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Accessibility statement

Using this website

This statement covers the online library and our digital library provided by Overdrive. East Sussex County Council adds content to these websites. The sites are developed by third party suppliers. 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 only a keyboard
  • listen to our website using a screen reader.

Go to AbilityNet to find out how to make these changes.

All non-text content has a text alternative.

Language

We use plain English to make the text easy to read.

If you would like to read the website in another language use Google Translate.

How accessible is this website?

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • some images are missing alternative text equivalents
  • some form controls and buttons are not labelled
  • some parts of the websites are not fully accessible using the keyboard
  • there are some colour contrast errors 

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or think we are not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations please contact us.

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).

Known accessibility issues

The online library

  • Some images on the website are purely for decorative purposes and don’t have meaningful alternative text. This means that screen readers will not be able to discern the purpose of the image. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 A F30.
  • Some images on this website are missing alternative text descriptions. This means that assistive technologies are not able to identify the image or to convey its purpose to the user. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 A F65.
  • Some content on our website is automatically inserted using CSS. This means it cannot be read out by a screen reader or will not be available to users who turn stylesheets off. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 A F87.
  • This site uses meta redirect with a time limit. This may mean an unexpected change of context that may interrupt the user. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 A F40.
  • Search results pages do not have a title. This means that web visitors may not be able to identify whether the information contained in the Web page is relevant to their needs. This does not meet with success criterion WCAG 2.1 A 2.4.2.
  • On some pages the links do not contain any text or an image with alt text. This means that assistive technologies cannot identify the purpose of the links. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 A F89.
  • Some iframes do not have a title. This means that assistive technologies will read out the frame filename, which may be meaningless. This does not meet with success criterion WCAG 2.1 A 2.4.1.
  • Some pages on this website have the same title. This means that web visitors may not be able to identify whether the information contained in the Web page is relevant to their needs. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 A F25.
  • Some of our form fields and buttons are not labelled correctly. This means some users will not be able to identify the purpose of the form field. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 A F68.
  • Some of our forms have duplicate field labels. This means that it is difficult to identify their purpose. This does not meet with success criterion WCAG 2.0 AA 2.4.6.
  • Some of our form fields and buttons are not labelled correctly. This means some users will not be able to identify the purpose of the form field. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 A F68.
  • Some of our forms do not provide a description for groups of form controls using fieldset and legend elements. This means some users will not be able to identify the purpose of the form field. This does not meet with success criterion WCAG 2.1 A H71.
  • The lang attribute is not used to identify the language of the page. This means that assistive technologies will not be able to discern the default language to convert text into synthetic speech. This does not meet with success criterion WCAG 2.1 A 3.1.1.
  • The focus outline styling has been switched off through CSS. This means that users cannot see where they are on the page when they tab through links. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 AA F78.

Overdrive

  • Some images have the same alternative text descriptions. This means that assistive technologies are not able to identify the image or to convey its purpose to the user. This does not meet with success criterion WCAG 2.1 A 1.1.1.
  • Some tables have not been structured correctly. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 A 1.3.1.
  • There are some errors in the markup. This includes incorrectly nested and elements. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 A 4.1.1.
  • Some pages use CSS to markup bold text instead of using semantic markup. This means that changes in text to convey meaning will not be picked up by assistive technology. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 A F2.
  • Some pages on this website have the same title. This means that web visitors may not be able to identify whether the information contained in the Web page is relevant to their needs. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 A F25.
  • Some users are unable to use a mouse, so use the keyboard instead. Add an equivalent keyboard event handler to help these users. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 A F54.
  • Some of our form fields and buttons are not labelled correctly. This means some users will not be able to identify the purpose of the form field. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 A F68.
  • Some content on our website is automatically inserted using CSS. This means it cannot be read out by a screen reader or will not be available to users who turn stylesheets off. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 A F87.
  • Some foreground and background colour combinations do not provide enough contrast. This means that content may be difficult to see. This does not comply with WCAG 2.1 AA 1.4.3.
  • Some of our forms have duplicate field labels. This means that it is difficult to identify their purpose. This does not meet with success criterion WCAG 2.0 AA 2.4.6.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By September 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

The accessibility regulations 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.

How we tested this website

This site was most recently tested in September 2020. This website was and is currently being tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level A and level AA, and these tests have been carried out internally. We used automated testing software SortSite.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We have raised the accessibility issues noted in this statement with our third party suppliers. As part of this, we have asked them to provide us with a timetable for fixing the errors. This statement will be updated when we have more information.

This statement was last updated on 23 September 2020.


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