Skip to Homepage

Website Accessibility

This accessibility statement applies to www.visitsouthend.co.uk, managed by the Culture & Tourism team at Southend-on-Sea City 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 using your browser settings or assistive tools

  • 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.

If you need help understanding how to make your device easier to use, you can visit AbilityNet.

How accessible this website is

We know that some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • Some images used as links do not have accessible text

  • The colour contrast between some text and background colours does not meet minimum standards

  • The carousel of images cannot be paused, stopped or hidden

  • Some elements do not display a visible keyboard focus indicator

  • Certain navigation elements (such as the burger menu) do not have valid ARIA labels or accessible names

  • Keyboard focus can occasionally be lost or obscured when navigating through menus

  • Some form elements (such as select boxes and buttons) do not include accessible labels

We are addressing these issues as part of the rebuild of the Visit Southend website.

What to do if you can’t access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format (for example accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille), please contact:

Culture & Tourism, Southend-on-Sea City Council
📧 culture&tourism@southend.gov.uk

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 10 working days.

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, please contact:
📧 culture&tourism@southend.gov.uk

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’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

Southend-on-Sea City Council is committed to making its websites 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 (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

The following issues identified in the Government Digital Service’s audit (June 2025) are still present on the current website:

Issue WCAG 2.2 Reference
Keyboard focus lost or hidden when navigating the burger menu 2.4.7 / 2.4.11
No visible focus on certain buttons and form elements 2.4.7
Carousel cannot be paused, stopped, or hidden 2.2.2
Insufficient colour contrast in headings and call-to-action buttons 1.4.3
Images used as links without accessible text 2.4.4 / 4.1.2
Invalid or missing ARIA names and roles 4.1.2
Missing accessible names for select and button elements 4.1.2

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are currently building a new Visit Southend website, scheduled to launch in January 2026, which will be fully redeveloped to meet WCAG 2.2 AA standards from the ground up.
Accessibility will be tested throughout the build and independently reviewed before launch.

Once the new website is live, this statement will be updated to reflect the results of that audit and the site’s compliance status.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 30 October 2025.
It was last reviewed on 30 October 2025.

This website was last tested by the Government Digital Service (GDS) in June 2025 as part of the public-sector accessibility monitoring programme.
You can view the full report here: https://reports.accessibility-monitoring.service.gov.uk/reports/f37f9e2e-f33a-4cf2-820f-04d2d5325c35

Back to top