Accessibility statement

Knowsley Council runs this website, You can find out here what steps we have taken to make the website as accessible as possible and what we are doing to improve it further.

This accessibility statement applies to the Knowsley Council website and microsites, including:

These websites are run by, or on behalf of, Knowsley Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use our websites. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • 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)

This website also uses a tool called 'Recite Me' - just click on the 'Accessibility and language options' link at the top of our website. It includes text-to-speech functionality, dyslexia software and a translation tool with over 100 languages. You can also use it to change colour schemes, font sizes and style.

If you're using Recite Me for the first time, take a look at the user guide, which shows you a range of useful features. We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

Recite Me is currently only available on the corporate website and will be rolled out to other microsites as soon as possible.

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

How accessible this website is

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

  • Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Embedded videos do not all have captions
  • Some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
  • Some embedded content from third party sites is not compliant with code standards, which may make it difficult to use. Alternative content formats are given wherever possible.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

  • Chat with an advisor
  • Call 0151 489 6000
  • Write to us at Knowsley Council, Nutgrove Villa, Westmorland Road, L36 6GA

We’ll consider your request and reply in 3 working days.

We also provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit, we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

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 us.

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 unhappy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Knowsley Council is committed to making its website accessible under 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 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

This website is in active development, and non-compliant issues detected in our testing will be resolved in order of impact and difficulty.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value). For example:

  • They currently don't use the correct heading structure, which makes it difficult for screen reader users to navigate the document. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.3.1 (Info & Relationships)
  • There are no bookmarks in the PDFs, which makes it difficult for screen reader users to discern the structure of the document. This fails WCAG success criterion 2.4.5 (Multiple Ways)
  • Some PDFs are missing document titles, which can make it difficult for screen reader users to discern the contents of the document quickly. This fails WCAG success criterion 2.4.2 (Headings and labels)

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 and forms published as Word 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.

We endeavour to ensure that any new PDFs we publish meet accessibility standards, and we are also developing ways to publish files in accessible HTML formats.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

This website is built using open-source technology provided by the LocalGov Drupal project. It is continuously being reviewed and improved to resolve outstanding accessibility issues and provide a greater resource to identify and resolve any new issues that occur.

PDFs

All PDFs are checked for accessibility compliance before being uploaded to this site.

PDF documents that were uploaded before 23 September 2018 and therefore fall outside of the scope of the accessibility regulations are made available in accessible formats upon request.

Where possible, information is presented as an HTML web page or accessible Word document instead of a PDF.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 02 January 2024. It replaces an earlier version of our Accessibility Statement, which was published on 10 January 2022.

This website was last tested on 02 January 2024. The test was carried out by Silktide's automated services.

Testing

We tested 1.314 pages covering all areas of the site, only excluding programmatically generated URLs containing duplicated content (such as URLs of filtered directory content).

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