What is on this page

Using this website

This website is run by Chichester District Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

We are always working to make our website as accessible and usable as possible.

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 aren't fully accessible:

  • some of our online services are hosted by third-party suppliers and you may find navigating these services difficult depending on their level of web accessibility - you can contact us using the details below to ask for alternative formats.
  • most older PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • many of our videos are embedded from YouTube and may feature labelling from YouTube itself, which is incorrect or not sufficiently descriptive
  • some of our audio recordings of meetings do not have transcripts 

What to do if you can't access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format - like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille.

Please contact the service directly. If this is not possible then fill out our Website accessibility contact form, phone 01243 534782 or email webmaster@chichester.gov.uk.

Please make sure you provide:

  • the service area, document name and/or the web address (URL) of the page the content is on
  • a description of the format you need. For example; audio CD, braille, BSL or large print

Web team

Email: webmaster@chichester.gov.uk Tel: 01243 534782

If you can't view the map on our Council offices page, please Contact us for directions.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are constantly working to make our website as accessible and usable as possible for every user. There are times, however when we don't get it right the first time we publish something.

If you find any problems that aren't listed on this page or think we're not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, contact the Web team:

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the accessibility regulations. If you are 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

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment. Our offices have audio induction loops.

Find out how to contact us or call 01243 785166.

Technical information about this website's accessibility

Chichester District Council is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This website is partially compliant with the  Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1  AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations includes the following:

1. Issues with PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents 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 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.

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 Word documents, may not yet be accessible. We are working through these to create HTML pages and accessible documents.

2. Issues with images, video and audio

Many of our videos are embedded from YouTube and may feature labelling from YouTube itself, which is incorrect or not sufficiently descriptive

Audio recordings of meetings do not have transcripts. 

Where we provide audio recordings for council meetings we don't plan to provide transcripts as we also provide the minutes of these meetings. We will make another assessment for any other audio recordings we provide when the supplier contract is up for renewal.

3. Issues with interactive tools and transactions

The following services are based on a different technical platform but 'skinned' to look like our website.  As part of our roadmap we plan to do a separate accessibility audit, likely to be completed late 2020.

Accessibility audit of third party websites
SystemCompliance Date tested
Public Access (Planning)To be confirmed 
Capita (Payments)Partially compliant01 June 2020
Chipside (Parking)To be confirmed 
Homemove (Housing)To be confirmed 
Northgate (Council tax)To be confirmed 
Astun (Mapping)To be confirmed 
Moderngov (Committee system)To be confirmed 
Trent (Jobs)To be confirmed 
Snap (Surveys)To be confirmed 
ToplevelTo be confirmed 

How we tested this website

This website was last tested on 16 August 2019. The test was carried out by the Web team at Chichester District Council.

We use the accessibility checking service from  Siteimprove  to automatically test and report on accessibility issues with our website.

The Siteimprove reports:

  • identify the current status of accessibility based on the A, AA and AAA ratings
  • identify solutions to resolve any accessibility issues
  • identify a tracking service towards compliance
  • delegate and co-ordinate any accessibility tasks to the right team. For example; content designers, developers or user experience designers

Our main website platform, is available at:

The following subsites are using the same Web Content Management System as our main site ( Goss ) - content is the responsibility of our partners. These subsites are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed above.

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

    What we're doing to improve accessibility

    Our accessibility roadmap shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website.

    Now

    • Update accessibility statement - done
    • Document accessibility audit - in progress

    Next 

    • Accessibility audit website - in progress

    Future

    • Action issues arising from accessibility audit
    • Accessibility audit - third party software 
    • Accessibility audit - subsites

    This statement was prepared on 16 August 2019. It was last updated on 3 September 2020.