Website Accessibility

Heath and Reach Parish Council is committed to ensuring everyone can access information on this website.
Website Accessibility

Website Accessibility Guidelines

This page will be constantly reviewed as new technologies are developed throughout the Internet and adopted by the Parish Council.

 Where to start

Use the sitemap to get an overview of what is on the site.

Search Tips

A search box appears at the bottom of each page, excluding mobiles. To get the best results to follow these tips:

  • Use keywords – the search won’t work well using natural language, keywords will find better results.
  • Use quotes to search for an exact phrase.

To change the size of the window of the site

On the browser View menu select ‘Full screen’ or press ‘F11’.

Known issues

Screen reader users are unable to navigate the submenu items on the home page when sequentially navigating (using gestures) through content. Therefore a user should utilise ‘Explore by touch’ on both iOS and Android in order to select submenu items or select the top-level heading such as ‘Planning’ in order to access these submenu items.

Exclusions to AA compliance

External applications and websites: we link to third-party applications and external websites, which we hope are useful for customers to carry out a task or find out further / related information on a subject. We cannot guarantee that they are AA compliant. We are not responsible for the accuracy of material on linked websites and do not endorse the views expressed within them.

PDF documents: The files on this Website have been made available to download in a pdf format – the most common program is Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. You may need to download Adobe Reader The latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader has incorporated accessibility features. For example, you can hear a PDF document read aloud or scroll a PDF document automatically. You can access these features in the Edit Preferences menu.

Screen readers and other assistive technology: this website has not been tested with assistive technology. We cannot guarantee that the site will work fully on older versions of assistive technology.

Browser capability

The site has been cross-platform and cross-browser tested and is currently compatible with modern browsers including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera and Safari. You may experience compatibility issues when visiting this Website with older browsers that are no longer supported such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Operating systems we don’t support?

This Website may not function correctly if you are using outdated operating systems such as Windows XP and Vista. Also we don’t support any beta versions of browsers, or any browsers that run on Linux.

Let us know if you experience difficulties using this site

If you find anything on the site difficult to use, please let us know by using our dedicated Contact Us form. This link will open a new page where a simple questionnaire is presented to you the end-user and in turn, will assist us in understanding any issue you may be experiencing.

All constructive feedback regarding the accessibility or usability of this website is welcome and will be carefully considered.

 

Settings for your Browser to consider

The majority of web pages on our Website were built with accessibility in mind from the outset. As such, these pages already offer flexibility for people with specific needs. The following suggestions to improve the accessibility of the web pages should also work for other sites that you visit.

Chrome

To magnify your screen

  • Press [Ctrl] + to increase the size of text and images
  • Press [Ctrl] – to decrease the size of text and images
  • Press [Ctrl] 0 to return the size of text and images to their original size

If you are using a iMac, simply replace [Ctrl] with [Cmd] in the above examples.

Edge

To magnify your screen

  • Press [Ctrl] + to increase the size of text and images
  • Press [Ctrl] – to decrease the size of text and images
  • Press [Ctrl] 0 to return the size of text and images to their original size

If you are using a iMac, simply replace [Ctrl] with [Cmd] in the above examples.

NB: Please be advised that we no longer develop our Website in order to support the Internet Explorer Browsers.

Firefox

To magnify your screen

  • Press [Ctrl] + to increase the size of text and images
  • Press [Ctrl] – to decrease the size of text and images
  • Press [Ctrl] 0 to return the size of text and images to their original size
  • To magnify only text, go to View > Zoom and check Zoom text only

Changing text and background colour

  • Go to Tools > Options
  • Select the Content tab
  • In Fonts and Colors, click the Colors button on the right
  • Set your colour preferences for text, background and links
  • Uncheck ‘Allow pages to choose their own colors instead of my selections above’
  • Click on OK in the Colors window, then click OK in the Options window

Changing the default font style and size

  • Go to Tools > Options
  • Select Content tab
  • In Fonts and Colors, choose default font and size or click the Advanced button on the right for more options
  • Click OK

To hide images on our pages

  • Go to Tools > Options
  • Select the Content tab
  • Uncheck ‘Load Images Automatically’
  • Click OK

If you are using a iMac, simply replace [Ctrl] with [Cmd] in the above examples. 

Safari

To magnify your screen

  • Press [Cmd] + to increase the size of text and images
  • Press [Cmd] – to decrease the size of text and images
  • Press [Cmd] 0 to return the size of text and images to their original size
  • To magnify text only, go to View > Zoom Text Only

To change the default font style and size

  • Go to Safari > Preferences
  • Select Appearance tab
  • Click Select to the right of Standard Font to choose the font, size and colour
  • Close the window

To stop images loading

  • Go to Safari > Preferences
  • Select Appearance tab
  • Uncheck ‘Display images when the page opens’
  • Close the window

To set the minimum font size for all web pages

  • Go to Safari > Preferences
  • Select Appearance tab
  • Check ‘Never use font sizes smaller than’ and select a font size
  • Close the window

 

Other Browsers

There are a number of other Browsers that are appearing on the Internet. As these are in a minority, we would suggest that you refer to their ‘Help Section’ usually found in the navigation-bar at the top of the browser to customise the appearance of your browser to best suit your immediate needs.

The following websites provide excellent information with regards to physical challenges in using the Internet.

Adobe Acrobat DC Reader – external link to free pdf reader software. This software has the ability to read text out loud, albeit in an American accent.

Google.com Accessibility – external link.

My Web – My Way (BBC) This Website is no longer updated but still has useful information.

Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) – external link.

This page was last updated on 4th September 2021