Accessibility statement

Accessibility statement for tmbc.gov.uk

This accessibility statement applies to tmbc.gov.uk.

This website is run by Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council and we want as many people as possible to be able to use it. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • zoom in up to 300 per cent 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 and navigation as simple as possible.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

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

  • the text will not reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window
  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • some older PDF documents may not have titles which clearly set out their purpose
  • some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
  • you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader
  • labels on some buttons, for example to apply for a service or report an issue, are not clearly labelled
  • some single news items on the homepage may be incorrectly identified by screen readers as forming part of a list

We are addressing these issues and conducting staff training to ensure all material published in future meets accessibility standards. We will update this statement when issues are fixed or when we expect them to be fixed.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

If you would like to report an accessibility issue, please email corporate.communications@tmbc.gov.uk

If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Visiting us in person

Our reception areas at Kings Hill and Tonbridge Castle have audio induction loops.

Regulations that apply to this website

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

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).

Compliance status

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

PDFs and other documents

Many of our PDFs and Office documents published before 23 September 2018 do not meet accessibility standards. For example, they may not be structured so they're accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value) and WCAG 2.4.2 (page, titled). We are currently identifying documents which do not meet these standards. We have identified all documents which need to be accessible, for example Word or PDF forms. These are currently on a development backlog to be created as online forms. We expect to complete this work by the first quarter of 2023.

This includes documents on our democracy sub-domain. We are currently working on a solution for this and expect to update this statement in September 2022.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish on the main website will meet accessibility standards.

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

Non-HTML documents published before September 2018 do not need to be accessible - unless users need them to use a service.

Read the regulations (GOV.UK)

We will ensure that any new PDFs or Word documents we publish on our main site meet accessibility standards.

How we test this website

We use an automated tool (Site Improve Accessibility Checker) to check the accessibility of our website every five days. We routinely carry out manual checks on a proportion of our pages and documents to identify issues that can't be detected automatically.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are working with council teams to fix content which fails to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

Preparation of this statement

This statement was prepared on 29 June 2021.

It was last reviewed on 2 May 2022.