Added alternative text to all images within documents. We marked some as decorative where appropriate.
- Ensured titles/headers were correct within all documents.
- Added a title to each document's properties.
We’ve trained all our web authors in how to produce accessible PDF and Word documents, including how to use automated accessibility checkers. We conduct regular audits and manual checks of accessibility issues with documents and work with web authors to improve the accessibility of documents. All new documents should be accessible.
This took place in December 2023 and January 2024.
Preparation of This Accessibility Statement
This statement was prepared on 29 October 2021. It was last reviewed on 31 January 2024.
How we test this website
This website was last tested in January 2024. We use an automated accessibility audit tool called Silktide. Silktide checks the accessibility of our website and the PDFs on it. We routinely carry out manual checks on a proportion of our pages and documents to identify issues that can't be detected automatically.
You can visit the Silktide website to learn more about how it works.
Language
We use plain English to make the text easy to read. We aim to create content for a reading age of 11. We regularly run readability audits on our content and make continual improvements. As of 31 January 2024, our content meets AA accessibility standards. It scores 94% for content accessibility on our automated testing software.
Sign language readers can visit the East Sussex County Council website for a British Sign Language (BSL) introduction:
If you would like to read this website in another language, use Google Translate.
Videos
We embed videos used on this website from YouTube. We use the YouTube privacy-enhanced mode when embedding videos. To find out more about the embedded videos, please visit Google:
To watch a video on our site, select the arrow in the centre of the screen.
You can often download the videos onto your computer. If you want to do this, make sure you have a media player installed that is capable of viewing videos.
Videos uploaded by third party providers do not need to comply with the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility legislation. However, we aim to only add videos that include subtitles to ensure that they are accessible.
You can find out more about the legislation, on the main Government website: