Known Accessibility Barriers

This probably isn’t something you’ll see on most websites – after all who likes to draw attention to their shortcomings? – but as we say in our Accessibility Statement ‘we’d rather tell you if a page doesn’t meet the required standards so that you know if you may have problems’  it also allows us to try and offer some sort of solution while we work to sort out any issues once and for all.

There are some pages or applications on the Chester site that may cause a few issues for some users.  Known ‘problem areas’ to date are:

Forms - Some of our online forms are less than satisfactory - this is mainly beause it is taking us a while to update the forms from the old system - although this isn't an excuse.  We're currently redesigning and rebuilding all of our forms to make them more accessible and  easier to use.

GIS - Our GIS may not be as accessible as it could be - but this is a general problem with map heavy based systems.  We are, however, working to try to eliminate some of these issues.

Access keys – ironically the fact we employ access keys can actually cause problems when users are required to enter special characters in form controls on the site.  If you use assistive technology and have specific keystrokes programmed they can sometimes clash.  So while we employ the UK government access key standard, we’re also looking at possible alternatives that will allow us to offer the benefit of them, without penalising the few users they cause a problem for.

Downloadable Documents - This site currently offers a wide range of documents in Adobe PDF format.  While we understand the benefit of being able to offer you a perfectly formed downloadable document - just as the designers intended you to see it - we're also aware that they may not be as accessible as we would like.  Our main concern, however, is that - and despite Adobe Acrobat Reader being free to download - we don't think you should have to install any other software to view any of the information we provide if you don't want it.  As a result, we're working to eliminate the use of all PDF s on the site.