Accessibility Statement

We are aware that there are parts of this website that are not fully accessible.

• This website uses JavaScript to deliver certain features. Please make sure you have JavaScript turned on within your browser to deliver full features.
• My Favourites feature in header is currently not keyboard accessible. We have removed it from the accessibility tree while a fix is being implemented.
• Missing Alt text on some images. We have tried to make sure that all images that have essential content have alt text.
• Older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
• Live video streams do not have captions.

This website features ‘Google Translate’ which enables users to translate HTML content into other languages. It is only available in certain browsers such as Google Chrome.

Efforts have been made to create accessible alternatives for content that does not meet standards.

Where appropriate we may be able to deliver content to users in accordance with their needs.

Please see ‘Make a request for accessible content’ section for further details.

For information on this website in a different format such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille.

Contact details for West Sussex County Council

Email: WestSussexConnectToSupport@westsussex.gov.uk 

Alternatively, you can contact Adults’ CarePoint.

Email: socialcare@westsussex.gov.uk

Phone: 01243 642121

NGT Text Relay: 18001 01243 642121 (available as a downloadable app for computer tablets and smartphones. Helps people with speech and hearing difficulties.)

Write to: West Sussex County Council Adults’ CarePoint, Second Floor, The Grange, County Hall, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1RG

We aim to respond to your request within five days.

West Sussex Connect to Support will use links to navigate to content on the website. External links will open in a new window.

Where possible the action of an external link will be explained by extra description within the link text.  However, in certain areas of the website adding this extra description will become a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

We have provided the following definition for external links.

External links are used for content that navigates a user away from our secure platform. The following items are considered external links.

• Non-HTML documentation (See ‘Issues with PDFs and other documents’)
• Redirection away from secure platforms
• External websites that are not part of West Sussex Connect to Support.

If you find any problems that are not listed within this statement, or believe we are not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations please contact us.

Contact details for West Sussex County Council

Email: WestSussexConnectToSupport@westsussex.gov.uk  or use the feedback form on the bottom of every page.

Alternatively, you can contact Adults’ CarePoint.

Email: socialcare@westsussex.gov.uk

Phone: 01243 642121

NGT Text Relay: 18001 01243 642121 (available as a downloadable app for computer tablets and smartphones. Helps people with speech and hearing difficulties.)

Write to: West Sussex County Council Adults’ CarePoint, Second Floor, The Grange, County Hall, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1RG

Enforcement Procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the accessibility regulations. If you are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Services (EASS)

West Sussex County Council is committed to making it's website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG) AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed in the following section, ‘Non-accessible content’.

Whilst West Sussex County Council strives to adhere to accepted guidelines and standards for accessibility and usability, it is not always possible to do so in all areas of the website.

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

This sub-section lists issues that fail the current accessibility regulations.

• This website uses JavaScript to deliver certain features. Please make sure you have JavaScript turned on within your browser to deliver full features.
• The 'My favourites' section is not keyboard accessible. We have removed the keyboard focus while we implement a fix.
• Older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
• Live video streams do not have captions.
• Non-HTML documentation - some of these documents are inaccessible with certain accessibility technologies. These include the document heading structure, use of tables and insufficient alternative descriptions. We will implement these changes in future documentation where possible. Where these documents cannot be made fully accessible, we are committed to providing an HTML alternative.

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

This sub-section lists issues that are exempt from the current accessibility regulations. For more information see following section, ‘Exemptions to the accessibility regulations’.

Issues with live video

Live video streams do not have captions. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live).

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Issues with PDFs and other documents

Older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they are accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role Value).

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. We are working to fix or replace them with accessible HTML pages. See ‘What are we doing to improve accessibility?’

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

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Web content that is not subject to the standards referenced in this policy statement are as follows.

• Content that is archived.
• Content on intranets and extranets published before 23/09/2019.
• Non-HTML documentation (PDFs, Microsoft Office files)  published before 23/09/2018.
• Non-HTML documentation (PDFs, Microsoft Office files) that are not essential to the services West Sussex County Council provides.
• Live audio and video.
• Pre-recorded audio and video published before 23/09/2020.
• Online maps and mapping services.
• Third party content that is not under direct control of West Sussex County Council or main website provider – Google Translate, social media links.

West Sussex County Council is fully committed to meeting all the accessibility criteria specified in the regulatory provisions. We plan to identify and fix issues in accordance with the timescales shown for each non-compliant area. Areas of this website that fail to meet these standards will have fixes prioritised according to usage data.

Since testing on our website on 20 September 2022, the outstanding issues include:

• My favourites accessibility widget is not keyboard accessible. We have removed focus to this element so  keyboard  navigation is still available.

The county council will make continuous assessments of this website’s content and update this statement when issues have been resolved.  

Our current estimation for full accessibility fixes from our website provider is no later than 1 April 2023.

This statement was prepared on 17/09/2020.

West Sussex will review this policy every year.

This policy was last reviewed on 3/2/2023, by West Sussex County Council  Adults' Services.