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Accessibility

Accessibility statement for Blackpool.gov.uk

This statement only applies to our main website at www.blackpool.gov.uk. It does not apply to sub-domains such as democracy.blackpool.gov.uk or idoxpa.blackpool.gov.uk.

This website is run by Blackpool Council. 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 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 are not fully accessible:

  • Committee minutes and agendas search and display system which is an external system
  • Council tax/Business rates/Benefits portal which is an external system
  • Some transactional forms (for example Corporate Complaint Procedure)
  • School admissions which is an external system
  • Leisure centres and facility booking systems Which are external systems
  • Licensing applications
  • School's Forum minutes
  • Coroner's portal
  • Live videos do not have captions
  • On the homepage the tabbing does select the cookie banner until the end

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: website.page@blackpool.gov.uk
Telephone: 01253 477477

We'll consider your request and get back to you in 7 days.

If you cannot view the map on our 'contact us' page, call us on 01253 477477 or email us at: website.page@blackpool.gov.uk for directions.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We're 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, contact: Blackpool Council communications team, PO Box 4, Blackpool FY1 1NA. Email website.page@blackpool.gov.uk or telephone 01253 477189.

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).

Visiting us in person

Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to contact us

Technical information about this website's accessibility

Blackpool 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:

Non-accessible content - non compliance with regulations

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

Some of our forms or systems are built and hosted through third party software and 'skinned' to look like our website such as:

  • Birth and death registration appointment bookings
  • Car park permit and PCN payments
  • School admissions

We are working with these suppliers where possible to bring these platforms up to standard, but are unable to give a date when this will be.

WCAG 2.4.3 Focus order Tabbing does not select the cookie banner until the end and this covers content at the bottom of the page. This is provided by a third party supplier and we are unable to make any changes. We are looking at alternative solutions to be in place by November 2022.

We use YouTube to embed videos in our site , where multiple videos are used on a page some screen readers may not be able to identify the play to the correct video. Where possible we will always title the video with a heading tag to help ease the problem.

WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast minimum and 2.4.7 Focus visible The search function on our news landing page includes some low contrast colours, redundant title text and redundant links. This is a third party system that we are not able to change. Focus is also not clear on ‘Next’ button to see more articles.We are creating a new news interface to replace this and plan to make this live by October 2022.

WCAG 2.4.7 Focus visible On the COVID-19 page focus is not visible on some of the drop down menus and there are issues navigating the links using the keyboard. This issue should be resolved by the end of March 2022.

WCAG 2.1 standards. The templates used for the JustUz section of our website doesn't meet the WCAG 2.1 requirements, particularly around colour contrast and heading structure. We are working to redesign the JustUz templates to meet the requirement which should be in place during 2022.

Interactive tools and transactions

Some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some form controls are missing a 'label' tag.

These forms are built and hosted through third party software and 'skinned' to look like our website.

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

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs, Excel 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. When this content is renewed it is created in an accessible format.

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.

Any new PDFs or other non HTML documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

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

We are constantly working to improve the accessibility of our site and carry out manual and automated tests throughout the year on a random selection of content. We are also working with third-party suppliers to encourage them to bring systems out of our control to standard.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 6 January 2022. It was last reviewed on 10 December 2021.

This website was last tested in December 2021 in-house using automated and manual testing. We tested a random selection of pages each representing a different template type used on our website including: