Accessibility statement

Essex County Council is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with national legislation transposing Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

This accessibility statement applies to the entire The Essex Lottery website.

Accessibility features

Access keys

We haven't used access keys as they can often interfere with the default keyboard shortcuts of modern browsers. The content is easily tab-navigable and screen-reader friendly.

Change the text size

You can use your browser to change text size for this website.

• Internet Explorer: Select the "View" menu, then "Text size"
• Chrome: Select the "More" menu in the top right, next to 'Zoom' choose the zoom options that you want
• Firefox: Select the "View" menu, then "Zoom" or "Zoom text only"
• Safari: Select the "View" menu, then "Make text bigger" or "Make text smaller"
• Opera: Select the "View" menu, then "Zoom"

Readability

We have ensured that the design of this website is not an obstacle to its usability and readability and that it will work on a variety of devices with different screen sizes.

We have used a colour palette on the website that ensures for good contrast.

We have made every effort to ensure this website is easily readable using 'plain English' by removing jargon and using simplified language. We have also split longer pages into different sections to make them easier to follow.

Screen readers

We develop the website to be screen reader friendly and verify this by testing with the most common screen reading software.

How we tested this website

This website was and is tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 to level AA standards, following the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) approach to sampling pages.

The tests were and continue to be carried out by Gatherwell, the External Lottery Manager for the website, and include a combination of automated evaluation tools (such as WAVE and Lighthouse), screen reader technology (NVDA) and manual tests.

Compliance status

This website is fully compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 AA standard.

Disproportionate burden

We do not believe that any of the accessibility issues identified would be considered a disproportionate burden to fix, with the exception of a site-wide copy review. Whilst we don’t believe that there are any accessibility issues relating to the language we use across the website, we will be undertaking regular copy reviews as we develop new features. Where issues are found on PDFs or other documents, we will ensure that templates are updated to the relevant standard.

Content that is not in scope

We provide good causes with a range of PDF or Word Document marketing materials. Where materials were created prior to September 23, 2018, they may not meet accessibility standards. However, given these are often specific to a point in the past and kept only for historic purposes, these have not been updated.

All marketing materials created after September 23, 2018, are checked to ensure that they are compliant with WCAG 2.2 guidelines. We are also happy to provide alternative versions upon request.

All good causes that sign up to The Essex Lottery are able to customise their lottery page with a logo and their own text. This may mean that copy is not in plain English or that logos are not readable. We offer best practice advice during the application process in order to try to mitigate this.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on September 23, 2020, using the model accessibility statement as defined by the EU. It was last reviewed on January 27, 2021.

Feedback and contact information

Our goal is to make the website as accessible as possible. We want everyone who visits our website to feel welcome and find the experience both easy and rewarding. If you need information on this website in a different format, or if you have any feedback about the accessibility of our website, please contact us via:

• Email: [email protected]
• Telephone: 0300 302 32 32

We will respond to your request as soon as possible.

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. If you are unhappy with how we respond to your complaint, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).