Accessibility statement

Accessibility statement for www.swindon.gov.uk

Swindon 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.

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

This website is run by Swindon 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:

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

You can amend the website's accessibility settings to suit your needs using the accessibility adjustments tool. The settings you choose will be saved for future visits and you can return to the standard settings using the reset button.

How accessible this website is

We know that some parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:

Perceivable

  • Maps, and the information displayed on them, are not picked up in full by assistive technologies. Essential information is only partially available in an accessible format elsewhere.
  • Some embedded YouTube videos may not have accurate captions, particularly where videos are provided through third-party platforms
  • Some financial information is published in CSV or spreadsheet files that may not make table relationships clear for assistive technology users
  • Some table cells do not provide enough context, which can make tables harder to understand for screen reader users
  • Some empty container elements are exposed to assistive technologies, which can make page structure confusing
  • Some form fields may not identify their purpose programmatically, which can reduce support from browser autofill and assistive technology
  • Some form controls may not have enough contrast with their surrounding background, making them difficult to identify and use

Operable

  • Some forms may be difficult to navigate using just a keyboard, particularly on third-party systems
  • The map interface may not be fully operable using a keyboard
  • Online forms have a time limit of around 24 minutes. No warning is given before the time runs out, and there is no way to extend it.
  • Some page titles are not descriptive enough, and some pages share duplicate titles
  • Some links may use the same link text for different destinations
  • Some headings do not accurately describe the content below them
  • A small number of interactive elements, particularly in third-party systems, may still be too small or too close together

Understandable

  • Not all webpages and downloads are written in plain English

Robust

  • Some documents, including PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, may not be fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Some elements that should be hidden from assistive technologies can still receive keyboard focus

Other

  • We have not carried out extensive testing with screen reader technologies or speech recognition software
  • Some of our third-party forms, applications and web services may not meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 AA compliance

Compliance status

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

Non-accessible content

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

(a) non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Some embedded YouTube videos may not have accurate captions. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.2 (Captions Prerecorded), level A.
  • Some financial information is published in CSV or spreadsheet files that may not make table relationships clear for assistive technology users. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), level A.
  • Some table cells do not provide enough context, which can make row and column relationships unclear. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), level A.
  • Some empty container elements are exposed to assistive technologies, which can make page structure confusing for screen reader users. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships), level A.
  • Some form fields may not identify their purpose programmatically. This can reduce support from browser autofill and assistive technology. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.5 (Identify Input Purpose), level AA.
  • Some form controls may not have enough contrast with their surrounding background, making them difficult to identify and use. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.11 (Non-text Contrast), level AA.
  • Online forms have a time limit of around 24 minutes. No warning is given before the time runs out, and there is no way to extend it. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.2.1 (Timing Adjustable), level A.
  • Some page titles are not descriptive enough, and some pages share duplicate titles. This can make it harder to understand which page you are on. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.2 (Page Titled), level A.
  • Some links may use the same link text for different destinations. This can make link purpose unclear for screen reader users. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)), level A.
  • Some headings do not accurately describe the content below them. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels), level AA.
  • A small number of interactive elements, particularly in third-party systems, may still be too small or too close together. This can make them harder to activate accurately. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.5.8 (Target Size (Minimum)), level AA.
  • Some elements that should be hidden from assistive technologies can still receive keyboard focus. This can send users to controls with no useful information. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value), level A.
  • Our maps currently lack certain accessibility features. Failures related to maps include:
    • Maps lack sufficient text alternatives, which affects users who are blind or have low vision. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content), level A.
    • The map interface may not be fully operable using a keyboard, which affects users who cannot use a mouse. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.1.1 (Keyboard), level A.

We will continue to review and fix these issues as part of our ongoing accessibility improvement work. We will update this statement when issues are resolved or new evidence becomes available.

(b) disproportionate burden

  • We have not identified any issues that we consider to be a disproportionate burden. We remain committed to ongoing monitoring, and if a potential burden arises, we will carry out a formal assessment considering cost, benefit, user impact and available resources.

