Website Accessibility Statement

Accessibility statement for Yateley Town Council website

This accessibility statement applies to the website www.yateley-tc.gov.uk

This website is run by Yateley Town 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 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:

• some images do not have text alternatives
• some page structure is not correctly marked up for screen readers
• some decorative elements may be announced unnecessarily by screen readers
• most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software

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 or if you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact us:

• Email: office@yateley-tc.gov.uk
• Telephone: 01252 872198
• Write to: Yateley Town Council, Reading Road, Yateley, Hampshire, GU46 7RP

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 2 working days.

If you cannot view the map on our Contact Us page, call or email us for directions.

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Yateley Town Council is committed to making this 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.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Images without text alternatives

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. In particular, some homepage banner images and news thumbnail images have empty or missing alt attributes. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content).

We plan to add text alternatives for all content images by September 2026. When we publish new content we will make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Main content landmark not defined

The main landmark, which defines the primary content area of the page, is not correctly marked up. This means screen reader users may not be able to navigate directly to the main content. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.6 (Identify Purpose) and 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).

We plan to address this issue as part of wider website improvements by September 2026.

Incorrectly tagged navigation landmarks

Two navigation elements are incorrectly tagged: the skip links container uses role=”navigation” inappropriately, and a duplicate navigation element does not accurately represent navigation content. This may mislead screen reader users about page structure. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.6 (Identify Purpose).

We plan to correct the landmark structure by September 2026.

Decorative icons not hidden from assistive technology

Some decorative icon elements (including emoji images used in content) are not correctly hidden from assistive technology. Screen reader users may hear unnecessary or confusing announcements. The emoji images also lack proper text alternatives. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content).

We will fix these issues as pages are reviewed and updated.

Table row headers not marked up correctly

A data table on the website does not have row header cells correctly identified. This means screen reader users may not understand the relationship between cells and their headers. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).

We plan to fix this issue by September 2026.

Visually hidden content exposed to assistive technology

Some elements that are visually hidden are still exposed to screen readers, which may cause confusion about the current state of the page. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).

We plan to address this issue by September 2026.

Disproportionate burden

Full website remediation

Yateley Town Council has no in-house web developer and must commission all technical work from an external agency. We have carried out a disproportionate burden assessment in accordance with the accessibility regulations and concluded that full structural remediation of the website at this time would impose a disproportionate burden on the council. The assessment documentation is available on request by contacting us using the details above. We aim to complete all outstanding remediation by September 2026.

As a result, the following issues are claimed under disproportionate burden:

• Full structural remediation of the WordPress theme to correct landmark and navigation roles
• Comprehensive audit and remediation of all visually hidden content exposed to assistive technology
• Theme-level changes to navigation and header structure

We will prioritise accessibility compliance in any future procurement or development work.

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

PDFs and other documents

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.

There may be some PDFs and Word documents which are essential to providing our services, such as downloadable forms or consultation documents. We are working to make these accessible. Any new PDFs or Word 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

Website pages and posts are regularly reviewed for accessibility. Where issues are identified, we aim to fix them as soon as reasonably possible, prioritising issues that affect users’ ability to access content or services.

Our immediate priorities are:

• Adding text alternatives to all content images, including news thumbnails and homepage banners
• Correcting table header markup
• Applying accessibility standards to all newly published content

We will continue to monitor the website and update this statement as issues are resolved. We will carry out a full re-assessment when the website is next significantly rebuilt or the supplier contract is renewed.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared in November 2021. It was last reviewed on 24 April 2026.

This website was last tested on 24 April 2026 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

The test was carried out by our Communications Officer using the accessScan automated testing tool. The most viewed pages were assessed using this tool. The issues identified in this report have informed the non-compliances listed above.