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This accessibility statement applies to www.belfastcity.gov.uk. This website is run by Belfast City Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand and it is approved by Plain English Campaign (link opens in new window) on an annual basis. AbilityNet (link opens in new window) has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
If you need information on this website in a different accessible format, for example large print, easy read, audio recording or Braille:
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in ten working days.
We want to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, email us at webmaster@belfastcity.gov.uk
Please tell us what part of the website you are visiting, what you are trying to do and what is preventing you from doing what you need to do. If possible, please tell us what device and which browser you’re using. We will get back to you within three working days.
The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’) in Northern Ireland. If you’re not happy with how we respond to your request or complaint, please call ECNI on 028 9050 0600 and ask to speak with one of their Discrimination Advice Officers in their Legal Division, or email information@equalityni.org
Find out how to contact us.
We provide a video relay service for people who are deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment. You can access this online or at Belfast Zoo and Olympia Leisure Centre. Find out more about this service.
Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit, we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) or Irish Sign Language (ISL) interpreter. Please note, some of our offices are currently closed in line with COVID-19 guidance.
Belfast City 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 website is partially compliant with the WCAG 2.1 AA standard due to some non-compliances, meaning there’s an accessibility problem with some areas.
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons:
‘Silktide’ is an automated accessibility testing tool, which Belfast City Council uses.
An accessibility report on 15 July 2021 from Silktide highlights the following issues on some of our website pages:
We plan to fix these by October 2021.
Some of our PDF documents, online forms and third-party products are not accessible:
Online forms
Our online forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard or a screen reader because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag. To address this, we are rebuilding and republishing our online forms to make them accessible by September 2021. Should you need any help with carrying out a task on our website, please contact the service or email equality@belfastcity.gov.uk
PDF documents
The following PDFs are inaccessible, but if you need them in another format, please email webmaster@belfastcity.gov.uk
We do not intend to replace these with online forms. Two pieces of legislation which govern how these forms are to be completed, are:
These forms need to be completed in hard copy. Forms A and H need to be sworn and signed in the presence of a commissioner for oaths. If you need any help with these forms, please call 028 9027 0296 or email webmaster@belfastcity.gov.uk
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. An exception to this is PDFs added to the Online Funding Hub (link opens in new window). There is no plan in place for this to be addressed. Please contact cgugrants@belfastcity.gov.uk if you need help with this.
A disproportionate burden claim is made in respect of that part of the website that is provided by Idox and which relates to the Northern Ireland Houses in Multiple Occupation (NIHMO) portal, see paragraph no 6 below under the heading “Third party suppliers”.
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. For example, we do not plan to fix our financial statements published before 2018.
We use third party suppliers to deliver parts of the website. We have informed our suppliers that they need to meet the standards and we will review their compliance on a monthly basis for the next six months, until we are satisfied that they are compliant.
If you are having difficulties accessing an area of the website that is provided by a third party supplier, please email webmaster@belfastcity.gov.uk and we will report it to the supplier.
Our website presently uses the following third party suppliers:
1. Civica – provides Modern.Gov, where you can search for minutes of council and committee meetings. Civica has carried out an accessibility review and states that the majority of pages were compliant at WCAG 2.1 AA level, with the exception of the calendar functionality (see non-accessible content) which has now been disabled on this site.
How Civica tested their website
Civica’s Modern.Gov site was tested using a range of accessibility assessment tools across different web browsers and cross-checked against accessibility standards to identify improvements.
Modern.Gov uses the PDF file format to display agendas and minutes. We are investigating options for publishing these in a more accessible format.
Ongoing development
Civica welcomes feedback from customers to assist them with improving accessibility. If you have any comments, please email webmaster@belfastcity.gov.uk
2. Public-i offers the webcasts of the council meetings (link opens in new window)
Read Public-i’s accessibility statement. If you need any help, please contact Democratic Services on 028 9027 0434 or email us at webcast@belfastcity.gov.uk and we will respond to your email within two working days.
Public-i does not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations.
3. Our engagement platform, Your Say (link opens in new window) is supplied by Bang the Table Pty Ltd and encourages public consultation. Read their accessibility statement and email policy@belfastcity.gov.uk if you need any help.
4. Our Online Funding Hub (link opens in new window) is supplied by Decision Time. This tool is fully compliant, although some of our content including guidance notes may not be accessible. If you need any help, please contact our Central Grants Unit at cgugrants@belfastcity.gov.uk
5. Northern Ireland Houses in Multiple Occupation (NIHMO) portal is a regional solution for landlords for houses of multiple occupancy. The supplier is Idox. The website is currently not fully compliant. There are two outstanding non-compliance issues. The first (WCAG 2.1 AA F78) relates to CSS border styles and development to resolve this issue is planned for December 21. Whilst Idox has indicated that to rectify the second issue would be a disproportionate burden to the Council, we are currently working through the second issue with the supplier, (WCAG 2.1 A H71) where all fieldset elements should be labelled with legend elements, to estimate time and costs to address the issue. Read their accessibility statement (link opens in new window). If you need any help with this part of the site, please email nihmo@belfastcity.gov.uk
We are using some automated checks to alert us if something falls below the standard. We commissioned a manual audit of this website on 19 March 2021 and have a roadmap for implementing recommendations.
On a monthly basis, we will contact our suppliers, to assess their compliance with the legislation. We are also approaching organisations, who request that we publish their documents on our website, to discuss how we can present their information in an accessible way.
This statement was prepared on 27 July 2020. We reviewed it on 15 July 2021 and updated the statement. We will continue to review our accessibility status on a monthly basis and update the statement when needed.
We tested this website on 15 July 2021. We carried out our own testing using automated accessibility testing tool Silktide. We scanned over 1350 pages of our site.
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