Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Statement for MoodSpark

Contents

  1. Accessibility statement for MoodSpark
  2. ReachDeck toolbar
  3. Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
  4. Technical information about this website’s accessibility
  5. Non accessible content
  6. How we tested this website
  7. What we’re doing to improve accessibility

1. Accessibility statement for MoodSpark

This website is run by Kent County 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
  • 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

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

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

  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software

2. ReachDeck toolbar

We have digital inclusion software from TextHelp, called ReachDeck, on our website. This makes our content more accessible with reading and translation support*. This service is free for site users.

* The language translation service should only be used to translate general information on our website. As this is a Google translation tool, it is not intended to replace human or traditional translation methods. To ensure patient safety please continue to use our service providers to translate information relating to personal treatment and care.

ReachDeck toolbar iconClick on the orange ReachDeck icon (normally located bottom right) on your screen to launch the support toolbar. Then click on any text to hear it read out loud.

ReachDeck offers reading and translation support – helping you to access and understand our website better.

All the features are accessed from an easy-to-use, floating toolbar; allowing you to drag and drop it anywhere on screen.

ReachDeck toolbar

What the icons do in order of left to right:

  1. Text to speech – click on or select any text to hear it read aloud.
  2. Play – begin reading the page aloud or speack the current selection.
  3. Stop – stops the speech playback.
  4. Translation – translate the page to a selected language.
  5. Picture – select text on the page and click this button for a picture definition.
  6. Audio – select text on he page and click this button to generate and download a mp3 (audio) file.
  7. Screen mask – blocks distractions on screen with a tinted mask.
  8. Magnify – enlarges text and reads it out loud.
  9. Simplify – removes clutter from the screen, displaying only main text.
  10. Help – gives explainations to what each icon does.
  11. Settings – customise options to suit individual needs or preferences, such as speech speed, text size and colour theme.

Watch TextHelp’s how to guide

Please note, Browsealoud is the previous name for ReachDeck.

3. What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 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 HeadStart Kent team at headstart@kent.gov.uk. Detail the difficulties you are experiencing in an email to the address above or by telephoning our project coordinator on 03000 417125.

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).

4. Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Kent County 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 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Images

We have avoided using excessive graphics within the web site where possible to ensure quick download times and access to information which cannot be read when in image format.

Where images have been used we have added alternative text unless the image is abstract in which case the alternative text is blank. We have also avoided the use of brand names and substituted these for generic terms. These text alternatives allow you to see what the image is meant to convey. This will apply if the image doesn’t load, if you are browsing with images switched off or if you are using a screen reader to give audio descriptions of the web page.

5. Non accessible content

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

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

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

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

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.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

6. How we tested this website

This website was last tested on 10th October 2019. The test was carried out by The Shaw Trust.

We tested the entire site whilst in development and partially populated, now available at moodspark.org.uk

You can read the full accessibility test report, which covers both the Kent resilience Hub and Moodspark websites, here.

7. What we’re doing to improve accessibility

The site is about to undergo a manual test by The Shaw Trust. We expect to update this page with any steps necessary to improve our compliance in the form of an accessibility roadmap. We expect this manual test to be complete in May 2020.