Accessibility statement for Kirklees Council

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website aren't fully accessible:

• Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
• Planning application and Local Plan documents including scans of plans or handwritten letters
• School admissions PDF and RTF documents
• Licensing forms and other RTF forms
• Maps sometimes have a limit to how far you can magnify them
• Open data files in CSV and XLSX formats
• Minutes, agendas and other documents on https://democracy.kirklees.gov.uk/
• Consultation documents uploaded to https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/involve

What to do if you can't access parts of this website

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

We'll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We're always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren't 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) .

Contacting us

Find out how to contact the council

Technical information about this website's accessibility

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

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

Some documents published between September 2018 and September 2019 are archive documents which do not have to comply with the accessibility regulations.

These include documents published as part of the submission of the Local Plan in February 2019.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Issues with technology

Some of our PDF and RTF 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 RTF documents. We are working through these to create web pages and online forms where appropriate.

Licensing documents, council meeting documents and documents related to planning applications fail on many criteria.

My Care Account assessment documents, review documents and support plans fail on many criteria.

Known issues with PDF documents include PDFs which:

• are not machine readable
• have headings which do not follow a logical order
• do not specify headings
• are not tagged
• do not define a title or have a weak title
• do not use bookmarks to aid navigation
• do not specify a default language

Issues with interactive tools and transactions

• Some controls don't change appearance when they are selected.
• Some hyperlinks to forms don't use accessible link text.
• Some forms don't have descriptive labels for form fields.
• Some forms don't allow auto-completion of fields with regularly submitted information like name and email address.
• Some forms use an inaccessible method of choosing dates.
• Some forms don't include a submit button.
• Some map-based services don't have an accessible alternative.

Issues with town hall bookings

We are aware of these limitations:

• Selecting seats, as navigating a seating plan is difficult for keyboard-only and/or assistive technology users.
• Navigating between dates and performances, as keyboard-only and/or assistive technology users are not able to use the date picker to navigate between performances for an event.
• Some labels, instructions and error messages are not clearly visible and navigable to users relying upon assistive technology.
• PDF print at home tickets are not readable by assistive technology.

Disproportionate burden

We continue to work with the creators of PDF and other documents to publish documents which meet accessibility standards. Disproportionate burden has been claimed for these currently published documents during 2024 and 2025:

• Kirklees Playing Pitch Strategy
• 2024-25 Budget Savings proposals
• 2025-26 Budget Savings proposals
• 2024 Air Quality Annual Status Report
• Huddersfield Town Centre Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan
• Huddersfield Town Centre Conservation Area: Shopfront Design Guidance
• 2024-25 Statement of Accounts

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

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don't meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not have been created so they're accessible to a screen reader.

We understand that the 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.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 17 September 2019. It was last reviewed on 4 February 2025.

How we tested this website

This website is tested daily. The test is carried out by Kirklees Council.

We use this approach to testing:

• We test our web pages and documents daily using Silktide, an automated testing tool. The results are recorded and accessibility issues which are found are fixed.

We test:

• the corporate website at www.kirklees.gov.uk
• the MyKirklees website at my.kirklees.gov.uk
• the democracy website at https://democracy.kirklees.gov.uk/
• the partners website at kirklees-partners.achieveservice.com