Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to www.reading.gov.uk. 

This website is run by Reading Borough Council.

We want the website to be accessible, inclusive and user-friendly. 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 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. You can see a list of any issues we currently know about in the non-accessible section of this statement. 

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: web.team@reading.gov.uk 
• call: 0118 9373737 

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days. 

Reporting 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 the Digital and Website Manager by email at web.team@reading.gov.uk. 

Enforcement procedure 

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing 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 

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment. 

Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit, we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter. 

Find out how to contact us. 

Technical information about this website’s accessibility 

Reading Borough Council is committed to making its website accessible, in line 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 listed below. 

Non-accessible content 

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations 

PDFs and other documents

Many of our old PDFs, Word and Excel documents do not meet accessibility standards. This is normally because they are not structured in a way that makes them accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1

Accessibility guidelines do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services.

We will not be able to replace all the old documents with accessible alternatives, but we are in the process of reviewing which documents are essential to providing our services. We have found 2,359 documents that need to be reviewed. In the review we need to assess how often the documents are accessed and how easy it will be to either replace them with HTML pages, accessible PDFs or online forms. We intend to do this work throughout 2024/2025.

Videos

Embedded videos may not have BSL, audio description, captions or transcripts. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.1, 1.2.2, 1.2.4, 1.2.5, 1.2.6 or 1.2.7.

Videos will be reviewed in 2024 and either removed or made to comply with WCAG 2.1.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

• We are replacing PDF and Word documents with HTML pages and online forms
• We use tools called Siteimprove and Silktide to test for accessibility

Accessibility help

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please email web.team@reading.gov.uk .

Preparation of this accessibility statement 

This statement was prepared on 8 November 2021 and reviewed on 11 April 2024. 

This website was last tested on 24 August 2024. The test is automated and was carried out by Silktide. They tested 125 web pages, following a methodology they use to test nearly all council websites. We got a score of 91%.