Accessibility Statement

Our commitment to accessibility

Accessibility isn't something we treat as an afterthought — it's central to what CouncilPapers does. We help parish and town councils meet their own obligations under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018, which require council websites and published documents to conform to WCAG 2.2 Level AA. It would be inconsistent of us not to hold ourselves to the same standard.

We use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2, Level AA as our benchmark. These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities, including those who use assistive technologies such as screen readers, voice control, or keyboard-only navigation.

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Accessibility features already in place

We have built a range of accessibility features into the CouncilPapers council publishing section — the area where your council's agendas, minutes, and public documents are published — and we continue to improve it. These include:

• A page language set for assistive technology, and pages that can be zoomed without loss of content
• Unique, descriptive page titles and clear breadcrumb navigation
• Meaningful link text, such as "View Agenda Onscreen" and "Download Declaration of Interests (PDF)"
• An on-screen HTML view of every agenda and set of minutes, as an accessible alternative to the downloadable PDF
• Semantic page landmarks and accessible previous/next meeting navigation
• Status information — such as confidential or pending items — always conveyed in text, not by colour alone
• Alternative text on councillor photos and council logos

This section is the area most likely to be used by members of the public and is subject to the most scrutiny under transparency regulations, so we have prioritised accessibility here. We have not yet achieved full WCAG 2.2 AA conformance across it — the outstanding items are listed below.

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Known accessibility issues

We are transparent about the areas of this website where we know accessibility is not yet fully achieved. The following items do not currently meet WCAG 2.2 AA, and we are working to fix them:

• Some pages have gaps in their heading structure, which can make navigation by screen reader harder.
• Some lists of meetings are presented in tables that do not yet have proper column headings or captions.
• There is not yet a "skip to main content" link for keyboard and screen-reader users.
• Some decorative icons are not yet hidden from screen readers, and some links that open in a new tab or download a document do not yet warn that they will do so.
• We are still confirming that the colour contrast of some smaller and muted text meets the required ratio.

These fall under "non-compliance with the accessibility regulations". The specific area affected is the public council transparency pages; the rest of this website is not affected in the same way.

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Technical information

Paper Monkey Limited is committed to making the CouncilPapers 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 2.2 AA standard, due to the known issues listed above.

How we tested this website

We carry out accessibility testing as part of our ongoing development process. Testing includes manual keyboard navigation checks, automated tooling, and review against WCAG 2.2 success criteria, most recently an internal accessibility review of the public council transparency pages. The council publishing section has been reviewed most thoroughly given its public-facing role.

This statement was prepared in April 2026. It was last reviewed on 11 September 2026.

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Feedback and contact

We want to hear from you if you experience any accessibility barriers on this website. If you find a problem we haven't listed, or if you need content in a different format, please get in touch:

• Contact form: councilpapers.com/contact

We aim to respond to accessibility queries within 5 working days.

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Enforcement

If you're not satisfied with our response to an accessibility issue, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations in England, Scotland, and Wales. If you're not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the EASS.