We aim to make this website accessible to all. We try to ensure all pages conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA in line with the EU Accessibility Directive. Our accessibility statement below sets out this commitment and what we are doing to improve.

This website also includes a translation feature however the
host partners are not responsible for the content or accuracy of external websites.

This website is run by Services For Education on behalf of Birmingham City Council. There should be no barriers for anyone who wants to use this website.

For example, you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• zoom in without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard (including skip to content)
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• listen to most of the website using a screen reader
• easily understand any content

Accessibility features

AbilityNet provides guidance about how to:

• make your mouse easier to use
• use your keyboard instead of a mouse
• talk to your device
• make your device talk to you
• make text larger
• change your colours
• magnify the screen

Change visibility settings with Accessibility Helper

You can change font size, change contrast colours and invert colours using the Accessibility helper tool.

Follow these steps:

1. To activate Accessibility Helper, click on the widget at the bottom right of any page
   
2. This will open a menu on the right-hand side of the page displaying different options.
   
3. You can change the options by click on any of the menu options

Our website

This is the main Local Offer Birmingham website.

Our online forms system and ecommerce system is hosted within the main website.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible.

For example:

• some older Word and PDF documents aren’t fully accessible for people using screen readers [WCAG 2.0 A 1.1.1]
• some of our Products may contain images that contain text, we are working to rectify this. [WCAG 2.0 A 1.1.1]

There are some issues we are aware of that are difficult to fix because of how our content management system works:

• some HTML pages are styled using inline styles rather than external stylesheets – this means any custom stylesheets you set up may not work on some of our pages

Auditing

We carry out regular accessibility audits of the website and a full website audit on an annual basis using WCAG 2.1 AA standards which guide our long term audit and improvement plans.

We use Silktide Web Accessibility Tools (a website quality assurance tool https://silktide.com/solutions/accessibility/) to scan our website every day and it keeps us updated about any changes in accessibility and quality assurance. We actively check these reports and make changes as necessary.

In addition to this, we carry out ad-hoc testing of pages and the site as a whole using third party testing tools. The majority of this testing is completed with the assistance of Siltide.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the accessibility regulations. If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Compliance status

The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 and 2.2 AA standard.

We use tools to check our accessibility compliance and keep it up to date every quarter. We currently boast an 80.6% WCAG 2.2 compliance status. We are 80.5% compliant with Level A WCAG 2.1, 79.9% compliant with Level AA WCAG 2.1 and 77.3% compliant with Level AAA WCAG 2.1.

The Local offer Birmingham is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Local offer Birmingham 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 listed below.

Non-accessible content

We currently acknowledge and are actively working towards the following non-accessible compliant items:

• Colour schemes – Some of our colour schemes do not have sufficient contrast between the foreground and background colours. [WCAG 2.1 AA 1.4.3]
• Additional tooltips to accessibility tools – our accessibility tools on the side bar require a tooltip to explain what each tool will do
• WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow: At 400% zoom, the Accessibility toolbar is no longer available
• WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) and WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value: Links must have discernible text. This refers to the ‘Parents and Carers’, ‘Children and Young People’ and ‘Professionals’ card links.

Issues with PDFs and other documents – WCAG 2.0 A 1.1.1

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.

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services.

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 more information about the accessibility regulations visit the Legislation.gov.uk website.

Issues with images, video and audio – WCAG 2.0 A 1.1.1

Some of our images have missing or incorrect labels. We are working to correct this as an ongoing task.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We continuously improve our website’s accessibility. We hold regular website group meetings to measure our progress.

We are speaking to our third-party suppliers about improving the accessibility of their products.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 01 March 2021. It was last reviewed on 17/01/2024.

This website was last tested on 17/01/2024 against the WCAG [2.1 and 2.2] AA standard.

We carried out a full audit via a third party web development tool which outlines all WCAG compliance issues and improvements. The most viewed pages were tested using automated testing tools by our website team. A further audit of the website was carried out to the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

Feedback and contact information

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. For feedback and improvements on our accessability statement please contact localoffer@birmingham.gov.uk

 

Statement Review Date: 15/01/2024

This statement was created on 01 March 2021.