Accessibility

Accessibility statement for The Royal Borough of Greenwich

This accessibility statement applies to The Royal Borough of Greenwich website, www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk. This does not include some third-party sites, such as our planning portal or our payments section.

This website is run by The Royal Borough of Greenwich. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website; for example, that means it should be possible for you to:

change colours, contrast levels and fonts
zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
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 are also currently working hard to make the website text as easy 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:

Some of the PDFs on this website do not have titles that describe the topic or purpose of the page.
Some pages have headings that have not been formatted correctly.
If you change the size of the font on some of our pages, it changes the layout of the page and makes it difficult or impossible to read the text.
If you make a mistake when filling in our forms, it isn’t easy to see what the mistake is, or where it is, or why it is a mistake.
Some of the links on the site don’t have text that explains what the links are or what you will see if you click on them.
Some of our maps and images rely on visual information and do not have text to explain that information.
There are some ‘empty links’ on the website; for example, some links have no text describing what those links are.
Some videos rely on visual information and do not have audio descriptions of that information, or of what the videos contain.
There are a couple of problems with the Fix My Street pages:
1. It is hard to see some links because they are a very similar colour to the normal page
2. Some parts of the section that use colour, such as blue text on a red background, are hard to read and may cause problems for people with visual impairments.
Issue with the online Council Tax service:
1. This section of the website contains two webforms: to change your Direct Debit arrangement or to set up a new Direct Debit arrangement once you have logged into your Council Tax online account. We ask users to provide their name and email address when they fill in these webforms, when they should be able to opt to use the details they have already provided to create their account. This fails WCAG 3.3.7 (Redundant Entry).
There are several problems with the Committees section of the site:
1. Some of the headings are not formatted correctly. This makes it hard for some people to navigate this section if they are using assistive technology.
2. There are some empty headings across the section - this means that assistive technology will identify the presence of a heading but that heading will be empty.
3. Some of the forms have questions and text boxes without descriptive information or correct formatting, which makes it hard for some people to fill them in.
4. Some of the pages are hard to navigate if people use a keyboard instead of a mouse.
5. Some of the tables are not formatted correctly. This makes it hard for people using assistive technology to understand the information contained within them.
6. Some interactive parts of the section, such as buttons, have not been built correctly and cause problems for some assistive technology.
7. Some interactive parts of this section have different names, depending on whether you are sighted or visually-impaired. This means people with visual impairments may struggle to ask for help from sighted people with these parts of the section,
8. Some unique blocks of content on the pages have duplicate labels or IDs. This makes it hard for people using assistive technology to tell, for example, which heading belongs to which paragraph.
9. There is some incorrect code across some parts of this section. This means people using assistive technology may struggle to navigate them because this technology relies on website code.
10. It is not always clear when a link is in focus when using a keyboard or assistive technology to navigate. This means people with visual impairments may struggle to click or open the links they want.
11. If you change the size of the font on some of the pages, it changes the layout of the pages and makes it difficult or impossible to read the text.

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format, contact us. You can call, email, use our sign language video service or a text to speech service.

Contact us or visit us in person

We provide additional access options for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.

You can contact the Royal Borough of Greenwich using SignVideo, a free interpreting service. This is available from home, as well as in The Woolwich Centre or The Eltham Centre.

British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters are also available at The Woolwich Centre. Please contact us before your visit if you require BSL interpretation.

Report accessibility problems with this website

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

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 make an accessibility complaint to us and you are not happy with how we respond to you, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Royal Borough of Greenwich 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 and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some images on this website contain text

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content).

We are currently working to fix the existing issues, either by removing the images completely or making sure we represent the meaning of the text in the surrounding page text.

When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Some PDFs do not have clear titles

Some PDFs on the website have unclear or generic titles. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 (Page Titles).

We will conduct a review of the affected PDFs, to add titles where they are missing. We hope to have this fixed in the first half of 2025.

Some pages contain empty links

Some of our links do not have any context; for example, some icons used to illustrate information have been designed as links but do not have text alternatives. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)).

We are working on a new council website and we will make sure this issue is fixed when we launch it.

Some text cannot be resized properly

Some parts of the site have text that overlaps with itself and other content on the page when you zoom in to make it bigger. This means some people with visual impairments will struggle to read the information on the page. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4 (Resize Text).

We will make sure this issue is fixed when we launch the new council website.

