Accessibility statement

Bromsgrove District Council is committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability. We are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our website and in doing so adhere to many of the available standards and guidelines.

Accessibility options

Access Keys

The following Access keys apply to the Bromsgrove District Council website.

• Skip to the content - Alt+S
• Home page - Alt+1
• Site-map - Alt+3
• Search the site - Alt+4
• Accessibility options - Alt+0

Web Site accessibility Features

We offer the following accessibility features on our site:

• Site-map
  This is linked to at the top of every page in the form of an A to Z.  There is also a hidden link directly before the A to Z that is spoken by screen-reading software and will appear when 'tabbed to' using a keyboard which allows you to skip past it.
  
• 'Skip to Content’
  At the top of every page is a link that is spoken by screen-reading software and will appear when 'tabbed to' using a keyboard. It is the first link and, when selected, will skip past the rest of the menu items and commence at the beginning of the main page content.
  

Headings and navigation menus

HTML heading tags are used to convey document structure. H1 tags are used for main titles, H2 tags for subtitles etc.

Navigation menus are marked up as HTML lists. This ensures that the number of links in the list is read out at the start and it can be skipped easily. We also provide consistent navigation

Changing your browser settings

The BBC my web my way website explains the many ways you can change your browser, computer, keyboard and mouse settings to make the web more accessible for you. You may benefit from viewing this website with a larger text size or a different colour scheme than the one automatically displayed. The following guidelines will help you control the size of text and colours when using Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator browsers.

I can't see very well

These guides explain ways to change how your computer or web browser operates, to make things easier for people who have difficulty seeing.

I am blind

These guides explain ways to change how your computer or web browser operates, to make things easier for people who are blind.

I can't hear very well

These guides explain ways to change how your computer or web browser operates, to make things easier for people who are deaf or have difficulty hearing.

I find words difficult

These guides explain ways to change how your computer or web browser operates, to make things easier for people who have difficulty with words.

I find a keyboard or mouse hard to use

These guides explain ways to change how your computer or web browser operates, to make things easier for people who find a mouse difficult to use.

 

Useful Links

• Browse Aloud is a computer program that reads aloud all website content including PDF and MS Word documents
• NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) is a free and open source screen reader for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Providing feedback via synthetic speech and Braille, it enables blind or vision impaired people to access computers running Windows for no more cost than a sighted person.
• Free site translation with Google Translate or Yahoo Babelfish

Accessibility and usability of our site

This website endeavours to conform to level Double-A of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0.

Whilst Bromsgrove District Council strive to adhere to the accepted guidelines and standards for accessibility and usability, it is not always possible to do so in all areas of the website. We are aware that some of our existing forms and pdf files are not fully accessible and are currently rewriting our most popular ones.  We will also ensure that all new forms and pdf files created adhere to the accessibility and usability standards.