Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to wirral.gov.uk. It covers subdomains of wirral.gov.uk, which may be provided by external suppliers. An example of a sub-domain are the web pages for the My Wirral account, which start with the web address my.wirral.gov.uk.

This website is run by Wirral 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.

The website uses Google Translate to translate its content into other languages. Just click on Translate at the bottom of the page and you can choose one of 33 languages.

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:

  • most PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams do not have captions
  • some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
  • focus styling is not prominent in some of our online forms

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format email websitesupport@wirral.gov.uk and tell us:

  • the web address (URL) of the content
  • your name and email address
  • the format you need, for example, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille

If you cannot view the maps on the contact pages for any of our buildings call or email us for directions.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, email websitesupport@wirral.gov.uk . Our web team will look into the problem and get back to you.

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 have reported the problem to us and you are not happy with how we have responded contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) .

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

We provide a text relay service for people who are deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment. We also have a 'language line' through which we can contact an interpreter for customers whose first language is not English.

Find out how to contact us by phone

Face-to-face at a One Stop Shop

A list of One Stop Shops is available on this site.

Each One Stop Shop has:

  • wheelchair and pram access and specially lowered desks
  • disabled toilet facilities
  • mini-loop facilities

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Wirral 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, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

The elements listed below are not accessible and do not comply with the accessibility regulations:

  • some PDF documents on this website do not meet the WCAG 2.1 AA standard
  • some of the embedded videos on this website do not contain captions
  • the election result pages before 2016 use an old system that will not resize on smaller screens
  • some of the images within PDF documents do not have alternative text. This fails success criterion WCAG 1.1.1 (Non-text content)
  • On the Home page, the large image above the Latest News section contains three list items. At any time, two of the list items (<li>) are hidden (using aria-hidden) but still contain focusable links. This means that a keyboard user needs to tab through extra items. This fails criterion WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. This functionality will be removed during summer 2022, when the website is updated.
  • Across the site, most buttons, for example,"Apply for a blue badge" and "Renew a blue badge," appear visually as a button but are programmed as a link, without a button role. This fails criterion WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. This will be fixed during summer 2022, when the website is updated.
  • On the bin collection dates page, the "Click to show grey bin dates" button has insufficient contrast. The button has white text on grey (#999999), contrast ratio 2.8:1. Although the text is large enough to have a lower contrast threshold, it still needs to be at least 3:1. This fails criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum). This will be fixed during summer 2022, when the website design is updated.
  • On the Home page, the large image above the Latest News section is an image of text. Although it has alternative text for screen reader users, the text also needs to be presented as visual text in order to be customisable for people with low vision. This fails criterion WCAG 1.4.5 Images of text. This functionality will be removed during summer 2022, when the website is updated.

  • On the home page, at 300% zoom or greater, the News and Events sections change to separate tabs. However it is not possible to switch between the News and Events tabs using a keyboard. This fails criterion WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard.

    This also means that content is lost to some users at 400% zoom, which fails WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow. This functionality will be removed during summer 2022, when the website is updated.

  • On the following pages, at 150% zoom or greater, a clickable "See all sections on this page" heading appears just below the main page heading:
    - How to contact the council
    - Apply for a primary or secondary school
    - Blue badges and parking for people with disabilities

    However, this functionality is not accessible using the keyboard. This fails criterion WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard. This functionality will be removed during summer 2022, when the website is updated.

  • On first accessing the website via the homepage, the cookie banner is a focusable element that is read out to screen reader users as "QCCMP2UI element".

    The banner should have a descriptive label including the visual heading (We value your privacy). 
    This fails criterion WCAG 2.4.6 Headings and Labels. We have notified the supplier of this system and they have agreed to fix this issue in a forthcoming update.

  • On the Home page, the image above the Latest News section links to an external page, but does not receive visible keyboard focus.
    This fails criterion WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible. This functionality will be removed during summer 2022, when the website is updated.

  • On the Privacy pop-up, available on the bottom-right of every core site page, the X (used to dismiss the popup) does not receive visible keyboard focus.
    This fails criterion WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible. The supplier of this system has agreed to fix this issue in a forthcoming update.

  • On the bin collection dates page, the "Click to show grey and brown bin dates" buttons do not have visible keyboard focus. 
    This fails criterion WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible. This will be fixed during summer 2022, when the website is updated.

  • On most main and MyWirral pages, the default focus state for the home page link is difficult to see as it is dark blue on dark green.
    This will be fixed during summer 2022, when the website is updated.

Non-accessible content within the MyWirral account pages

The elements listed below are not accessible and do not comply with the accessibility regulations:

  • When logged into the MyWirral account, the dropdown menu at the top (Welcome to MyWirral [username]) is a list item (<li>) with a role of "menuitem". However the menuitem is not contained within a mandatory parent of menu, menubar or group.

    Also, as the <li> has been changed to a menuitem, this breaks the requirement that an unordered list (<ul>) can only contain certain elements (<li>, <script> or <template>). This fails criterion WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. Our supplier has committed to fix this problem in a forthcoming update.

