Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to wivenhoe.gov.uk.

This website is run by Wivenhoe Town Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
navigate the website using just a keyboard, including skipping straight to the main content of each page
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)

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

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:

many PDF documents, particularly older ones, are not fully accessible to screen reader software, and some have no document title
the first name and last name boxes in the newsletter sign-up form have no visible label once you start typing
we have not fully tested whether every page still works when you increase text spacing using your own browser settings or tools

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, such as an accessible PDF, large print, easy read, an audio recording or braille, please contact us using the details below. We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 10 working days.

Town Clerk, Jo Beighton-Emms
Post: Wivenhoe Town Council, Council Offices, 77 High Street, Wivenhoe, Essex CO7 9AB
In person: Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 12:30pm, at the above address
Email: townclerk@wivenhoe.gov.uk
Phone: 01206 822864

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that are not listed on this page, or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact the Town Clerk.

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 not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Wivenhoe Town Council 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 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Many of our PDF documents do not have a document title, so PDF readers show the file name instead. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.2 (Page Titled). From now on, new documents will be published with a title, and we plan to add titles to documents from 2026 by 31 March 2027.
Some older PDF documents are not tagged, so they are not structured in a way a screen reader can follow. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships) and 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value). We will publish new documents as tagged PDFs and fix older documents that people need to use our services when we replace them.
In the newsletter sign-up form, the first name and last name boxes use placeholder text instead of a visible label, so the label disappears when you start typing. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.3.2 (Labels or Instructions). We plan to fix this by 31 January 2027.

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

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. For example, we do not plan to fix agendas or minutes for meetings held before 23 September 2018.

Content we have not tested in depth

Our events calendar, our cookie banner, the newsletter sign-up form and the newsletter viewer are provided by third-party software. We have not yet tested them in depth, including with screen readers.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

In November 2026 we fixed the problems an accessibility audit found. These included adding a skip link, hiding the scroll-in header from keyboard users until it appears, improving the keyboard focus outline and colour contrast, adding text alternatives for images and icon links, correcting page headings, labelling page regions and menus, naming the links on the minutes pages, and making the Services A-Z filters work with assistive technology. We will review this statement at least once a year, and whenever we make a significant change to the website.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was last reviewed and updated on 10 November 2026.

This website was last tested on 10 November 2026 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. The test was carried out by Big Red Web Design. We tested a sample of pages covering each type of page on the site, using automated checks and manual testing of keyboard use, colour contrast, link text and PDF documents.