Accessibility

Accessibility statement for Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council's website

This accessibility statement applies to www.stockton.gov.uk.

This website is run by Stockton-on-Tees Borough 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 are working to make our website as accessible as possible. However, we know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

• some pdfs do not have headers
• some tables are difficult to read on small phone screens (iphone 5)

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille email: webmaster@stockton.gov.uk

We'll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

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 digital@stockton.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 Service (EASS). 

Contacting us by phone or 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.

Call us on 01642 393939 to start the process.

Technical information about this website's accessibility

Stockton-on-Tees 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.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard due to 'the non-compliances', listed below.

Mobile

A small number of pages require scrolling in two dimensions on small screens (WCAG AA 1.4.10)

PDFs

A small number of our PDFs are not fully accessible and we are continually reviewing them to fix any issues. 

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

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.

All essential PDFs have been reviewed and made accessible. Any new PDFs we publish will meet accessibility standards.

What we're doing to improve accessibility

We are working across our services to ensure all content produced for the website is in an accessible format. We regularly review our accessibility through user testing for new content and online services as well and manual testing using NVDA and diagnostic software such as Wave, Axe and Silktide to ensure compliance of WCAG 2.1 AA standards and AAA where possible.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 28 February 2022. It was last reviewed and updated on 8 March 2023.

This website is tested every day using diagnostic software called Silktide. Manual testing is also carried out on a regular basis for new content. Testing is carried out by our Digital and Website Development Team.