Accessibility statement for Hound Parish Council

This accessibility statement applies to the website houndparishcouncil.gov.uk.

This website is run by Hound Parish 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 using your browser or device settings
• zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate the whole website using just a keyboard, with a visible highlight showing where you are
• pause the moving video on the home page
• 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.

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

How accessible this website is

The web pages meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA. Some documents and some content provided by other organisations are not fully accessible:

• many of our PDF agendas, minutes and meeting papers, particularly those from 2020 to 2024, are not tagged, so screen readers may not read them in the right order
• our signed audit documents and the registers of interests are scanned images, so screen readers cannot read them
• the Word documents and PowerPoint presentations on our meeting pages are missing headings, slide titles or image descriptions
• the Facebook feed on the home page and the flipbook viewers are not fully accessible, but the same information is on our Facebook page and in the document linked beside each flipbook

The information in these documents is available from the Parish Clerk. Contact us using the details below and we will provide it in a format that works for you, for example a typed copy, large print or by reading it to you.

Feedback and contact information

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

• email clerk@houndparishcouncil.gov.uk
• call 023 8045 3732 (Monday to Thursday 9am to 5pm, Friday 9am to 4.30pm)
• visit or write to Hound Parish Council Office, 29c Station Road, Netley Abbey, Southampton SO31 5AE (open Monday to Friday 9.30am to 1pm)

We'll consider your request and get back to you within 14 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We're always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we're not meeting accessibility requirements, contact the Parish Clerk using the details above.

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) at www.equalityadvisoryservice.com.

Technical information about this website's accessibility

Hound Parish 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 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below. The web pages themselves meet the Level A and AA success criteria apart from the image descriptions in the Facebook feed on the home page; the other non-compliances relate to documents.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

• 221 PDF agendas, minutes and meeting papers on the Full Council, Planning Committee, Finance Committee and HR, Health and Safety Committee pages are not tagged, so screen readers may read them in the wrong order or miss headings. Most date from 2020 to 2024. Two of them, the signed Full Council agenda of 24 November 2025 and the Planning Committee agenda of 15 December 2025, are scanned images that screen readers cannot read. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.3.1 (info and relationships) and 1.3.2 (meaningful sequence), and for the scanned documents 1.1.1 (non-text content).
• Sixteen audit documents on the Financial Year Audit Results page are scanned images with no text: the Annual Governance Statements and Accounting Statements, the internal and external audit reports, and the notices of audit and of conclusion of audit for 2019/20 to 2025/26. The Internal Auditor Report 2024/25 is not tagged. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.1.1 (non-text content), 1.3.1 (info and relationships) and 1.3.2 (meaningful sequence).
• Nine of the ten registers of interests on the Your Parish Council page are scanned images and the tenth is not tagged. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.1.1 (non-text content) and 1.3.1 (info and relationships).
• These PDFs are not tagged: the budgets for 2025–2026 and 2026–2027, the Code of Conduct Policy, the Memorial Bench Application Form, the grant application form, the Hound Medal details, the Butlocks Heath allotments meeting notes, inspection report sheet and treatment service report, the Abbey Hall charges 2026–27 and the Exploring Hound footpaths and walks guide. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.3.1 (info and relationships) and 1.3.2 (meaningful sequence).
• 51 Word documents and 31 PowerPoint presentations, mainly on the meeting pages, are missing heading styles, slide titles, table header rows or descriptions of images. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 1.1.1 (non-text content) and 1.3.1 (info and relationships).
• Images in the Facebook feed on the home page are described only by the date they were shared, so screen reader users cannot tell what they show. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). The same posts, with their text, are on our Facebook page.
• If you need the information in any of these documents, contact the Parish Clerk using the details above. We will provide it in a format that works for you.
• From now on, new documents will be published as tagged PDFs, and we will replace older documents with accessible versions as we are able to, updating this statement as we do.

Disproportionate burden

We are not claiming that any accessibility problems would be a disproportionate burden to fix.

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

Content produced by other organisations and not funded, developed or controlled by the council is outside scope. This includes documents from Hampshire County Council and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, the embedded Google Forms, Sheets, Calendar and Maps, and Google's spam protection on our contact form.

What we're doing to improve accessibility

In October 2026 we reviewed every page of the website against WCAG 2.2 AA and made improvements to the menu, keyboard focus, colours, the home page video, the photo carousels, forms, image descriptions, link wording and page titles. We will check new content as it is added, publish new documents in an accessible format, and update this statement as older documents are replaced with accessible versions.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 24 October 2026. It was last reviewed on 24 October 2026.

This website was last tested on 24 October 2026 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. The test was carried out by Smart Marketing. Every page and post on the website was tested, using automated testing with axe and WAVE, manual checks of colour contrast, keyboard navigation, zoom, text spacing and mobile use, a screen reader check with NVDA, and a check of every linked document.

We will review this statement by October 2027, or sooner if the website changes significantly.