We use cookies to collect information about how you use this site.
We use this information to make the website work as well as possible and improve our services.


Accessibility statement for West Sussex Local Offer

This accessibility statement applies to the West Sussex Local Offer website This website is run by West Sussex County Council. We want 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)
  • We’ve 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 so you can:

How accessible is this website

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

  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text in the site itself but there are extensions for browsers that can help with this
  • some older PDF documents and PDF’s provided by 3rd parties are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
  • not all pre-recorded videos have captions, those published before 23.09.2020 do not need captions however we are working on having captions on our most watched videos published before this date.
  • you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format, please contact us on: If you are deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment, please email and we can provide alternative formats for content.
We may be able to arrange for a British Sign Language interpreter if needed.

We will acknowledge your email within 3 working days, and we will consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days. However, if the request is related to another service/organisation’s information, then we would forward the request on to the relevant person in that service/organisation and let you know that we have done this.

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 the Local Offer Officer either by email: [email protected] or call 0330 222 8555.

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

West Sussex County Council is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 AA standard due to ‘the non-compliance’ listed below.

  • elements of information pages use bits of custom HTML, and that has broken the default behaviour of the pages to resize to different devices etc, and have created text display or colour contrast issues.
We believe that this accounts for less than 20% of information pages, and we are currently undertaking a content audit which will address and correct these issues by the end of the year 2020

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

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 plan to add text alternatives for all images by October 2020. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

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

PDFs and other documents

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.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018. However, where possible with the documents we produce ourselves, we will try to do this by December 2020.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we produce and publish will meet accessibility standards. However, we also receive many from other providers. Although we will request that these are made accessible, we cannot insist.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are currently reviewing the site and addressing any accessibility issues. We have a word document which you can download to see how we are progressing.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 21st September 2020. This will be reviewed annually.

This website was last tested on 7th August 2020 and is an ongoing process. A report is being made to summarise the findings of the 2020 accessibility checks done from August 2020 to September 2020.

The test was carried out by the Local Offer Officer using ‘Waves’. The sample of pages tested is gathered from newly created pages (to ensure they are compliant). The most frequented pages on the website (informed by google analytics), and pages that have received feedback stating the information is not easily accessible.

© West Sussex County Council 2023