Accessibility Statement
This website is run by Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.
It has been designed in accordance with the WCAG 2.1 AA standard.
The AbilityNet website 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:
- most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
- live and archived video streams do not have captions
- some images do not have a text alternative
What to do if you cannot access parts of this website
We can provide information in different formats if needed, please contact us:
- email: webadmin@welhat.gov.uk
- Telephone: 01707 357 000
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, email us at webadmin@welhat.gov.uk .
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 Services (EASS).
Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
We have teamed up with SignVideo to offer a video interpreting service for deaf British Sign Language (BSL) users. This free, secure service enables you to call us through a videophone, laptop, PC, smartphone or tablet.
You will be connected to a fully qualified British Sign Language interpreter who will relay the call to us.
*Please note that this service isn't supported by Internet Explorer or Edge. To use this service, please use the Firefox or Chrome internet browser. If you are using the service for the first time, you will need to download a one-off Live plug-in which enables good video quality and ensures that your calls are secure.
Find out how to Contact us.
Technical information about this website's accessibility
Welwyn Hatfield Borough 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 the non-compliances listed below.
Non accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
1. Non compliance with the accessibility regulations
- Images
Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
We plan to fix this by December 2022.
- Interactive tools and transactions
Some of our interactive forms, built and hosted through third party software, are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some form controls are missing a 'label' tag. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (information and relationships).
We have begun a programme of updating our online forms and including WCAG 2.1 compliance as a requirement when renewing our contracts with third parties.
We hope to make all our online forms for essential services compliant by December 2022.
2. Content that's not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
- PDFs and other documents
Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they're accessible to a screen reader. This does not 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.
We plan to fix this by December 2022.
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 Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
- Live video
Live video streams do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live).
We do not currently plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
How we tested this website
Our main website platform was reviewed for accessibility by the Shaw Trust in October 2019.
This helped us to write an Accessibility Action Plan which we are following to improve the accessibility of all our websites.
We also carry out regular tests using the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool to help with this.
This statement was updated on 20 June 2022