Accessibility

Accessibility Statement for West Suffolk Council Recruitment website

This accessibility statement applies to the www.recruitment.westsuffolk.gov.uk domain.

This website is run by West Suffolk Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • 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.

We are always working to make the website text as simple as possible to understand.

In accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018, we regularly monitor the accessibility standards of our website. To do this, we use a tool called Siteimprove which monitors and tests the website and sends reports to us.

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

How accessible this website is

We checked https://recruitment.westsuffolk.gov.uk/ on 22 March 2024 against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard.

Based on our testing, this site is partially compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA. This means there are some things which are not fully accessible.

How we checked

We used a mixture of manual checks and automated tests.

The automated tests were completed using Siteimprove and a manual check of sample pages using AXE.

Manual checks included using pages without a mouse, viewing the page at different zoom settings, and simulating viewing the page on a small screen.

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • The navigational menu along the top of the webpage is not accessible using the keyboard, and the keyboard focus is not always visible.
  • When hovering over the navigation bar dropdown menus, some of the text is hidden.
  • Social media links at the bottom of the webpages do not have text that can be read by a screen reader.
  • On the homepage, the carousel under 'Pride' cannot be paused, stopped or hidden.
  • On the homepage, hidden elements in the carousels must not be focusable or contain focusable elements.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format such as accessible PDF, large print or easy read please visit our Contact us page.

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 the Communications team by email: communications@westsuffolk.gov.uk.

Please include:

  • ‘Recruitment website accessibility’ in the subject line
  • the web address (URL) of the page with the issue
  • details of the issue.

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

West Suffolk Council is committed to making its websites 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 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and the exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reason(s):

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  1. The navigational menu along the top of the webpage is not accessible using the keyboard (this does not meet WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard)
  2. The keyboard focus is not visible on the radio buttons under the slick slider of team quotes (this does not meet WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible)
  3. The keyboard focus is not visible on the links under 'Benefits of working for West Suffolk Council' (this does not meet WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible)
  4. At 200% zoom and more, the keyboard focus is not visible on, and within, the hamburger menu (this does not meet WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible)
  5. At 200% zoom and more, the keyboard focus is not visible when tabbing between 'Skip to main content' and the hamburger menu (this does not meet WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible)
  6. The carousel under 'Pride' cannot be paused, stopped or hidden (this does not meet WCAG 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide)
  7. When hovering over the navigation bar dropdown menus, there is no mechanism to dismiss the additional content triggered without moving pointer hover or keyboard focus (this does not meet WCAG 1.4.13 Content on Hover or Focus)
  8. The row of accordion controls under the carousel - 'People', 'Responsibility', 'Integrity', 'Dedication' and 'Energy' is (this does not meet WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships)
  9. Social media links at the bottom of the webpage do not have discernible text (this does not meet WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) and WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value_
  10. ARIA hidden element must not be focusable or contain focusable elements (this does not meet WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value)

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. Any new PDF documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Logos and branding

Images of text are not accessible, but logos and branding are exempt from the accessibility requirements WCAG 1.4.5 Images of Text

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are continually working to improve accessibility. We regularly receive reports form Siteimprove, the automated system we use to check accessibility, quality assurance and search engine optimisation (SEO) and look to resolve issues on a weekly basis. We also respond to any issues identified by visitors to the websites and regularly review pages.

Where we find accessibility issues, we resolve them as soon as possible. We expect all the current issues to be resolved by June 2024.

We work with our third party suppliers (for example our recruitment system) to make sure their systems are as accessible as possible, and to resolve issues as quickly as possible.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 20 September 2019. It was last updated on 23 March 2024

This website was last reviewed on 23 March 2024.

The review was carried out internally by West Suffolk Council, using Siteimprove for automated testing and manual checking.

The regular automated tests run by Siteimprove show that the site is rated as 99% compliant:

  • 100% compliant with the A, AA and AAA standard
  • 84.62% compliant with best practice scores which bring the overall rating down to 99%.

Read the full Siteimprove accessibility score breakdown – West Suffolk Council Recruitment website 22 March 2024

We have also carried out manual testing using AXE which has highlighted some additional issues (listed above). These are currently being investigated and we are working to resolve them as soon as possible.

We continue to review the website and review any issues as soon as we can when a warning appears.