Accessibility Statement

Accessibility statement for Southend City Council Adult Social Care Portal

This accessibility statement applies to Southend City's Council Adult Social Care Portal, which is run by System C.

An accessibility statement for the overall Livewell Southend website can be found at Accessibility statement for Livewell Southend . The accessibility statement for the main Southend-on-Sea City Council website can be found at Southend-on-Sea City Council website Accessibility statement.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, which means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings.
• zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen.
• navigate most of the website using a keyboard or 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 are not fully accessible:

• PDFs are not always accessible. If PDFs are added to this portal, then every effort will be made to make them as accessible as possible.
• Pages are not accessible without JavaScript enabled.
• Some pages have minor issues when accessed using assistive technologies.
• The Ampersand (&) is being used instead of the word ‘and'
• The colour contrast on the hamburger menu icon, when on a mobile size screen, is not a high enough colour contrast.

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 : council@southend.gov.uk
• Call 01702 215000

We'll consider your request and get back to you within 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).

Information about this website's accessibility

Southend City Council and System C 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

The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.

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

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

• Pages are not accessible without JavaScript enabled.
• Some pages have minor issues when accessed using assistive technologies.
• The Ampersand (&) is being used instead of the word ‘and'
• The colour contrast on the hamburger menu icon, when on a mobile size screen, is not a high enough colour contrast.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some text may be written in language that is not plain English. We are reviewing all content and will aim to ensure the language is in plain English by February 2025.

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

We plan to add text alternatives for all images by April 2025. When we publish updated content, we'll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Disproportionate burden

There are no issues that are currently being listed as being assessed as a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. Some limitations mean accessibility changes in the software may be difficult to implement without involvement from our software supplier, System C.

PDFs and other documents

If any PDFs or Word documents are published on the portal, we will make every effort to ensure these meet accessibility standards.

Video and Live video

We will ensure and video content embedded on the site will have captions and/or a transcript.

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

What we're doing to improve accessibility

Upon each major release of the site, System C run accessibility checks across the entire site to ensure we flag any accessibility issues and log these for resolution. They also consistently check for accessibility issues whilst developing and testing new functional areas.

Member of the Digital Communications Team at Southend-on-Sea City Council undertook high-level manually accessibility checks of this portal in October 2024. We will be aiming to implement the suggested improvements from the team by April 2025 in conjunction with System C

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 1st November 2024. It is a new Portal, and this is the first statement.

This portal system was last tested on 21st November 2023 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard by System C.

The most viewed pages were tested using automated testing tools by System C's website team. A further audit of the website will be carried out to the WCAG 2.2 AA standard by System C.