Accessibility
Accessibility Statement
This website is run by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able 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’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
AbilityNet (external link) 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 aren’t fully accessible:
- PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- live video streams do not have captions
- some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
- you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
Feedback and Contact Information
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:
- email - customer.care@merthyr.gov.uk
- call - 01685 725000
- Fill out our contact us form
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, please use our report form to let us know:
Report an Accessibility Problem
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).
Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough 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 2.1 (external link) AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
- PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
- PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
- Some frame and iframe elements do not have useful <title> attribute values
- Content and functionality provided by third party suppliers is not fully accessible.
- Some pages have alt text issues. This fails WCAG 2.1 1.1.1 success criterion (Non-text content).
- Some videos have caption and audio description issues. This fails WCAG 21. 1.2 success criterion (Time-based media).
We aim to resolve the identified issues by 31/09/2023.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.
Third party content
Our website contains third-party content. We do not have control over and are not responsible for the accessibility of this content, but we endeavour to work with the third party to improve its accessibility. This may include:
- links to non Merthyr.gov.uk websites
Adverts
The adverts sometimes shown on the pages are from a 3rd party provider, and appropriate alternative text is not usually present. We are working with them on this issue, but as a 3rd party it is out of scope of the regulations.
Live Video
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
Online maps
online maps, mapping services are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
View accessibility regulations
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 20 December 2023.
We currently are running tests on every page of the website using the Silktide Accessibility Tool. We are also manually testing our pages using auditing tools, these are WAVE accessibility evaluation tool and AXE a google chrome extension. Any new pages will be tested using these methods too. The tests are carried out by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council Web Development Team.