This accessibility statement applies to the North Devon Council website: https://www.northdevon.gov.uk

This website is run by North Devon 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 browser or device settings
• zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using a keyboard or 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

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

• some link texts are not clear in where they take the user, mostly on old news articles
• some tables are missing headers
• our third party forms and applications may not meet accessibility requirements

Feedback and contact information

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: webteam@northdevon.gov.uk or use the link at the bottom of each page to "Tell us how we can improve this page".

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

• email customerservices@northdevon.gov.uk
• call 01271 327711

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.

If you cannot view a map on this website, call or email us for directions.

Contact Us Page

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

North Devon Council is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard. This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below. Although compliance has been reviewed against WCAG 2.2 AA, some accessibility issues identified relate to success criteria introduced in WCAG 2.1. These criteria are still applicable under WCAG 2.2 AA and are therefore still included in this statement.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

On some webpages, some long text without spaces such as 'north.devon.council.electoral.services@notifications.service.gov.uk' cause two dimensional scrolling on small screens as it breaks the content's container. This fails WCAG 2.1 Ensure pages don't scroll in two dimensions on small screens (AA) and WCAG 2.1 Ensure pages don't require zooming and 2D scrolling on small screens (AA). We are working to resolve this issue through amending CSS styling and we expect to do this by May 2026.

On some webpages, the same link text is used to direct the user to different pages. This will be confusing for those using screen readers as they see links on a page listed without context. This fails Avoid using the same link text for different destinations WCAG 2.0 (A). We are working to resolve this through amending these link texts and making it obvious where links point the user.

When searching for a bin collection date for a postcode, the search results are not immediately read out to a user. Screen reader users will need to go to the main content of the results page to be notified if there were no results. This fails WCAG 3.3.1 Error Identification (A). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by implementing our bin collection calendar onto this website rather than https://my.northdevon.gov.uk/.

Some of our online forms do not have permanent labels alongside user input fields and just use placeholder text as instructions. This occurs in places such as the Bin collection dates lookup and the login for reporting a noise nuisance. This fails WCAG 3.3.2 Labels and Instructions (A). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by working with the auditing company to understand how the problem is occurring and amend the html.

Democracy.northdevon.gov.uk

When looking for meeting information on the subsite democracy.northdevon.gov.uk, there are two small contrast issues with the search field and Committees heading. This fails WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast Minimum (A). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by working with the auditing company to understand how the problem is occurring and amend the html.

When looking for meeting information on the subsite democracy.northdevon.gov.uk, we use links as headings which can make them difficult to differentiate from surrounding plaintext and cause confusion while navigating. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A) and 1.4.1 Use of Colour (A). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by working with the auditing company to understand how the problem is occurring and amend the html.

Across the website some links may not have appropriate descriptive link text. This fails WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (A). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by working with the auditing company to understand how the problem is occurring and amend the html.

my.northdevon

When registering a my.northdevon account, there are no audio cues to let a user know that they have completed registration or that their account has been successfully activated. Users can still get to this information, but it should be presented more immediately upon completion. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A) and 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence (A). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by working with the auditing company and the supplier to understand how the problem is occurring and amend the html.

When in a my.northdevon account, there are navigation lists that a user can move through to fill in different account information. These do not always receive focus indication for the current page the user is on and when viewed with magnification change to a collapsible menu. This menu has no audio cues to let a user know when they collapse or expand the menu. This fails WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible (AA) and 3.2.2 On Input (A). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by working with the auditing company and the supplier to understand how the problem is occurring and amend the html.

When trying to report a noise nuisance the skip to content link does not receive focus indication during this journey. This fails WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible (AA). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by working with the auditing company and the supplier to understand how the problem is occurring and amend the html.

When trying to report a noise nuisance, if a user fills out the form incorrectly, errors are not suitably identified to screen reader users and can be read out incorrectly. This fails WCAG 3.3.1 Error identification (A) and 4.1.1 Parsing (A). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by working with the auditing company and the supplier to understand how the problem is occurring and amend the html.

After completing many of our services users will be asked to rate their experience. These rating pickers and comments input are not correctly labelled for screen readers. This fails WCAG 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose (AA). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by working with the auditing company and the supplier to understand how the problem is occurring and amend the html.

Disproportionate burden

A disproportionate burden refers to situations where cost, time and effort required to make our digital content fully accessible is excessively high relative to the benefits it would provide.

If you see anything of an urgent matter to be addressed, please contact webteam@northdevon.gov.uk.

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

Portable Document Format - PDF - and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

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 historical council meeting minute documents published before 23rd September 2018.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. You may find some inaccessible 'hidden' PDFs that can be viewed but aren't linked on the website, we are working on deleting these.

Online maps

Maps that are present on our website and are not used for navigational purposes are exempt under the regulations. We use several maps to show planning or other geographical information. If users require an accessible alternative to this information, please contact us.

What we're doing to improve accessibility

We are continuously working to resolve all identified accessibility issues which are within our control as well as working with all our third-party supplied systems to try and resolve any of their identified accessibility issues. We monitor our site regularly through Silktide - a subscription service that performs automated checks for accessibility and quality assurance for all pages. We try to fix accessibility issues in order of priority. Silktide publish a public index which tests a sample of 125 pages that we check monthly to identify our accessibility compliance.

As of February 2026, northdevon.gov.uk is marked at:

• 97.9% for accessibility compliance level A
• 97.9% for accessibility compliance level AA
• 93.2% for accessibility compliance level AAA

See the northdevon.gov.uk Silktide index

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 12 March 2026.

This website was last tested on 09 March 2026 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. The test was carried out using a third-party automated service called Silktide.

Automatic testing and a selection of user journeys were tested that represent the breadth of content across the website along with some documents.