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Accessibility Statement

This website is run by Cowden Parish Council.  The Parish Council wants 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)

The Parish Council has  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 is this website?

The Parish Council is aware that some parts of this website are not yet fully accessible:

  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software

How to contact the Parish Council

The Parish Council is  always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think it is not meeting accessibility requirements, please let us know.

You can also contact us if you need information on this website in an alternative format. We will consider your request and get back to you within 10 working days.

Email the Clerk at cowdenpc@gmail.com or by telephone on 07387 768123. Alternatively, you can write to use at 4 Divalls Cottages, Woodshill Lane, Ashurst Wood, West Sussex, RH19 3RH.

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 Regarding Website Accessibility

Cowden Parish Council 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:
  • Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. See WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value). This includes documents relating to the Neighbourhood Plan.
  • Some externally supplied, interactive PDFs may not be fully compliant. We have no control over these documents.
  • We may have some scanned documents on the site, such as Annual Governance and Accountability Returns (AGARs). These can be supplied on request in an alternative format.
Disproportionate Burden:

We have not identified any problems that will be a disproportionate burden to resolve.

Content that is not within the scope of the Accessibility Regulations:

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we use PDFs for Agendas and Minutes and to provide information on how users can access our services, and forms may be published as Word documents.

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.

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

What Is the Parish Council doing to improve accessibility?

The Parish Council is  working to resolve any outstanding accessibility issues and will continue to monitor the website regularly. Page content is checked every time the website is updated.

Preparation of this Accessibility Statement

This statement was prepared on the 20 April 2021.

We tested the website by carrying out a basic accessibility check of a sample of pages, plus an automated scan using the WebAIM WAVE system of all the website’s pages.