Accessibility statement
On this page:
We are committed to ensuring that the information on this website is available to as many people as possible.
Every effort has been made to comply with Level AA of the W3C (World-Wide Web Consortium) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
We are continually reviewing, testing and improving the accessibility of our site. Your feedback helps us meet the needs of our community.
If any part of this website does not meet your accessibility needs, contact us. We will try to fix the problem, and give you the information you would like in a format that suits your needs.
Accessibility of this website
Accessibility features of this site include:
- a text equivalent for all non-text objects, such as images and video
- different text sizes
- easy-to-read colours
- documents in Word format where possible
- clear navigation, including meaningful headings and link
- all images and graphics include descriptive alt text
- all new videos have captions and older videos have a transcript
- all pages can be printed using your browser’s print function, and
- tab key navigation as an alternative to a mouse: press the TAB key to move forward to the next feature, or press SHIFT and the TAB key to move back to the previous feature,
Note: Unless you change the default settings in the Safari browser, you will need to press Option and the TAB key to move through each link on the page.
Device configuration and assistive technology support
Our website has been created for flexible use on supporting devices. For example, you can visit the Merri-bek City Council website on desktop computers and portable web-enabled devices like smart phones.
Assistive Technologies
This website has been optimised for use with assistive technologies. This includes screen readers, magnifiers, navigation switches and speech recognition software
Captions
Captions can help people with limited hearing understand dialogue and important sounds in video and audio.
We prepare captions before a video or audio file is published wherever possible. This makes sure the captions are as accurate as possible. However, sometimes vidoes are live and captioning is done in real time, such as livestreaming Council meetings. Absolute accuracy can be compromised in favour of providing live information.
Accessing and reading documents
Opening PDF files
This website uses some PDF (Portable Document Format) files, also known as Adobe files, to make documents available online.
The majority of PDF files on our website have an accessible alternative as a web page or a Word document. Some very old documents or documents with maps and designs may not be fully accessible.
To open, print or save a PDF file, you will need to use Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not already have this tool, you can download it for free from Adobe.
Download Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Contact us if you trouble opening or viewing a PDF document and we will arrange to provide the information in a format that suits your needs.
Opening Microsoft Word and Excel files
This site uses Microsoft Word and Excel files. If you do not have these programs on your computer, you can download a reader that will allow you to view these documents.
Download Microsoft Word Viewer.
Printed copies of documents
If you would like us to send you a printed copy of any document on this site, you can contact us to request it.
Limitations of this site's accessibility
While we've done a lot to ensure this site is accessible, you may find some limitations:
- We strive to use Plain English across the website. Sometimes this isn't possible when discussing technical subjects.
- Some of the Merri-bek City Council web content has not yet been fully tested by people with diverse abilities.
Let us know if you have difficulties using this site
If you have any difficulties using any part of this site, please contact us and tell us about your experience.
Any constructive feedback you provide regarding your experience accessing this website is welcome and will be carefully considered.
This statement was last upated on Friday 11 June 2021.