Flintshire County Council

Websites - accessibility

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Development of this website has been driven by accessibility standards and we are committed to providing a usable website for every visitor regardless of ability or disability. More accessible websites usually result in a site that is easier for everyone to use.

This website incorporates plain English and is developed to W3C's guidelines. These include Transitional XHTML, WCAG guidelines and cascading style sheets (CSS).

WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 

All public sector websites are required to meet WCAG guidelines (new window) on accessibility to Level A standard and should aim to satisfy Level AA standard. We have developed the website to these guidelines however a site with over 20,000 pages is very hard to maintain to these high standards.

The WAI Triple-A is the highest level of accessibility and one that we will strive to meet through further development.

We are currently reviewing WCAG 2.0, which is the new version of the original WCAG guidelines described above. We will aim to meet these requirements.  

If you have any comments or suggestions please submit an enquiry (will create an email) 

You can also view our Website Accessibility Policy (PDF.doc 77KB new window) to find out more about the work we are doing in this area.

Navigation

Across the top, left and right of the web pages there are navigation areas that will aid you in navigating the website. Above the main content of pages you will see signposting to show where you are within the website.

The left hand side navigation will change as you use different areas of the website.

The right hand side navigation will show Do it Online, Useful documents, Useful information and External web links if appropriate to that area of the website.

You can also find pages quickly and easily in our A-Z Index

Searching

You can enter key words or phrases into this search box found in the top right of every webpage and then select 'go'. The results will be returned and clicking on a search result will then take you to that page

Site map

The site map available across the the horizontal navigation will show you the main structure of the website services navigation and clicking on any of these links will take you to that page

Help! My back button doesn’t work correctly

This website is made up of two main areas of content:

1. Basic content information
A basic content information page example is the Business page and any pages in this main area. When navigating through these sets of pages you will see a page address of something like:

http://www.flintshire.gov.uk/wps/portal/english/services?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/web+content/Flintshire/English/Services/100002

As this is a standard content page you can use the back button in all Internet Browsers such as Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

2. Information presented from a database
Information presented from a database may be for example ‘viewing Planning Applications’ and performing a search.
When viewing these areas of the website you will notice that the web page address can be very long.

When using these types of web pages, the Back button will not always work correctly. This is because this page address is unique each time the page is viewed. To help you we have added links such as ‘Back to search results’. Internet Explorer browser behaves in this way however we have noticed that Mozilla Firefox browser behaves better. 

Also, when you are viewing these database pages you will see ‘Link to this page’. If you want to link to that page or want to add a link from your company web site or just send that link to someone who may be interested in it, you need to select ‘Link to this page’ and use the link that appears.

Page layout

Each top level area page shows Information in this area comprising of its second level areas with clickable titles and summaries of their content.
e.g. Buisness

Each second level area page shows Information in this area comprising of its third level areas with clickable titles and summaries of their content.
e.g. Business > Trading standards

Each third level area page shows Related pages for this information area comprising of clickable links to all content at that third level area
e.g. Business > Trading standards >Animal feedstuffs

This website is structured into 11 main categories each 3 levels deep. This is based on the Local Government Navigation List (LGNL) and is a standard that many government websites have implemented so that there is common navigational structure across websites.

Change text size

You can use the 'A' icons at the top every web page to increase the text size on the page or reduce it. You can also do this manually in the following ways:

• Internet Explorer 7: Select the 'Page' menu, then one of the options under 'Text Size'. The default setting is Medium
• Internet Explorer 6: Select the 'View' menu, and select one of the options under 'Text Size'.
• Mozilla Firefox: Select the 'View' menu, then 'Text Size', then select Increase, Decrease or Normal.
• Opera: Select the 'View' menu, then one of the 'Zoom' percentage options.
• Netscape: Select the 'View' menu, then one of the 'Text Zoom' options.

Access keys

Access Keys allow keyboard navigation for users who do not use a mouse or similar pointing devices. They are also useful for all users of the web site as a quick way of navigating the site.

To use the access keys:

press and hold the ‘ALT’ key, then press the character associated followed by the return key. The government has set out a complete set of guidelines for access keys shown below.

UK Government Standard Accesskeys:

• S skip navigation – to be implemented
• 1 homepage
• 2 what's new
• 3 sitemap – to be implemented
• 4 search facility
• 5 frequently asked questions
• 6 help facility – to be implemented
• 7 complaints procedure
• 8 disclaimers
• 9 feedback
• 0 Access key details

Listen to our website

You can listen to this website by clicking on Listen to this website (new window) at the top of this page. You will be taken to the speech enabled version of this website.

Interactive mapping

Interactive mapping is a graphically intensive web application and one that cannot currently incorporate full accessibility standards. We are working with our software supplier to make this area of the website more accessible. 

Accessibility Limitations 

Due to certain restrictions, it has been necessary for us to include some features and some technology from third parties in our website that may cause accessibility problems.

These include:    • Adobe PDF downloadable documents.

                         • Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint downloadable documents.

                         • Web applications such as the Libraries Catalogue Service and YouTube.

We are making every effort to overcome these issues by making improvements to their accessibility; failing that, we provide accessible alternatives.

If you need alternative formats of our downloadable documents (such as in plain text or Braille) or if you experience any accessibility problems with our site, please contact us via Customer Services (Link opens in same window).

Flintshire County Council accepts no responsibility for third party applications. When selecting any third party applications, we ensure the highest accessibility standards are applied to ensure they can be used by all users of our website. 

Software plugins

This website uses plugins to show content that is not created within the main site. Some require software plugins to view this content and they can be downloaded from the external links below.

Adobe Acrobat Reader (new window) (for viewing PDF files)