Help and Accessibility
Our Policy
Cheshire East Council is committed to ensuring that this website
is accessible to the widest possible range of people, regardless of
technology or disability. We are therefore actively working to
increase the accessibility and usability of our website and ensure
that it adheres to many of the available standards and
guidelines.
Third Party Applications
Some parts of our web site are provided via third party
applications. Whilst we make every effort to integrate these with
our main site it is not always possible. Should you have any
difficulties in accessing or using these applications please
contact us.
What are we doing to ensure we meet the criteria?
Accessibility Testing
Shaw Trust is a national charity that provides training and work
opportunities for people who are disadvantaged in the workplace due
to disability, ill health or other social circumstances.
We
have been working with the
Shaw Trust Website Accessibility Accreditation Service to
ensure the site is accessible to all our visitors.
Shaw Trust Accreditation
The website was tested by a team of experienced Web auditors,
all of whom are disabled individuals and users of adaptive
technology.
Following on from the accessibility audit the Cheshire
East Council Website was identified as having an "exemplar level of
accessibility" and was awarded the Shaw
Trust ‘Accessible’ rating in 2011.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
The Government requires that all public sector websites should
meet the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
1.0, to Level AA. These guidelines are based on good design
practice and exist to ensure that no individual is excluded due to
disability or choice of device or software.
We aim to achieve level AA and to comply with as many of the
features of AAA as are possible, but recognise that this is not
always achievable for the entire website.
Main Accessibility Features
Audibility of the site – ReadSpeaker
On the navigation bar at the top of every page for www.cheshireeast.gov.uk, you
can listen to the website page. Please select 'Listen to
this page' from the top header bar. This facility is
particularly useful for people who are visually impaired, or for
whom English is not their first language and therefore find
difficulty with reading. With this facility you can have the site
content read aloud to you, including text, links, images, and
documents in Microsoft Word, PDF (Portable Document Format) and RTF
(Rich Text Format) format. ReadSpeaker will open in a new browser
window.
Text/Font Size
Text/Font sizes are set to relative units rather than absolute
units. This setting allows people to increase or decrease text size
in their web browser. You can use your browsers built in accessibility
functions to adjust font size.
Access keys
Access keys are keyboard shortcuts. They offer an alternative
access method to the users who are using a mouse or other pointing
devices. UK government access key standards have been adopted for
Cheshire East Council (CEC) website general information pages, e.g.
Contact us, A to Z, Site Map. For the list of access keys used on
the Cheshire East Council website and how to use access keys in
different web browsers, please visit our Access Keys page.
Language - Google Translate
Translations of this site are provided by Google Translate. For more
details, please see our Language
Translation page.
Alt tag for all images
We aim to use images relevant to the content. All images that
contain important information used in the website have alternate
text descriptions, which are known as their 'alt' tag. These help
visually impaired users to identify what the images represent.
Data Table Headers
If a data table is presented, table headers, summary and caption
are provided where appropriate to help you understand the data
table structure and its data.
Customising the way you view the site
Increasing
the size of text
- If you experience difficulty reading the text on our website,
you may want to alter the size. To increase text size you need to
change a setting on your internet browser.
- Internet Explorer users should click View > Text Size >
... and select from the options.
- Netscape users should click View > Increase Font.
- Firefox users should click on View > Zoom and then use
the options to Zoom In and Zoom Out.
- Google Chrome users should click on the Page menu > Zoom and
then use the options to make the text Larger, Smaller and
Normal size.
You can also use keyboard and mouse shortcuts for Internet
Explorer 7 and 8, Firefox 3, Google Chrome 2 and Safari
3.2 and 4:
- CTRL + to zoom in
- CTRL - to zoom out
- CTRL 0 (zero) to reset to normal size
- If you have a mouse scroll wheel, hold CTRL and scroll up to
zoom in and scroll down to zoom out.
Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS2) are used on all Cheshire East web
pages to set design and layout elements, e.g. colours, background
colours, alignment, spacing, border, font sizes and types. The
advantage of using
CSS
is to give you the choice of switching off the Cheshire East style
sheet and using your own style sheet instead. The web pages are
designed to be read in the correct order, even if the style sheets
are switched off.
Configuring your web browser to help you use our site
Most web browsers have tools and settings that you can
use to help browse our website such as, for example, being
able to change the text and background colours for a higher
contrast ratio. We have provided the following links to guides that
will explain how to use these aids to benefit your browsing
experience:
Navigating the website
Using the
A-Z
- Another way to navigate the website is the A-Z. Simply select
the initial letter of the service you require. Each A-Z page lists
the services in alphabetical order.
