Cotherstone Parish Council

Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to: www.cotherstoneparishcouncil.gov.uk

Using this website

This website is run by Cotherstone Parish Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. You should be able to:

• Change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings

• Zoom in up to 300% without text spilling off the screen

• Navigate most of the website using a keyboard

• Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software

• Listen to most of the website using a screen reader

The website is designed to be responsive and usable on desktop, tablet and mobile devices.

How accessible this website is

We aim for the website to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 AA standard.

The website has been reviewed and improved to address previously identified accessibility issues. This includes improvements to:

• Page structure and heading hierarchy

• Colour contrast

• Link text clarity (so links make sense out of context)

• Document listing layouts

• Form labelling and keyboard navigation

We know that some parts of the website may not be fully accessible:

• Some older PDF documents may not be fully accessible to screen reader software

• Historic documents may not be structured to modern accessibility standards

We are committed to improving accessibility where it is practical to do so.

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact:

Clerk to Cotherstone Parish Council

Email: clerk@cotherstoneparishcouncil.gov.uk

Telephone: 07980 631280

If you need information on this website in a different format, such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read or audio recording, please contact us. We will consider your request and aim to respond within 20 working days.

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.

If you are not satisfied with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS): https://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Cotherstone Parish Council is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

Non-compliance with accessibility regulations

Some older PDF documents:

- May not be fully tagged for accessibility

- May not have structured headings

- May contain scanned images of text

Where practical, we will provide accessible versions upon request.

Disproportionate burden

We have assessed the effort required to retrospectively remediate all historic documents and consider that doing so would represent a disproportionate burden under the regulations. However, we aim to ensure that new documents published from 2026 onwards meet accessibility standards.

Content not within the scope of the regulations

PDFs and other documents published before 23 September 2018 are exempt unless they are essential to providing our services.

How we tested this website

The website was tested using a combination of:

- Automated accessibility testing tools

- Manual review of representative page types

- Keyboard navigation testing

Representative pages tested included:

- The homepage

- Standard content pages

- Document download pages

- Contact forms

Recent testing identified structural and content improvements, which have since been addressed.

The website was last tested on: 2 March 2026.

We review the accessibility of the website regularly and when significant changes are made.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on: 11 March 2026.

It will be reviewed in March 2027 or sooner if substantial changes are made to the website.