Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Statement for www.inverclyde.gov.uk

This accessibility statement applies to www.inverclyde.gov.uk

This website is run by Inverclyde 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.

https://abilitynet.org.uk (see the Other Websites section of this page) 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:

  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams do not have captions
  • recorded videos rely on technologies from the host (www.youtube.com) to provide audio captions.
  • Some documents, created by 3rd parties, may not be fully accessible.

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:

  • email: customerservice@inverclyde.gov.uk.
  • call 01475 717171
  • Call using the Relay Service
  • Talk to us using Contact Scotland BSL (see the Other Websites section of this page)

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 days.

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 customerservices@inverclyde.gov.uk or call 01475 717171 or call using the Relay Service.

You can also visit us in person at our Customer Service Centre.

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). There is a link to the EASS website in the Other Websites section of this page.

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

Our Customer Service Centre is located within our offices in Greenock.

Sign Language users can use the service provided by contactSCOTLAND-BSL (see the Other Websites section of this page), the online British Sign Language interpreting service, to contact the Council. Further information is available from contactSCOTLAND (see the Other Websites section of this page).

You can call us using the Relay Service (see the Other Websites section of this page).

The Customer Service Centre has audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out more details on our Customer Service Centre page (see the Related Links section of this page)

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Inverclyde 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 version 2.1 AA standard (see the Other Websites section of this page), due to the exemptions and non-compliances listed below

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

A number of PDF documents within the website, published since 30th September 2018 are not fully accessible.  This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

 Inverclyde Council has implemented a programme to review and replace all attachments with either accessible HTML Pages or with a fully accessible PDF Document by September 2023.

If after review it is not possible to replace the document, for example because it has been provided by a third party, it contains a scan of a document and the original document is not available, or the original content cannot be produced in an accessible format, we will provide an explanation why it has not been possible to produce a fully accessible version of the document.

Interactive tools and transactions

Some of our interactive forms are built and hosted through third party suppliers and ‘skinned’ to look like our website. We have tested all of our online forms and believe they are fully compliant, however we may not immediately be aware of any changes made by suppliers that has an impact on the accessibility of these forms.

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


PDFs and other documents

Content in the Committees Section of the Website contains documents in various formats dating back to 1996. Many of the documents are not accessible in their current format and it would be unreasonable to attempt to review and replace them as many are rarely viewed or accessed. If you have identified a specific committee paper you would like to read and it is not currently accessible, we will review and replace with an accessible version if possible. If it cannot be made accessible, we will provide an explanation why. You can request a printed version in a large format that we will provide free of charge.

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. We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages by September 2023.

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. For example, we do not plan to fix historical committee papers, but will review and replace if possible, on request.

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

Online maps

Our service includes the use of online maps to show certain geographical information. These are not used for navigations purposes and are exempt under the regulations. If you need the information presented in an online map in a different format, please contact us to discuss reasonable adjustments.

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 monitor our site monthly to ensure its compliance with WCAG 2.1 Standard. We will address any issues that prevents our website from being accessible.

If you come across content that you believe is inaccessible please contact us:

  • email: customerservice@inverclyde.gov.uk.
  • call 01475 717171
  • Call using the Relay Service

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23rd September 2020. It was last reviewed on 1st April 2022

This website was last tested on 1st April 2022. The test was carried out by Silktide on behalf of SOCITM, the results are published here: Inverclyde Council website (silktide.com) (see the Other Websites section of this page)

The audit is carried monthly out on a sample of 125 pages across the site. Silktide provides this explanation of which pages are tested:

“We conduct a breadth-first scan of the first 125 pages in each website, starting from their homepage.

Pages are chosen as follows:

Pages with fewer forward slashes in their URL are tested first. e.g.

example.com/page

would be tested before

example.com/page/subpage

Where pages have the same number of slashes, the pages which were encountered first on each page are tested first. e.g. links displayed at the top of your homepage, followed by links lower down, and so on.

Collectively we have found this has the effect of tending to test high-level pages first, before going deeper into a website.”

We also perform our own tests on sections of the website.

Third-party applications

We require that any new third-party systems we commission for the website are Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA compliant. However, third-party applications are partly or wholly out of our control and so may not conform to the same levels of accessibility as the rest of the website.

Third-party applications include:

  • MyInverclyde Noticeboard8
  • Civica eStore Online Payments
  • Victoria Forms
  • Verint Online Forms
  • Idox planning applications search, building control regulations search