Forms do not highlight errors

If someone makes a mistake while filling in one of our forms (for example, they miss a mandatory field), the form will say that there is an error but it will not tell them what or where the error is. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criteria 3.3.1 (Error Identification), 3.3.3 (Error Suggestion) and 4.1.3 (Status Messages).

We will make sure this issue is fixed when we launch the new council website.

Some links do not have descriptive titles

Some links do not have text describing what those links are and where you will go if you click them. Some people using assistive technology may find the section hard to navigate. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships) and 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)).

We will make sure this issue is fixed when we launch the new council website

Some videos do not have audio descriptions

Some videos rely on visual information and do not have audio descriptions of that information, or of what the videos contain. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.2.3 (Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded)) and 1.2.5 (Audio Description (Prerecorded)).

We are investigating this issue to understand how best to add audio descriptions to our videos.

Some ARIA attributes are broken or incorrectly referenced

Some page elements contain ARIA attributes, such as aria-labelledby or aria-describedby, that point to elements which do not exist or are coded incorrectly. This means that assistive technologies cannot programmatically determine the relationships or descriptions as intended. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).

We are working to fix this issue as part of our ongoing improvements.

Issues with the Fix My Street section

This section of the website fails several WCAG success criteria. Because we did not build this section ourselves we have asked our supplier to investigate all of these issues for us.

Some links are hard to read because there is a background colour behind them. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1 (Use of Colour).
Some parts of the site contain text and background colours which do not contrast very well. This means some of the text is hard to read as the colour behind it is too similar to the text colour. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)) and 1.4.11 (Non-text Contrast).

Several issues with the Committees section

Some of the pages have an incorrect heading structure. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships) and 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels).
There are some empty headings across the section. This means that there is code in the pages that alerts assistive technology to the presence of a heading despite there being no heading content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships) and 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels).
Some of the forms have no clear instructions or labels, which makes it hard for some people to fill them in. There are also some incorrectly-used fieldsets. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), 3.3.2 (Labels or Instructions) and 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).
Some of the pages are hard to navigate if people use a keyboard instead of a mouse. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 (Keyboard) and 1.4.13 (Content on Hover or Focus).
Some of the tables are incorrectly formatted. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
Some 'elements' across this section, such as buttons, have been built in a non-standard way. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).
Some interactive parts of this section have different names or labels, depending on whether you are sighted or visually-impaired. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships) and 3.3.2 (Labels or Instructions).
Some separate and unique parts of the section have duplicate labels or IDs. This fails WCAG 2.1 success critierion 4.1.1 (Parsing).
There are some errors in the code across some parts of this section. This means assistive technology may encounter problems while navigating them because this technology relies on website code. This fails WCAG 2.1 success critieria 4.1.1 (Parsing) and 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).
It is not always clear when a link is in focus when using a keyboard or assistive technology to navigate. Links should change colour when they are in focus, or be obvious in some other way, but this is not the case for some of them in this section. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 (Focus Visible).
Some parts of the section have text that overlaps with itself and other content on the page when you zoom in to make it bigger. This means some people with visual impairments will struggle to read the information on the page. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4 (Resize Text).

Content that’s not within scope of the accessibility regulations

Some of our maps fail WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-Text Content). It is extremely difficult to make maps accessible so they are not included in accessibility rules.

Some of our older PDFs are not accessible and fail a few different WCAG success criteria. The main failure is WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-Text Content). The accessibility rules do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

If you need help with any of our maps or PDFs, please email contact-centre@royalgreenwich.gov.uk or call 020 8921 5015.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We commission an impartial, external company to audit core journeys on our site and give us their views.

Based on their feedback we have fixed many accessibility problems, and are working with our suppliers to fix all the outstanding ones.

We have also started work to build a new website to replace this one. We will be using a different system called Drupal which will allow us to improve accessibility even more. Drupal is continuously reviewed and improved to resolve outstanding accessibility issues, and we will be able to much more easily identify and fix any new issues that occur.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 21 June 2022. It was last reviewed on 11 June 2024.

This website was last tested on 19 June 2024. The test was carried out by Shaw Trust Accessibility Services.

The Shaw Trust Digital Assessment and Accreditation process is rigorous. Over 60 hours of accessibility testing by users with a disability goes into each and every accreditation. This is in addition to a stringent technical assessment by their digital auditors. All assessments are carried out in line with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 A and AA criteria.

We decided on a sample of pages to test based on journeys through the website that have the most traffic, as well as prioritising content that is most likely to be used by users who have disabilities.