Accessibility statement for Experience Wakefield

This accessibility statement applies to experiencewakefield.co.uk

This website is run by the Wakefield Council Tourism Team; we want as many people as possible to be able to use this website and have introduced accessibility features to help make your experience of using the website as easy as possible. 

For example, that means you should be able to do the following:

  • Zooming and Text Resizing: Users can enlarge the entire page (zoom) or just the text to improve readability, especially for those with visual impairments.
  • High Contrast Modes/Colour Inversion: Browsers can switch to high-contrast colour schemes (e.g., white text on a black background) or invert colours to reduce eye strain and make content more discernible for users with certain visual conditions like colour blindness or low vision.
  • Reader Mode/Simplified View: Many browsers offer a “reader mode” that removes clutter like ads, navigation, and sidebars, presenting only the main article content. This helps users with cognitive disabilities or attention deficits focus on the essential information.
  • Keyboard Navigation and Shortcuts: Browsers allow users to navigate web pages using only the keyboard (tabbing through links, using arrow keys for scrolling, etc.). This is crucial for users who cannot use a mouse due to motor impairments. Extensive keyboard shortcuts are also available for common actions.
  • Caret Browse: This feature allows users to navigate text content on a web page using the keyboard’s arrow keys, similar to how one would navigate a word processing document. This is beneficial for users who rely on screen readers or have difficulty with mouse-based text selection.

We have also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

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

Recite Me

If you would rather not change your browser settings we have included a tool called ReciteMe on our website. This tool can make the text bigger, change the font and change the colours used on the pages.

ReciteMe can also read words or pages of text aloud to you and can translate the page into different languages. You can find out more about how to use ReciteMe here.

How accessible this website is:

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • Some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software. Large print, plain text documents are available for promotional leaflets.
  • some live video streams and pre-recorded video do not have captions
  • some invitation-only embedded forms for tourism partner event and venue content are not fully accessible. Partners are able to request support in adding their content to the website.

Feedback and contact information

We are always looking to improve accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact:

Wakefield Council Tourism Team

Email: experiencewakefield@wakefield.gov.uk

Call: 01924 305569

If you need information on this website in a different format like an accessible word document, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact us on the details above.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 14 days.

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

Wakefield 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

Experience Wakefield has been tested and is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 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:

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We plan to add text alternatives for all images by 30 September 2025. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

The website contains a small number of PDF documents, which may not be fully accessible to screen reader software and therefore do not meet WCAG 2.0 Level A success criterion 1.1.1. However, accessible large-print Microsoft Word versions are available for tourism brochures to support screen reader access.

Embedded e-forms used by partner tourism organisations to submit event or venue content are not accessible by screen readers. These forms are not discoverable via browser and are invitation only. To support accessibility, assistance is available for tourism organisations to submit content on their behalf.

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

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

We are working alongside other Wakefield Council teams and our web development agency to fix content which fails to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard. We are implementing accessibility training for relevant staff and are developing checklists and resources to help us meet accessibility requirements and improve the digital experience for all visitors to our website.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22 May 2025. It was last reviewed on 22 May 2025.

This website was last tested on 13 May 2025 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. The audit was carried out by: https://www.thebiggerboat.co.uk/

The website was initially scanned using Screaming Frog to identify all pages and any WCAG 2.0 A and AA level accessibility failures. This scan generated a list of site URLs along with the detected issues.

The identified issues were then categorised by type, and sample URLs were selected for further investigation. The web development team addressed these issues.

Deque University’s console tool was used to create a final audit document by scanning the sample URLs to confirm the absence of automatically detectable issues. Certain items required manual verification, and evidence of the implemented changes was provided through code releases and live code examples.