Accessibility statement

This is the website of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD). We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. To do this you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• zoom in up to 200% 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)

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand by:

• using simple content (plain English and with minimal council terminology)
• minimising use of images and where these are needed, to have meaningful captions
• provide user options for alternative background colours (where possible)
• no use of Captcha unless there is a compelling reason to
• maps should be used only when you're not referencing a UPRN (unique property reference number), where the address lookup would not pinpoint the exact location)

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

• most older PDFs are not accessible
• some videos do not have captions
• some images may contain text

We are working towards reducing the number of PDF and Word documents and making as many as possible available on the website itself in HTML format or online forms. Any that do remain will be run through accessibility tools to ensure their compliance.

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: website@lbbd.gov.uk.

What to do if you can’t access parts of this website

If you need information on this website provided in a different format or you have found inaccessible content not on this list please email website@lbbd.gov.uk. We'll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.

Residents can also visit our local libraries to access services face-to-face. More information is contained on our libraries pages. 

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)

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

LBBD is committed to making its 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 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

1. Capita payment portals.
2. 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 have an ongoing programme to add text alternatives for all images. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.
3. Some prerecorded videos do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2
4. All videos published on site now require captions
5. Alerts (pop up messages) interfere with a user requiring keyboard control or screen reading software

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

Pages with maps may not meet accessibility standards. Where possible we aim to provide a text alternative.

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re 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 have an ongoing programme to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we do not plan to fix evidence base PDFs in the planning section.

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

Live video

Live video streams don’t have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions – live).

We don’t plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. 

This accessibility statement applies to lbbd.gov.uk.

This statement was prepared on 23 September 2019.

This statement was last updated on 23 may 2022.