We want the Suffolk Coastal website and its content to be
accessible to as many people as possible. For the benefit of all
visitors to our site we strive to present information in a clear,
easy-to-understand way, with clear and consistent navigation. Our
website has been designed to comply with international guidelines
for making web content accessible to people with disabilities.
Making text larger or smaller
It is very easy to make the text on our webpages larger or
smaller to suit your preferences. We have provided a simple
one-click facility for making the text one size larger or smaller -
just select the 'Text size' links under the search icon at the
top the page.
All popular browsers let you increase or decrease the size of
the text on a webpage providing the website you are looking
at allows this to happen. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera
and Chrome browsers all have a page zoom facility which enlarges or
reduces the whole page, including images as well as text.
Instructions on how to make text larger or smaller for all
popular browsers are available on the
My Web, My Way website (new window) created
by AbilityNet. This site also has information about how you can
make your software, keyboard and mouse and web browser better
suit your needs.
Listening to the text on our webpages
We have a very simple tool that reads the text on our
webpages out to you. Just click on the 'Listen to the text on this
page' link which is under the page title. If you wish, you can also
save the text as an MP3 audio file.
Using plain language
We are committed to using plain language throughout our website at
www.suffolkcoastal.gov.uk and strive to
consistently present information in a clear and easy-to-understand
way.
The website was reviewed by the
Plain
English Campaign (new window) in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and
awarded their Internet Crystal Mark.
As the site is constantly changing, there may be occasions
when we do not meet the standards we strive to meet. For the
benefit of visitors to our website we often publish information
from other organisations where we have no influence over the use of
language, and like many other councils we make use of a number of
third party applications that we cannot easily make changes
to.
However, if you have difficulty understanding any part of our
website, please let us know by emailing
website@suffolkcoastal.gov.uk,
and we will take steps to improve it.
PDF files and accessibility
We create PDF files to make documents, spreadsheets,
presentations, etc, available via the web in a format that produces
small file sizes and is accessible to a wide range of people using
the free
Adobe Reader software (new window). We also
publish a number of PDF documents produced by other organisations.
Consequently, we have a large number of PDF documents on our
website.
We believe PDF files are a good way
of making many kinds of documents available via the
web but we are aware that there are
some accessibility issues with PDF documents. As part of our
editorial process we review all documents that are to be published
on the website and decide on the best way of presenting the
information. In some cases we will create web pages as well as
publishing a PDF file to make sure the information is as accessible
as possible.
The latest version of Adobe Reader contains many features
specifically designed to make it easier for people with
disabilities to access PDF files. Follow this link to find out
more about
Adobe Reader and accessibility (new window) and
accessing PDF documents with assistive technology.
Links to other pages, documents and other websites
Links work in the same way on every page of our website:
- All links to external websites open in a new browser
window.
- All internal links display in the same browser window.
- All links to documents open in new window and we tell you the
file format and size in the link text.
Follow this link for help with opening and downloading documents.
We provide links to external sites in order to give visitors to
our site related information from what we believe to be reputable
sources. However, we not responsible for the content of external
internet sites so we cannot guarantee the accuracy or accessibility
of their content.
Making your computer and the web easier to use
AbilityNet's My Computer, My Way website will guide you through
how you can make your computer, software, keyboard and mouse and
web browser better suited your needs:
Conforming to web accessibility guidelines
In accordance with UK government requirements our website has
been built to conform to the World Wide Web Consortium's (WC3)
Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines (new window). The W3C
guidelines set out how to make website content accessible to people
with disabilities.
The webpages published at
www.suffolkcoastal.gov.uk have been tested using a
variety of website accessibility validation tools.
In order to meet the accessibitity requirements, all pages
published at www.suffolkcoastal.gov.uk meet the
standards for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and Extensible Hypertext
Markup Language (XHTML 1.0) published by the W3C. You can test
any page by clicking on the W3C validator links at the bottom
of the page.
In November 2007 we asked
the Shaw Trust Web Accreditation team (new window)
to carry out an accessibility audit on our website. The audit
comprised of a manual technical audit using automated tools and
testing by a team of user testers with differing disabilities using
a range of adaptive technologies. The results of the audit showed
that the accessibility of our website is good from both technical
and usability standpoints.
Some of our pages still link to old web content that was
produced before the W3C guidelines were widely acknowledged as the
standard for accessible websites. This content does not meet all
the requirements of the guidelines.
Please let us know if you encounter a problem with any of our
pages by emailing
website@suffolkcoastal.gov.uk.
SOCITM Better Connected review 2011
Each year SOCITM (Society of Information Technology Management)
carries out an audit of local authority websites in the UK. The
purpose of the Better Connected review is to identify good practice
in the development of local authority websites.
To do this SOCITM carries out a detailed programme of
surveys and tests to identify the level of usability, usefulness of
content and accessibility of each council website.
SOCITM awarded four stars, the highest accolade, to nine out of
433 UK council websites. Suffolk Coastal was one of 115 councils
and the only council in Suffolk to be awarded three stars. Our
website was cited by SOCITM as an example of good practice for
others to follow for:
- How well we cover information about Council Tax.
- How easy it is to find a topic from a specific word or phrase
using our search facility.
- Achieving the award of the Plain English Campaign's Internet
Crystal Mark for our use of plain language.
Accessibility testing was carried out by the Royal National
Institute of Blind People (RNIB) which rated
www.suffolkcoastal.gov.uk as excellent. The
SOCITM report states that 'this is a very well structured website,
using a full range of accessibility best practice and can be
considered functionally fully
accessible.'