Website Accessibility Statement for Bideford Town Council
This website is run by Bideford Town Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use our website.
For example, that means you should be able to:
- zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- 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 have also made the website text as simple as possible to understand
AbilityNet has advice and information on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
Bideford Town Council is committed to providing a website which is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability.
How Accessible is this website
Things which work well
We have tested our website, and to our knowledge the website works well with:
- Skipping to the main content with the Visible Skip Link when using a screen reader
- Changing background and text colours – using High Contrast plug-ins
- Magnification and zooming with reflow to 300%
- Using with Text to speech
- Consistent heading structure
- Alternative Text on images
We know that some parts of the website may not be fully accessible
- most PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software; if this affects you please contact us and we will be very happy to supply individual and fully accessible documents
This site is available in three versions which duplicate all textual information:
- Large screen / desktop site, includes graphics and photos. Some pages may require scrolling high zoom.
- Small screen /mobile site, formatted to display on a smaller screen in portrait or landscape format
- Text only site, no graphics, no photos or text formatting. Text fonts, size and background contrast may be adjusted by user browser controls.
What to do if you cannot access parts of this website
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, a printed form for example:
- email [email protected]
- call 01237 428816
- use our contact page
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in two working days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems which are not listed on this page or you think we not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact the Town Clerk by email or by calling 01237 428938.
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 contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Bideford 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.
Compliance status
This website is compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.
Content which is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
Some of our older PDF and Word documents may not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may be structured so they’re accessible to a screen read. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value)
Any new PDFs we publish will meet accessibility standards, except where these are supplied by other organisations over which we have no control. Documents that are supplied to us by other organisations (third party) will not be edited to make them accessible.
The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other document published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.
What we are doing to improve accessibility
Issues with PDFs and other documents
We are aware that some of documents may not be accessible. We are working to avoid this. Some of these documents have minimum views; therefore we believe they are not negatively impacting users with disabilities or impairments. For this reason, we do not believe the cost of time, effort and resource to fix all the documents is justified.
We want as many people as possible to be able to access our website. We have provided in-house training for Council staff to make the necessary changes to reduce barriers for users. We will be reviewing this statement annually.
How we tested this website
This website was last tested on 25 August 2026 by Zonkey Solutions Ltd.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 18 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 26 August 2026.
Bideford Town Council is responsible for reviewing this statement annually to ensure that it meets legal requirements and reflects best practice.
