We want everyone who visits our website to be able to access the full range of services available, regardless of their skill or technology.
How accessible the site is
We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible.
There are known issues with the:
- HTML: the underlying code used to create the website
- CSS: used to describe how HTML is shown on the pages
- JavaScript: a development language used to program some areas of the site
- 3rd party functionality: areas of the site which are developed by external 3rd party companies
- content: this includes web page content or documents
What to do if you have problems or queries
If you have any accessibility problems or feedback, please email us at webadmin@durham.gov.uk.
If you need to contact us about any other issues, please use our contact us page.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the accessibility regulations. If you’re not happy with how we respond, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
We are committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
Under the Equality Act 2010 we must ensure we do not unlawfully discriminate in our service delivery and make reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities where necessary. We are constantly working to improve the accessibility and usability of our site.
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
Non compliance with the accessibility regulations
Information about which areas of the site fail.
Roadmap
A program of work is now underway to address issues, involving both our in-house developers and designers, and the companies who provide 3rd party functionality.
We aim to resolve the following by September 2021:
Main site
- images: some images do not have an alt tag, failing success criterion 1.1.1
- markup: the stylesheet font-weight property is used rather than semantic markup like strong, failing success criterion 1.3.1
- links: these do not have underlining making it hard for colour-blind users to see them, failing success criterion 1.4.1
- background colours: some text / background colours do not have enough contrast, failing success criterion 1.4.3
- transitions: stylesheet animations or transitions in interactions are used without giving the user a way to turn them off, failing success criterion 2.3.3
- frames and iframes: some do not have a title attribute, failing success criterion 2.4.1
- links: links use generic link text that has no context, such as ‘click here’, failing success criterion 2.4.4
- form field labels: some are not unique or are not enclosed in a fieldset with a legend to make them unique, and fail success criterion 2.4.6
- outline / border style: the stylesheet makes it difficult to see the dotted link focus outline, failing success criterion 2.4.7
- forms: some form controls have blank labels or titles, which fails success criterion 4.1.2
- images: some alt text contains placeholder text, failing success criteria 1.1.1 and 1.2.1
- elements: some elements do not contain text or an img with an alt attribute, failing success criteria 2.4.4, 2.4.9 and 4.1.2
Spectrix booking system
- links: these do not have underlining making it hard for colour-blind users to see them, failing success criterion 1.4.1
- background colours: some text / background colours do not have enough contrast, failing success criterion 1.4.3
- page titles: pages titles are not unique, failing success criterion 2.4.2
- headings: empty headings fail success criterion 2.4.6
- colours: some body or element colours are set, but not all of them, failing success criteria 1.4.3, 1.4.6 and 1.4.8
Accessibility Roadmap
As stated in the non-compliance section, the known issues are listed below:
- HTML – the underlying code used to create this website.
- CSS – used to describe how HTML elements are displayed on this website.
- JavaScript – a development language used to program behaviours on this website.
- 3rd Party Functionality
A program of work is now underway to address these issues and involves working with Durham County Council’s in-house developers/designers as well as third party functionality providers.
We aim to resolve the above items by September 2021.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
- PDFs/documents (pre September 2018): PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 or documents that are not essential to providing our services
- pre-recorded audio and video published before 23 September 2020
- maps unless they provide core information
- content that’s under someone else’s control that we haven’t paid for or developed ourselves:
- social media buttons
How we test the site
We re-assess a website or system for accessibility whenever it undergoes a major modification.
Main site page content is checked every time it is updated.
