Accessibility Statement

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

This website is run by Ribble Valley Borough 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.

How accessible this website is

We have listed areas of the site that we know are not fully accessible:

  • Some older downloadable PDF/Word documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Some images do not have good alternative text
  • Some buttons are not correctly identified
  • When using a keyboard it is not obvious where the focus is
  • PDF Committee and Council papers contained in Modern.gov are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Information on MyRibbleValley and online form ages may not be fully accessible

Any other issues are listed in the non-accessible content section.

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:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days. If you cannot view the map on our ‘Location’ page, contact us for directions.

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:

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

Ribble Valley 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.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2, due to the areas listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
  • Some controls do not clearly indicate when they are selected. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.13 (Focus Appearance). We plan to correct this following a full accessibility review of the site.
  • Some links do not explain when they open in a new tab. This fails WCAG 2.0 success criterion 3.2.5 (Change on Request). We plan to correct this following a full accessibility review of the site.
  • Some prerecorded audio and video is presented without captions. This fails WCAG 2.0 success criterion 1.2.2 (Captions (Prerecorded)). We plan to correct this following a full accessibility review of the site.
  • The purpose of some fields cannot be identified programmatically. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.5 (Identify Input Purpose). We plan to correct this following a full accessibility review of the site.
  • Some text does not have very high contrast. This fails WCAG 2.0 success criterion 1.4.6 (Contrast (Enhanced)). We plan to correct this following a full accessibility review of the site.
PDF/Word documents

We endeavour to make our PDFs and Word documents published on the website accessible. However, there may be some documents which aren’t fully accessible. We publish all essential service information in an accessible web page and provide contact details for alternative versions.

Some PDF/Word documents may not meet the following WCAG 2.2 success criteria:

  • Success Criterion 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence (Level A)
  • Success Criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA)
  • Success Criterion 1.4.10 Reflow (Level AA)
  • Success Criterion 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (Level AA)

We are continually improving the accessibility of documents on our website.

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

PDFs and other documents

Some older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be marked up so they’re accessible to a screen reader.

Some of our PDFs and Word Documents are essential to providing our services. The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

Any new PDFs or Word documents that we publish will meet accessibility standards unless we determine that they represent a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. Ultimately we plan to provide an accessible HTML version of the information as the primary source.

Third-party applications

We require that any new third party systems we commission for the website are Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 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.

Granicus - AchieveForms and MyRibbleValley (https://ribblevalleygov-self.achieveservice.com)

We have identified the following accessibility issues with 'MyRibbleValley' and online forms, provided by Granicus. Granicus is aware of the issues and is looking to resolve them in the near future.

WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships

Issue:

  • Some <li> elements are not contained in a <ul> or <ol>.

WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships:

Issue:

  • Certain ARIA roles are not contained by particular parents and certain ARIA roles do not contain particular children.

WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum):

Issue:

  • Some elements do not have sufficient colour contrast.

Modern.Gov - council meetings, agendas and minutes (https://democracy.ribblevalley.gov.uk)

We have identified the following accessibility issues with 'Modern.Gov', provided by Civica. We are looking to resolve them in the near future.

WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships

Issue:

  • Tables in PDF documents are not tagged always in a way that maintains the relationships between the data even when a user cannot see the table.

Accessibility statements for third-party applications

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 19 September 2026. It was last reviewed on 23 October 2026.

How we tested this website

This website is currently manually checked every month using information provided by Silktide.

We are currently in the process of arranging weekly automated checks and this accessibilty statement will be update once this has been completed.

All pages of the website and PDF documents within the website were tested. Ribblevalley.gov.uk scored 98/100 for accessibility, 99.7% is compliant for level A WCAG 2.2 checks, 99.4% for level AA WCAG 2.2 checks and 93.7% for level AAA WCAG 2.2 checks.