Accessibility

Accessibility is a legal duty for parish councils, not an optional extra. Your website includes a built-in accessibility widget for residents and a ready-made accessibility statement page that helps you meet your obligations.

Why this matters

Under the 2018 public sector accessibility regulations — and reflected in AGAR Assertion 10 — your website must meet WCAG 2.2 Level AA and publish an accessibility statement. The tools on this page help you do both.

▶ Video Accessibility tools · 1 min

The accessibility widget

The accessibility widget is a small floating panel on the public website that lets any visitor adjust how the site looks and behaves to suit their needs. It works alongside a visitor's own assistive technology rather than replacing it.

From the widget, residents can:

Option	What it does
Text size	Scales body text up to 110%, 125% or 150%.
High contrast	Switches to a higher-contrast colour scheme.
Underline links	Adds underlines so links stand out.
Reduce motion	Calms animations and transitions.
Dyslexia-friendly font	Switches to the OpenDyslexic typeface.
Read aloud	Reads page text using the browser's speech, with play, pause, resume, stop and speed controls.

the public accessibility widget panel open, showing text size, contrast and read-aloud controls — The accessibility widget. A visitor's choices are remembered on their device for future visits.

Preferences are remembered

Each visitor's selections are stored in their own browser, so the settings stay applied as they move between pages and when they return later. Nothing is sent to the council, and no account is needed.

Turning the widget on and positioning it

The widget is controlled from Site Settings.

Open Settings > Site Settings and select the Accessibility tab.
Make sure Accessibility widget enabled is switched on (it is on by default).
Choose a position for the widget:
- Bottom left — a floating button in the lower-left corner.
- Bottom right — a floating button in the lower-right corner.
- Header — shown inline at the far right of the header, after the login/register links. Its panel drops down from the corner.
Select Save.

Tip — leave it switched on

The widget costs nothing in performance and genuinely helps residents. Unless you have a specific reason to remove it, keep it enabled.

The accessibility statement page

Every public sector website must publish an accessibility statement. Your website comes with one already in place, available at /accessibility and linked from the footer of every page.

The statement is created automatically when your site is set up and is kept in place on every deployment, so it can never go missing. You can edit its wording like any other page.

Go to Content > Pages in the admin panel.
Find and open the Accessibility page (its address is /accessibility).
Edit the content to reflect your council's situation — for example, note any known issues and how residents can request information in an alternative format.
Save the page.

Keep your statement accurate

An accessibility statement must reflect the real state of your website, including any known problems and how to report them. Review it whenever you make significant changes to the site, and at least once a year as part of your AGAR preparation.

Good content habits

The tools above help, but accessible content depends on you too. A few habits make a big difference:

Always add meaningful alt text to images so screen-reader users know what they show.
Use the heading styles in the editor to structure pages, rather than just making text large and bold.
Write clear, descriptive link text (avoid "click here").
Provide documents in accessible formats where you can, and offer an alternative on request.