This accessibility statement applies to www.sandwellbusinessgrowth.com. It does not apply to content on subdomains (for example, archive.sandwellbusinessgrowth.com).
This website is run by Sandwell 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 (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:
- you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
- most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
- live video streams do not have captions
- Some links do not explicitly explain their purpose
Feedback and contact information or 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 or have any other feedback you can contact Sandwell Business Growth:
Via the orange feedback button on the right side of the screen or via the form on the contact page.
By email: business_growth@sandwell.gov.uk
Or by writing to us:
Sandwell Business Growth
Sandwell Council House
Freeth Street
Oldbury
B69 3DB
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.
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).
Contacting us by email or visiting us in person
We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment.
Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.
Find out how to contact us.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Sandwell Council 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 the exemptions listed below.
Non-accessible content
WCAG 1.3.1 Info and relationships
Cookie popup – Issue where a link is programmatically a button
WCAG 1.4.4 Resize text
Privacy pop up – text difficult to read after increasing font size
WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard
Keyboard accessibility issues on nav bar
WCAG 2.4.7 Focus visible
Focus styling issues across multiple pages
WCAG 4.1.3 Status messages
Cookie pop up – Cookie icon not alerted to screen reader users
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs and other documents
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.
Live video
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
How we tested this website
We also test individual pages using Wave – Web AIM web accessibility evaluation tool and the AXE accessibility tool.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We are working with Studio 14 to fix any content which fails to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. We will continue to update this page when issues are fixed.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 31 August 2023.