Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Statement

Newbiggin Town Council is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for all residents and visitors. We aim to make our website accessible and usable for as many people as possible, including those using assistive technologies. We are making our best efforts to ensure the widest possible audience can use this website, and we will provide training to ensure new content meets accessibility standards.

This website is designed to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA and the requirements of the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

These regulations build on the duties of the Equality Act 2010, which requires public bodies to make reasonable adjustments for users.

Compliance Status

This website is partially compliant with WCAG 2.2 AA due to the non-compliances listed below.

Known Accessibility Issues

Following a recent audit in December 2025, we are aware that some parts of the website do not yet fully meet accessibility standards. We are working with our website provider to resolve identified issues across page content, site templates, and PDF documents.

Some of these issues are rooted in the website’s underlying templates and require technical updates to resolve:

• Navigation and links: Some links are missing clear descriptions (like Click Here”), making it difficult for screen reader users to know their destination.
• Document Structure: Many older PDFs and Word files are not “tagged” meaning assistive technologies may not read them in the correct order.
• Images and media: Certain images lack descriptive “alt text” or use unhelpful placeholders and filenames.
• Headings and titles: Some pages have missing titles or incorrectly ordered headings, which can confuse those navigating by keyboard.
• Tables and forms: Some data tables lack clear headers, and a few form boxes are not properly labelled for screen readers.
• Technical coding: Issues within the site’s code and templates, such as incorrectly grouped lists or “Aria Roles,” may affect how assistive software interprets the site.

We will update this list quarterly following our scheduled accessibility tests to show progress in fixing these specific errors.

All new documents published by the council aim to meet accessibility standards.

Disproportionate Burden

It is not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it difficult to view content. Users may find that increasing the text size causes some content to overlap, affecting readability. We are currently seeking long-term solutions with our provider. The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23^rd September 2018, if they’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we do not plan to fix old copies of meeting minutes. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will aim to meet accessibility standards.

Third-Party Content

Newbiggin Town Council is not responsible for making external content accessible, which has been provided to us by a third party.

We do not control how Google Maps displays information or its accessibility features. Where possible, we provide physical addresses within the webpages’ text to ensure the information is available even if the map is not accessible.

Accessible Content Practices

When publishing new information, the council aims to ensure:

• Proper heading structures are used so screen readers can interpret content.
• Images include meaningful alternative text.
• Documents are accessible PDFs with correct tagging and reading order.
• Clear link descriptions are used.
• Information is provided directly on webpages where possible, rather than as images or attachments.

Requesting Information in an Alternative Format

If you need information on this website in a different format, such as:

• Accessible PDF
• Large print
• Easy read
• Audio recording

Please contact us and we will try to provide this in any way we can. We aim to respond within 10 working days where possible.

Contact details:

• Email: ask@newbiggintowncouncil.gov.uk
• Telephone 01670 851833
• Address: Newbiggin Town Council, 76 Front Street, Newbiggin by the Sea, NE64 6QD.

Reporting Accessibility Problems

If you find any accessibility issues on this website, please let us know so we can improve the service.

Email: ask@newbiggintowncouncil.gov.uk

Please include: the page URL, a description of the issue, and the assistive technology used (if relevant)

Enforcement Procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Website and Mobile Applications) (No 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact Equality and Advisory Support Service (EASS).

Preparation of this Statement

This statement was prepared on 2020

Last reviewed: March 2026

Accessibility testing was carried out using:

• manual checks
• automated accessibility tools such WAVE, Axe DevTools and Lighthouse
• keyboard navigation testing

The website was also reviewed following an accessibility audit.

We will review this statement annually and whenever significant changes are made to the website.

The website was last tested in December 2025 and then again in the first quarter of 2026, and work is ongoing to address accessibility issues from this audit. Tests were carried out by our website provider and will be done every quarter, as well as in-house testing. We plan to improve the accessibility of this website and address the non-compliant issues where possible. We will also provide staff training to ensure that the new content added addresses accessibility issues.