- The A-Z can be accessed directly from the home page or from the
quick link next to the search.
Sitemap
The sitemap lists all
pages contained on this website. Please be aware that pages do not
appear in alphabetical order but rather in the order of the menu
structure.
Links
All the links on our site open in the same window; however some
sites will not let you use the back button to get back to the
previous page. If this happens select the down arrow at the right
of the back button. This will give you a list of previous pages,
you can then select the last page you had visited.
Opening Links in a New Window
If you require a link to open in a new window, position the
cursor over the link and right click and then select the 'open in a
new window' option. Alternatively you can press and hold the shift
button on your keyboard whilst clicking on the link you wish to
open in a new window.
External Links
All external links are labelled as such using the link title.
The link title can be seen when you hover your mouse over the link.
Any links that open in a new window display a warning of this.
Viewing Online Documents
When we link to files on www.cheshireeast.gov.uk
we indicate the file type and size.
Adobe Acrobat Documents
Each link to a PDF document is denoted with (PDF,
xxKB) indicating the file type (PDF) and showing the file size of
the document in bytes (xxKB). If you cannot view Acrobat
documents you can download Adobe
Reader.
Wherever possible, PDF documents are created in a
way that makes them accessible to visitors who use screen readers.
However, in a small number of situations, for example where a
document contains detailed maps and diagrams, it may not
be possible for us to do this without adversely affecting the
integrity of the document.
Microsoft Word Files
Microsoft word files (.doc) can be opened in
Microsoft Word. If you do not have this program Microsoft provide a
free Word file viewer that can open, view, print and copy Word
documents. This download is a replacement for Word 97 Viewer and
all previous Word Viewer versions.
Download Microsoft Word viewer.
Microsoft Excel Files
Microsoft Excel files (.xls) can be opened in
Microsoft Excel. If you do not have this program Microsoft provide
a free Excel file viewer that can open, view, and print Excel
workbooks. This download is a replacement for Excel Viewer 97 and
all previous Excel Viewer versions.
Download Microsoft Excel viewer.
Microsoft PowerPoint Files
Microsoft PowerPoint files can be
viewed in Microsoft PowerPoint. If you do not have this software
then you can download the Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2007.
This is a free download from Microsoft that allows you to
view full-featured presentations created in PowerPoint 97 and later
versions.
Download Microsoft PowerPoint viewer.
Video and Sound Files
Video files are available to download in Windows Media
Format (WMV), This enables the file to be opened in the user
default software capable of playing this widely used format. Video
clips on the site have a transcript version available or the
ability to request an alterative format. In addition to downloads,
video has been presented in some cases using the YouTube streaming
format. Where this is the case, video has also has the option
of captions. A download and transcript are offered alongside the
YouTube presentation.
Audio files are available as downloads in MP3 format. Where an
audio file is present, a link to a transcript is also provided.
Online Transactions
Completing Online Forms
- Each on-line form contains fields (blank boxes). You should
type the responses to the questions in these fields.
- You can tab between fields or use your mouse to move into a
field.
- Click the "next" or "submit" button to move to the next
section of the form.
- You have the opportunity to review your answers and print a
copy of the form (normally with your browsers print function)
before you submit it.
- Mandatory fields are identified by a red asterisk (*) preceding the form field. You must type
a response into these fields in order to continue with your form
submission.
- If the form requires you to enter information in a specified
manner (i.e. dd/mm/yy), you should ensure that you follow the
pattern.
- Certain fields are validated as you submit and may return an
error message if you have input incorrect data. These errors are
identified and where appropriate, the nature of the error is
explained and suggestions are made to assist in completion of the
form.
- When you have completed and submitted the form you may be given
a reference number. You should make a note of this number if
presented and use it in any future correspondence with us.
Credit Card Payments
- You can make a credit/debit card payment with any of the
following cards: Delta, Visa, Mastercard, Solo, Switch, JCB.
- You will be required to provide your personal details, details
of the account you wish to make a payment for, plus your credit
card details.
- Complete the form as described above.
- Your details are submitted over a secure server which means
that the transaction is encrypted from the moment it leaves your PC
until it reaches our server.
- The transaction is validated on-line and the money will be
taken by the bank within 24 hours.
- Please note, we do not store any credit cards details.
Checking the
validity of our security certificate
To check the validity of our security certificate - for example
on the online
payments page, you should double-click the closed
padlock symbol on the bar at the bottom of your browser screen.
Double-clicking on the padlock brings up details about our site's
security certificate.