  • There are several links (<a>) which look like green buttons. For example: "Sign up for an account", "MyWirral Home" and "View details" for councillors. While the link behaviour is appropriate, making them look like buttons can cause confusion because:
    - they don't appear in the 'button' list when using screen readers such as NVDA
    - they are likely to break for speech recognition users (for example, "click button"). This fails criterion WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. It will be fixed during summer 2022, when the website design is updated.

  • When logged in on the MyWirral homepage, when text spacing is increased to the levels required by the WCAG standard, some of the text in the "Hello [Name]" and "My details" sections is obscured by the buttons. This fails criterion WCAG1.4.12 Text Spacing. The same text is also affected by a similar issue in WCAG1.4.10 Reflow. It will be fixed during summer 2022, when the website design is updated.

  • When logged in on the MyWirral homepage, the buttons with smaller text (Request a service, Sign up or renew a brown bin, Change password, Change email...) have insufficient contrast.

    This fails criterion WCAG1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum). It will be fixed during summer 2022, when the website design is updated.

  • When logged in on the MyWirral homepage, the following buttons obscure page content depending on the text size settings:

    - "Request a service"
    - "Sign up or renew a brown bin"
    - "Change password, email and my details"

    When increasing the text size to 200% using customised settings in Firefox, all of the above buttons obscure page text.

    At 400% zoom or on a small (320 x 256) screen, the "change password, email, my details" buttons overlap the personal details which cannot be read. This fails criterion WCAG1.4.4. Resize text. It also fails WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow. It will be fixed during summer 2022, when the website design is updated.

  • On the "Sign up for a MyWirral account" page, when text is resized to 200% without resizing other components, and signing up using an existing account, the "Have you forgotten your password" link is not reachable. This fails criterion WCAG1.4.4 Resize text. It will be fixed during summer 2022, when the website design is updated.

  • Throughout the MyWirral profile form, when using an iPhone, buttons are activated immediately upon touching them, rather than on the "up event". This includes the Cancel, Previous and Next buttons when creating a profile but excludes buttons which are programmed as links.
    This fails criterion WCAG2.5.2 Pointer Cancellation. The supplier of the system has agreed to fix this problem in a forthcoming update.

  • On the MyWirral My Profile Address Details page, there are duplicate IDs as follows:
    1.    Two <label> elements with a duplicate ID of "label_YourAddress"
    2.    Two elements (one <select> and one <input>) with a duplicate ID of "YourAddress"

    These are all related to the "Please select your address from the list" drop down menu. Labels on the page need to be unique to ensure that elements are consistently labelled.
    This fails criterion WCAG4.1.1 Parsing. The supplier of the system has agreed to fix this problem in a forthcoming update.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We have an ongoing programme of work to fix accessibility problems on this website. Some of the things we are doing are listed below.

Removing PDF documents

We have removed many PDF documents from the website as we are aware that they are not accessible. In January 2022 there were 2,899 documents on the main wirral.gov.uk site with thousands more in the committee meetings and reports section.

We are focussing on documents published since September 2020. It will not be possible to remove all documents published before this date as it would be a disproportionate burden on the authority.

Replacing PDF and Word forms with eforms

Many of the forms on our website were in PDF or Microsoft Word format. We have replaced many of them with accessible eforms.

We are working to replace the remaining forms. As of February 2022:

  • 191 forms on this website are eforms
  • 116 are PDF forms
  • 7 are Microsoft Word forms

Interactive tools and transactions

Some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some fields are not clearly highlighted when you tab select them.

Our forms are built and hosted through third party software and ‘skinned’ to look like our website. We are working to fix this problem.

Disproportionate burden

Replacing documents

We are claiming that it would be a disproportionate burden on the authority to replace all documents on this website with web pages. We will focus on replacing documents published since September 2020.

It will not be possible to remove all PDF documents. For example the Annual Statement of Accounts is 181 pages long and would take a long time to format as a web page instead of a document.

In January 2022 there were 2,899 PDF documents on wirral.gov.uk. There are many PDF documents in the Committee papers section of the website at democracy.wirral.gov.uk.

It would take an average of 30 minutes to convert each PDF document to a html web page. That is approximately 132 days if one member of staff worked on it full-time. The council does not have that staffing resource available.

Fixing issues on the main website and MyWirral pages

We believe that fixing the accessibility problems with some content on the main website and MyWirral account would be disproportionate. This is because the designs of both platforms will be updated soon. The updates will fix the accessibility problems.

Election results before 2016

We believe that fixing the accessibility problems with the pages that show election results before 2016 would be disproportionate. This is because the system is being retired soon.

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

Some of the documents in the Planning section of this website contain plans and maps which are exempt from the regulations.

The archived election results are built on a system that will not resize on mobile phones. This system pre-dates 2010 and has not had any content published on it since May 2015.

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. We do not plan to fix any documents published before this date as it would be a disproportionate burden on the authority for the reasons set out above.

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

Moving forward we are working to eliminate the publication of PDF and Word documents on this website. Wherever possible we will try to publish information on accessible web pages rather than in documents.

There are over 20 different suppliers who provide services different parts of this website. They are ‘skinned’ to look the rest of the website. Some of them these systems are not completely accessible. We are working with our all of our suppliers to fix any problems that have been identified.

Before we buy any new systems for the website we will check that they are fully accessible.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 29 March 2021. It was updated in January 2023.

This website was last tested in January 2023. The test was carried out by Silktide.

Read the full accessibility test report