Accessibility Statement

The statement covers the placebuilder.io website.

The purpose of this website is to encourage visitors to submit feedback on urban planning projects, in a way that will have a high impact on decision making. This web platform is owned and maintained by The Future Fox, who are committed to making their website as accessible as possible for persons with visual, hearing, cognitive and motor impairments. The users are able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in up to 200% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate the website using just a keyboard
  • navigate the website using speech recognition software
  • navigate the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We have also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

My Computer My Way has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible the website is

placebuilder.io
Although we constantly test our online platform to the WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines to ensure it works on both desktop and mobile devices, currently there are some limitations that may restrict some disabled users’ use of the website, such as:

  • Navigation by screen readers relies on landmarks and labels, but not headers. Headers are not used on all pages and not always used consistently. 
  • Placeholder text, ‘back’ button and hover over button colour are not high colour contrast. Alternative features for users are available for these.
  • Drag and drop imagery, (‘Create-a-town’ feature) is not currently accessible. The text box as part of this feature can be used instead.
  • Some content provided to us by clients include items such as image text, tables, pdf documents and ArcGIS storymaps. Alternative text should be provided.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in an alternative format, such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille: please contact us by using this data:

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

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact us at [email protected]

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

The Future Fox 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. The non-compliances are listed below.

  1. Navigation by screen readers relies on landmarks and labels, but not headers. Headers are not used on all pages.
  2. Placeholder text, ‘back’ button and hover over button colour are not high colour contrast. 
  3. Error messages in text & clear indication for optional and required fields are of insufficient colour contrast. 
  4. Colour contrast on hyperlinks and hover-over is insufficient for users with low vision

When we publish new content, we will make sure our use of images continues to meet accessibility standards. 

Disproportionate burden

The PlaceBuilder.io website sometimes embeds visual content like:

  • Tables of text that do not have table markup
  • ArcGIS Storymap
  • pdf documents
  • Video
  • Image text

This is content provided to us by other parties and deemed a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.  

We take care that any content or features that we do design in-house follows accessibility requirements, and we recommend to partners and clients to provide fully accessible content. 

Additionally, there are other website elements that are not compliant, that we consider a disproportionate burden:

  • ALT/alternative text for icons. Icons are only used to support text instructions and are not essential for use.
  • Content becomes lost or obscured at low resolution or scrolling in 2 dimensions is required (reflow 320 x 256)

We will make another assessment at the next accessibility compliance review.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

We are doing the following to improve the accessibility of our Website:

  • We have conducted an external audit to evaluate the current state of our online platform.
  • We have had accessibility training to better understand existing accessibility issues that are currently present on our online platform.
  • We are planning to fix the issues based on the external audit in the near future.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was last reviewed on 30th August 2023.

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