Accessibility
Accessibility is the term used to describe how a product, service or place can be easily used by as many people as possible. It is about making things usable to all people, whatever their age, abilities or disabilities.
As a government entity, we are required to ensure our website complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (commonly known as WCAG 2.0) by 2014.
WCAG has been endorsed for all government websites.
Under these guidelines, all information on our website must be accessible and usable for people of all abilities, including older people and those with visual, hearing, cognitive or motor impairments.
WCAG 2.0
WCAG 2.0 is a series of international standards from the World Wide Web Consortium. This organisation creates guidelines and supporting criteria for the web based on consultation with various interest groups including software developers, private enterprise, governments and members.
WCAG 2.0 identifies techniques to create and manage web content in ways that are more accessible to people with disabilities through assistive technologies like screen readers. Websites that are more accessible are also generally more user-friendly to everyone.
Usability testing
We are committed to making our site as user-friendly as possible. Extensive testing has been conducted on this site with key community groups and stakeholders. This feedback has been integrated into the design, navigation and content of our site. We will continue to develop, evaluate and improve the usability of our site to ensure our users’ needs are being met.
Accessibility testing
Many people use assistive technologies such as screen readers or screen magnifiers to help them view, read and navigate a website. To ensure our site delivers a good experience for all users and works well with newer technologies, the site has been reviewed for accessibility against the WCAG 2.0 requirements.
We have built and modified the site to support the accessibility needs so that we become more inclusive to a wider audience online.
Request an alternative format
The Waverley Council website includes a number of Portable Document Format (PDF) documents, audio files and video.
Whilst we aim to provide information in equally accessible formats, if you require any information on the site in an alternative format such as braille, audio, large text or easy English, please email us.