Please see the contact us page.

One Worcestershire is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with 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 listed in the Non-accessible content section.

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

• some video content does not have an alternative for non-sighted users in the form of an audio description or transcript, this fails 1.2.5 Audio Description (Pre-recorded)
• some embedded videos do not have captions or a transcript, this fails 1.2.2 Captions (Pre-recorded)
• some images do not have alt text or have alt text when it should be decorative, this fails 1.1.1 Non-text content
• some text size in our website is very small and does not zoom, this fails 1.4.4 Resize text
• some text and interactive functions are close together meaning it might be difficult to use with poor dexterity, this fails 1.4.12 Text Spacing
• the back to top function is a floating object that may obscure content, this fails 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum)
• some download links may not make sense when read on their own; this fails 2.4.4 link purpose in context
• the same link text is used for links going to different destinations; this fails 2.4.4 link purpose in context
• text on some focus elements and forms do not meet minimum contrast, this fails 1.4.3 contrast minimum
• lists of related links should be written semantically as a list, this fails 1.3.1 info and relationships
• when using Twitter feeds users on keyboard or screen readers are trapped in the twitter feed and cannot return to the site, this fails 2.1.2 No keyboard trap
• not all elements on focus have an obvious change of appearance to those with low vision, this fails 2.4.13 Focus Appearance
• users with difficulties of dexterity will struggle with the target size of some buttons, this fails 2.5.5 Target Size (Minimum)
• some pages use collapsible content instead of navigating to a new page, which maybe confusing as its inconsistent navigation, this fails 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation
• some page titles throughout the site do not announce, this fails 2.4.2 page titled
• filters on the news, events and language are actioned by focus and not select as it currently announces, this fails 2.1.1 Keyboard 3.2.1 On focus and 3.3.2 Label instructions
• some icons announce the full url rather than descriptive, this fails 2.4.4 Link purpose
• some pages have unexplained abbreviations, this fails 3.1.4 Abbreviations
• some pages have a considerable amount of text and complex language, this fails 3.1.5 Reading Level
• on the search page screen reader users do not know that the search results have been actioned or how many results their search found, this fails 4.1.2 Name Role Value
• back button cannot be selected with a keyboard (this error is likely to appear on all pages using this element), this fails 2.1.1 Keyboard
• navigation closes on keyboard focus, this fails 3.2.1 On Focus
• ARIA hidden element contains focusable descendants in the footer, this fails 4.1.2 Name Role Value
• no accessible name on the ‘Select language’ dropdown, this fails 4.1.2 Name Role Value
• back button cannot be selected with a keyboard, this fails 2.1.1 Keyboard
• unable to open and close search bar with a keyboard, this fails 2.1.1 Keyboard
• navigation closes on keyboard focus, this fails 3.2.1 On Focus
• multiple elements using the same identifier (#ID) on the Search page, this fails 4.1.1 Parsing
• ARIA hidden element contains focusable descendants in the footer, this fails 4.1.2 Name Role Value
• unordered list contains content that is not allowed, this fails 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
• ARIA-hidden elements contain focusable descendants on the Events page, this fails 4.1.2 Name Role Value
• text not contained in semantic HTML on events pages, this fails 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
• unable to amend select options after navigating forward and backwards with a keyboard, this fails 2.1.1 Keyboard

We intend to fix these items in due course.

Issues with files

• there may be some files that are not fully accessible

We use Siteimprove tool to monitor any issues regarding accessibility and aim to fix any issues that has been found as soon as possible. We use Adobe Pro's accessibility checker to check the PDF documents and Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker to check any Microsoft Office files. We have also created a guidance for our staff how to make accessible documents, for more information on this, please see the SCULPT for Accessibility page.

Issues with third-party applications

We use some third-party applications which might not all be fully accessible, but the third-party companies are either in the process of reviewing their applications or have reviewed the applications and given a statement when the issues are going to be fixed.

Disproportionate burden

We have not identified anything that qualifies as disproportionate burden yet, but we are still evaluating our sites and may update this when we identify issues.

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

Regulations do not apply to the following content of a website or mobile application of a public sector body:

Older files

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. 

Third party content that we have not paid for

Social media buttons such as Tweet/Like

We use Silktide to check this site for accessibility issues.

Worcestershire County Council's IT and Digital Team uses WAVE Evaluation Tool to for checking individual web pages, and the Silktide tool for checking and monitoring the whole site's accessibility status. Silktide crawls the site every five days.

See the SCULPT for Accessibility pages for more information on what we are doing to improve accessibility.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on February 2023. It was last reviewed on 22 July 2024.

This website was last tested during July 2024. The test was carried out by using our own testing methods and using third party input.

Manual testing

To do our testing we chose a selection of home pages, document pages, custom pages and a typical form to offer a cross-section of page types within the website.

The pages on this website follow the same template and functions of the Worcestershire County Council website.

 We tested the following pages manually to ascertain any accessibility issues:

• Welcome to Worcestershire | One Worcestershire
• Worcestershire is home to a thriving business base | One Worcestershire
• Worcestershire | One Worcestershire
• Latest features | One Worcestershire
• How Worcestershire national fence manufacturer tackled competition from imports | One Worcestershire 

Automated testing

Worcestershire County Council do the following regular testing
Subscribe and pay for the Silktide tool for checking and monitoring the whole website's accessibility status regularly to identify any ongoing issues.