Digital Strategy Accessibility Statement


We want everyone who visits our website to be able to access the full range of services available, regardless of their skill or technology.

This website was launched in May 2019

How accessible the site is

We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible.

What to do if you have problems or queries

If you have any accessibility problems or feedback, please email Victoria.Murray@durham.gov.uk

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the accessibility regulations. If you're not happy with how we respond, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Digital Strategy is committed to making our website accessible, in accordance with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Under the Equality Act 2010 we must ensure we do not unlawfully discriminate in our service delivery and make reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities where necessary. We are constantly working to improve the accessibility and usability of our site.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

Information about which areas of the website fail.

  • elements: elements with role=img do not have an accessible name., failing success criterion 4.1.2
  • Stylesheets: CSS positioning fails success criterion 1.3.2
  • background colours: some text / background colours do not have enough contrast, failing success criterion 1.4.3
  • links and controls: missing visual label in the accessible name, failing success criterion 2.5.3
  • frames and iframes: some do not have a title attribute, failing success criterion 2.4.1
  • elements: some elements do not contain text or an img with an alt attribute, failing success criteria 2.4.4, 2.4.9 and 4.1.2
  • zooming: viewport tag is being used to disable zoom, which fails criterion 1.4.4
  • colours: some body or element colours are set, but not all of them, failing success criteria 1.4.3, 1.4.6 and 1.4.8
  • page language: this is not declared, failing success criterion 3.1.1
  • page language: Phrases in different language should be in a span or div with a lang attribute, failing success criterion 3.1.2
  • navigation: the system does not have information about its general layout failing success criterion 2.4.5

Accessibility Roadmap

As stated in the non-compliance section, the known issues are listed below:

  • HTML – the underlying code used to create this website.
  • CSS – used to describe how HTML elements are displayed on this website.
  • JavaScript – a development language used to program behaviours on this website.

A program of work is now underway to address these issues and involves working with Durham County Council’s in-house developers/designers as well as third party functionality providers.

We aim to resolve the above items by September 2021.

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

  • PDFs/documents (pre September 2018): PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 or documents that are not essential to providing our services
  • pre-recorded audio and video published before 23 September 2020
  • live audio and video
  • interactive maps unless they provide core information

How we test the site

We re-assess a website or system for accessibility whenever it undergoes a major modification.

We check all new content we add.