(c) the content is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

  • PDF and Word documents
    • Some of our older PDF and Word documents, particularly those published before 23 September 2018, may not fully meet accessibility standards. We are not required to fix these unless they are essential to using our services, but we are working to improve the accessibility of the documents used most often.
    • We check all new documents and files before they are uploaded to the website. We use Microsoft's built-in accessibility checker for Office documents, and Adobe Acrobat Pro's 'Prepare for accessibility' feature to check PDFs.
    • We do not yet have a full plan to replace older documents with webpages, but we expect to develop one as part of future accessibility improvement work
  • Maps
    • Online maps and mapping services are generally exempt from the accessibility regulations, provided essential information is available in an accessible format elsewhere. We know this can still present challenges for some users, and we are exploring ways to improve this.
  • Videos
    • Some of our video content has accessibility limitations, including missing captions on live streams and on some pre-recorded videos published before 23 September 2020. Both are exempt from the regulations.
    • We aim for all new video content to meet accessibility standards before publication
  • Third-party content
    • Some third-party content may be outside the scope of the accessibility regulations if it is not paid for, developed by or controlled by us

Third-party systems

Some council services are provided through third-party systems.

These systems may look different from www.swindon.gov.uk. Some may not meet WCAG 2.2 AA or have not been fully verified by us.

These include:

  • Modern.gov for councillor information, meetings, agendas and minutes. We are currently using an older version of this system.
  • Capita payments portal
  • Synergy portal
  • Idox for planning and licensing searches. This has recently been updated, and we cannot confirm whether this has improved its accessibility.
  • Liberata for Council Tax and business rates. This has recently been updated, and we cannot confirm whether this has improved its accessibility.
  • Swindon Borough Council housing services, including My Housing Tenancy, advertised properties and the application form
  • Talos 360 for the Careers website, onboarding website and internal vacancies website. This has its own Careers website accessibility statement.

Where possible, we raise accessibility issues with suppliers and service areas. We cannot make accessibility changes directly to systems that we do not control.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

We monitor and review accessibility on this website using Siteimprove, an automated testing tool, and the Silktide Index, a public automated accessibility benchmark. We also carry out manual checks.

Our latest manual checks included keyboard-only tabbing, visual checks, colour contrast checks and zoom testing up to 400%. We have not yet carried out extensive testing with screen readers or speech recognition software.

As of 2 July 2026, Siteimprove marked www.swindon.gov.uk at:

  • 97.4% for WCAG 2.2 accessibility compliance level A
  • 94.3% for WCAG 2.2 accessibility compliance level AA

Our most recent Siteimprove scan identified five current issue types, which are reflected in the list above.

The Silktide Index provides a separate automated assessment, based on a sample of 125 webpages. As of 9 June 2026, it marked www.swindon.gov.uk at:

  • 95.8% for WCAG 2.2 accessibility compliance level A
  • 94.3% for WCAG 2.2 accessibility compliance level AA
  • 89.4% for WCAG 2.2 accessibility compliance level AAA

These are automated, sample-based assessments. They help us identify likely problems, but they do not by themselves prove full compliance.

While we currently focus on meeting legal accessibility standards, we recognise the importance of exceeding them. We are not actively addressing AAA conformance at this time, but continual improvement and working towards AAA compliance remain a long-term goal.

We are working to improve accessibility by:

  • reviewing and fixing the issues listed in this statement
  • improving forms and online journeys, including the timeout issue described above
  • improving document accessibility, and encouraging services to publish webpages instead of documents where possible
  • reviewing third-party systems with suppliers where possible
  • improving headings, page titles, link text and table structure
  • continuing keyboard and zoom testing, and planning further testing with screen readers and speech recognition software

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22 September 2020.

The statement was last reviewed on 6 July 2026.

This website was last tested on 6 July 2026 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. The test was carried out internally by the Web Team at Swindon Borough Council, using Siteimprove, Silktide Index recommendations and manual checks.

This review was informed by automated scanning across the website, Siteimprove issue categories and manual checks. We did not select a separate hand-picked representative sample of pages for this review.

We have not used an independent auditor to assess the website using both automated and manual accessibility checks.

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page, or you think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, contact us:

If you need information on this website in a different format, such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, contact us using the details above.

We will consider your request and get back to you with an initial response within five working days.

If you need information in another language, visit our customer interpretation and translation page.

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).

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