Accessibility – Helsby Parish Council

We’re working to make helsbyparish.org.uk as accessible as possible for visitors regardless of their ability, disability or general awareness of using the internet.

It is our aim to create a public sector site that stands out as an excellent site to visit – not just an excellent public sector site. The standard of service and design you expect shouldn’t be any less, simply because we’re a local council and that’s something we feel strongly about.

The problem with trying to make a fully ‘inclusive site’ is that no single solution meets the needs of all users – and we’ve found that sometimes trying to improve the site for one articular disability can have an effect on our ability to meet the needs of another section of our audience. So while we do work to achieve all World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.0 ‘Double A’ standard as a minimum, sometimes we may not have got quite there on some pages.

We also try as much as possible to allow you to ‘optimise your user experience’ – put simply, let you view and use the Helsby Parish Council website the way you want to – not the way we make you.

Useful Resources

The following web sites provide further accessibility information for your web browser:

Navigating the website

Using the A-Z

Another way to navigate the website is the A-Z Site Index. Simply select the initial letter of the service you require. Each A-Z page lists the services in alphabetical order.
The A-Z can be accessed directly from the home page or from the quick link next to the search.

Sitemap

The sitemap lists all pages contained on this website. Please be aware that pages do not appear in alphabetical order but rather in the order of the menu structure.

Language – Google translate

Translations of this site are provided by Google Translate. For more details, please see our Language Translation page.

Alt tag for all images

We aim to use images relevant to the content. All images that contain important information used in the website have alternate text descriptions, which are known as their ‘alt’ tag. These help visually impaired users to identify what the images represent.

Data table headers

If a data table is presented, table headers, summary and caption are provided where appropriate to help you understand the data table structure and its data.

Customising the way you view the site

Increasing the size of text

If you experience difficulty reading the text on our website, you may want to alter the size. To increase text size you need to change a setting on your internet browser.
Google Chrome users should click View > Text Size > … and select from the options.
Microsoft Edge users should click View > Increase Font.
Firefox users should click on View > Zoom and then use the options to Zoom In and Zoom Out.
Google Chrome users should click on the Page menu > Zoom and then use the options to make the text Larger, Smaller and Normal size.

You can also use keyboard and mouse shortcuts for Internet Explorer 7 and 8, Firefox 3, Google Chrome 2 and Safari 3.2 and 4:

CTRL + to zoom in
CTRL – to zoom out
CTRL 0 (zero) to reset to normal size
If you have a mouse scroll wheel, hold CTRL and scroll up to zoom in and scroll down to zoom out.

Helsby Parish Council Website Accessibility Features

accessibilty widgets Alternatively to rescale and / or change the contrast of the text on helsbyparish.org.uk you can use the handy widget on the left hand side of your screen. Simply click on the relevant symbol to change the appearance of the website to your desired format. You can also use the links Toggle High Contrast and Toggle Font size located below the Quick Links in the footer area of this website.

Cascading style sheets

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS2) are used on all Helsby Parish Council web pages to set design and layout elements, e.g. colours, background colours, alignment, spacing, border, font sizes and types. The advantage of using CSS is to give you the choice of switching off the Helsby Parish Council style sheet and using your own style sheet instead. The web pages are designed to be read in the correct order, even if the style sheets are switched off.

Configuring your web browser to help you use our site

Most web browsers have tools and settings that you can use to help browse our website such as, for example, being able to change the text and background colours for a higher contrast ratio. We have provided the following links to guides that will explain how to use these aids to benefit your browsing experience:

Help with Downloads

This website sometimes uses files that your computer may need an extra programme, or piece of software, to open. In most cases this software, such as Adobe Reader, is already supplied with new computers. We only use document formats that can be opened using a free reader that you can download by following the links on this page.

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Many of the files held on this website are in Adobe PDF format, which means you’ll need special software to view them. This software is available to download free of charge from this page.

The Adobe Acrobat Reader allows you to view, navigate, and print PDF files across all major computing platforms. PDF stands for Portable Document Format and means a document that can be viewed or printed out on any platform, whether Windows, Macintosh or Linux.

To download Adobe Acrobat Reader, click on the link below, which will open a new window on the Adobe website:

Get Adobe Acrobat Reader >>

PDF files and accessibility

We try to ensure that the information in the PDF content is made accessible to all our users by enriching it with PDF tags. This means the PDF documents can be easily read by screen readers. However, in rare cases it is impossible to make PDF documents as accessible as we would like, for example in the case of PDF’s containing maps and other diagrams.

Image-based PDF Documents

Where PDF documents are imaged based, for example maps, planning applications etc, it is impossible to make the document fully accessible. In those instances we will try as best we can to offer an alternative solution, although this may not always be possible.

Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint Viewers

Some documents on this website were produced in Microsoft packages such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint. There’s no need to buy the software as a free viewer is available from the Microsoft website. To download your free copy, click on the links below:

Viewing online documents

When we link to files on helsbyparish.org.uk we indicate the file type and size.

Help with hearing the website

We are looking into the best options to provide a page reader service on the Helsby Parish Council website. Information about the chosen service will be found here as soon as we have installed and tested the service. Please contact us if you have any questions or recommendations for a page reader service that you already use. Thank you for your patience and please continue to help us make the Helsby Parish Council website as accessible for all as possible.