1.      Using the website

Pontyclun Town Council run this website.

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 and contrast levels. You can do this by using a plug in on your computer such as High Contrast for Chrome. If you have another browser then they may have other tools e.g. NoSquint for Firefox
• zoom in up 300% without the text spilling off the screen. Alternative ways of getting magnification include using speed reading plug-in like Spreed for Google Chrome or using page de-clutter tools like Reader for FireFox or  Mercury Reader for Chrome. These allow control on both text size and background colours.
• View headings on the page using a headings reader such as - HeadingsMap (FireFox) and HeadingsMap (Chrome). These extract all the headings and subheadings into a navigable list - an excellent way of seeing how the content of the whole page fits together.
• You may be able to use screen readers and plug ins which read text such as Google Selection Reader

The plug-in suggestions above are offered in good faith without liability. It is your decision if you wish to install them. The Chrome plugins have been tested and are known to work with our site.

We’ve also tried to make the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

2.       How accessible is our website?

We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible at this time:

• You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text and you can only change Colour, fonts and sizes by way of an external device or browser plug in.
• most older PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
• Our theme means that the "Community Logo" on the top left does not have an alternative text description and there are a couple of "hidden" texts which have low resolution

3.      What to do if you can't access parts of the website

If you need information on this website in a different format, please contact us.

We may be able to provide accessible PDFs and word documents or verbally explain what you are trying to access.

The Council Offices are normally open to the public Monday to Friday 10am to 12 noon.

• email - clerk@pontycluntowncouncil.gov.wales
• call – 01443 238500
• or visit at the Council Offices at the Community Centre, Heol yr Orsaf, Pontyclun CF72 9EE

• there is parking across the road (including disabled spaces)
• Bus routes are nearby along Cowbridge Road, Pontyclun
• Pontyclun Train station is 200m away
• The office has disabled access (if you struggle with the door ring the bell and we will come and help you)

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 3-5 days.

4.      Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, contact:

Julius Roszkowski

Chief Officer

Pontyclun Community Council

Heol yr Orsaf

Pontyclun

CF72 9EE

Or call on 01443 238500

e-mail clerk@pontycluntowncouncil.gov.wales

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).

5.      Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Pontyclun Town 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 and exemptions’listed below.

6.       Non Accessible content

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

Issues with Web platform

It’s not possible for users to modify text spacing or line height.

The theme we are using for our design does mean that there are some non critical issues which might effect accessibility. In particular

• The Community logo in the top left hand corner of each page appears without any alternative text
• The background contains some low contrast text, redundant links and other issues in areas for our administration team which are not normally visible to users. Screen readers may however spot these issues
• On News pages the running list of News articles has skipped heading classes

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing these issues and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when we next do a major redevelopment of the website, however in the meantime plan to work with our website designer to see what changes can be implemented within our operating budgets over the next few years.

Issues with text

We are not aware of any critical issues with text

Issues with PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be marked up so they’re accessible to a screen reader.

Where our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, application forms for grants, these do meet accessibility standards

The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we don’t plan to fix old Council meeting agendas and minutes

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards wherever possible.

There are some documents which we publish on our site which have been prepared by outside bodies eg Welsh Government reports. We have no control over these documents which may not be fully accessible

Issues with images, video and audio

We are not aware of any issues with images, video or audio on our site

Issues with links and externally obtained documents

Where we provide a link to an external website we have no control over how accessible that website is.

We have some documents published on our pages which are created by external third parties. Whilst we will endeavour to obtain accessible copies this is not always possible so some of these will be not accessible

7.      How we tested the website

This website was last tested in February 2021. The test was carried out by us. We tested our main website platform, available at http://pontyclun.net

We used this approach to decide on a sample of pages to test –

1. We identified the pages which we believed most people accessed
2. Those pages were tested with wave.webaim.org web tester to identify issues
3. We manually reviewed a further 10 pages for obvious errors and issues
4. Testing did not include using a screen reader.

8.      What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We appreciate that our website is not fully compliant with web content accessibility guidelines

The Council has prepared a plan to improve the site going forward and this is our current roadmap.

The site has just moved to a WordPress platform which has removed most of the issues that our old webpages had.

In particular, images now have Alternative text descriptions; the site can be magnified much more than previously; low colour contrasts have been removed and most unclear links have been eliminated.

Website accessibility action plan

• Review low colour contracts - end 2021
• Explore options to review theme to review accessibility issues in background - End 2021
• Quarterly rolling checks to ensure links; contact forms and "permalinks" make sense and work
• New pages & posts are put through wave accessibility checker prior to going live

In the meantime, new documents created by us are all checked for accessibility prior to publication so as time progresses things will improve

We are also committed to adding more Welsh language content to the site and this will also be provided in accessible format.

This statement was initially prepared on 12 July 2019. It was last updated on 10 February 2021