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Accessibility statement

We're committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability.

This accessibility statement applies to www.west-norfolk.gov.uk

This website is run by the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change the text size, colours 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.

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

Accessibility features

We have added Recite Me to our website to help make our content more accessible with reading and translation support.

How does Recite Me help?

Simple and intuitive to use, 'Recite Me' includes audio playback functionality, dyslexia software, an interactive dictionary and a translation tool with over 100 languages. It even has the ability to change the entire colour scheme, font size and style – with a bottom-heavy font for anyone with dyslexia.

We've made sure it’s very simple to use. You don’t have to download or install anything. It also works whether you're on a computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone.

To access Recite Me, all you need to do is select the link on our website that says ‘Listen and translate' which will load the toolbar at the top of your screen.

Need support?

The video below explains more about Recite Me.


Please also see our Recite Me user guide page for more information on the Recite me toolbar and frequently asked questions.

There is also a downloadable Recite Me user guide available if you would prefer.

Requesting information in alternative formats

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please contact us to arrange this.

You can:

We’ll look at your request and get back to you. We aim to get back to you within five days. But, depending on the format you require, this may take longer.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking at ways to improve accessibility on our website. If you've experienced any accessibility problems whilst using this site, we would welcome your comments and feedback.

You can report an accessibility problem online.

To report an accessibility problem online, you'll need to provide details of the:

  • problem you've experienced
  • device you were using
  • browser (if known)

Report an accessibility issue

Or you can tell us your feedback by calling us on 01553 616200.

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).

About this website’s accessibility

The Borough Council of King’s Lynn 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 below.

Non-accessible content

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

  • some PDFs are not machine readable which fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-text Content
  • some PDFs do not have the necessary headings which fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
  • some PDFs are not correctly tagged which fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
  • some of our online services hosted by third party suppliers, for example the Visa and Mastercard verification service used when processing payments remains non-compliant on Capita online payments. We are working with Capita to understand how this can be resolved.

Third party supplier applications

We require that any new third party systems we commission for the website are Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA compliant. However, third party applications are partly or wholly out of our control. So they may not conform to the same levels of accessibility as the rest of the website.

Third party applications include:

  • Idox planning and licensing online – view and comment on current planning and licensing applications and view historical decisions
  • Capita online payments
  • MyRevenues – Council Tax, benefits and business rates accounts
  • MyAccount – citizen account and online forms
  • Homeconnections – West Norfolk Homechoice housing system
  • Jobtrain – job vacancies
  • Modern Gov (our democracy system)

We monitor the accessibility of these sites and ask suppliers to fix accessibility issues if they arise.

Disproportionate burden

We are prioritising making any newly added PDFs that we publish compliant. Also all documents that are used for active administrative processes will be made compliant or replaced, irrespective of their original publication date. We keep older documents on the website for transparency and will provide alternative versions upon request.

Our website has approximately 4,000 PDF documents and approximately 2,300 remain non-compliant. The majority of these documents have not been viewed or have received very few views. However, we keep them on the website for public transparency and will provide alternative versions upon request. 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 believe that the cost of retrospectively fixing these documents would be a disproportionate burden.

Furthermore, we believe the benefit to the public in assigning staff resource or paying an external company to fix these documents would not be justifiable use of the public funds. We also believe that the public would benefit most from us focusing on newly added documents and ensuring these are accessible.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

This statement was prepared on 7 September 2021. It was last reviewed and updated on 5 September 2024 and will be reviewed every 6 months going forward. The next review is scheduled for 5 March 2025.

Our website is tested twice a week. These tests are carried out by Siteimprove website monitoring software. Siteimprove produces reports and guidance when errors and issues are detected. 

We have also undertaken additional human testing on the top 20 most popular pages on our website as these make up almost three quarters of our overall web traffic. This involves testing each page with the axe DevTools browser extension and undertaking manual tests such as using each page without a mouse, viewing pages at different zoom settings and simulating viewing the pages across a range of screen sizes.

We are also trying to minimise the use of PDF's where at all possible and present the content in structured webpages.