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It is our aim to make www.cheshire.gov.uk available to as many people as possible and we hope you are able to find the answers to your questions quickly and browse around the site with ease. With this in mind, please read our simple guidelines based on:
- Accessibility - how to change this website for you to view it more easily
- Readability - our standards for content on the website
- Usability - how to use the site to find the information you need
Please also read our Website Maintenance and Standards and Accessibility Testing and Coding.
If you are having difficulties using or viewing this website, please read the guidelines listed below.
For deaf or hard of hearing customers who wish to contact Cheshire County Councils contact centre you can now use the Typetalk service. If you are a textphone user all you need to do is dial the prefix 18001 and the number listed below to access the service you require and you will be conferenced in to a Typetalk Operator and a trained Customer Service Representative who will be able to help.
The current services delivered at the contact centre are:
Blue badge 0845 113 1133
School Admission 0845 111 0304
Highways 0845 002 0666
Registrations
Chester 0845 140 0130
Macclesfield 0845 140 0132
Crewe 0845 140 0131
Social Services 01270 375100
Waste Permits 0845 002 0134
Recruitment 01244 972 503
Free School Meals 01625 374 777
Payments 01244 972 052
School Transport 0845 002 0755
General Enquiries 0845 1133311
For more information on RNID typetalk.
How to change text size
The simplest way to change the text size on this website, is to select one of the 'A' symbols on the top right of every webpage.
You can also change text size on your web browser. Please remember that this setting will remain until you change it back yourself, so every website you view after you change these settings will be in the text size you have selected, possibly even after you have turned off and restarted your computer.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 browser
On the menu at the top of the browser, go to View> Text Size> and select the size you require.
On Explorer 4, click 'Internet Options' on the View or Tools menu> on the General Tab click 'Fonts'> Select your preferred text size.
Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera browsers
Holding down the 'Ctrl' key on your keyboard and scrolling the page either up or down with your mouse will make text size bigger or smaller.
Netscape Navigator 4 browser
Go to View> and select either Increase or Decrease font. You can also use keyboard shortcuts to do this in Netscape; 'Ctrl + ] ' for increase and 'Ctrl + [' for decrease.
More information on changing text sizes can be found here.
What to do if strange characters appear
If you have strange characters appearing within the text on the webpage, such as £&* instead of apostrophes, this is likely to be a setting on your browser. Unicode (UTF-8) is the preferred encoding on our website. If you are using Internet Explorer, this can be set by going to View> Encoding> and select Unicode(UTF-8).
Changing your screen resolution will change the size of everything on your screen, including your software programmes – it’s not just for enlarging text on websites. Once you change the resolution, please remember that it will stay at this setting until you change it back yourself. You can maximise the size of the window in the Internet Explorer browser by going to View> Full Screen, or pressing the F11 button on your keyboard. To restore the window to its original size, click on the 'Restore' button at the top right hand corner of the screen (the one which shows two small, overlapping squares.)
This website has been designed to be viewable at all screen resolutions, without sideways scrolling, although it is best viewed at a resolution of 800x600 or 1024x768 pixels. It can be viewed by all browsers, but we recommend Internet Explorer version 4 onwards.
How to view the site without images
This website should still be usable if images are turned off. We aim to provide a 'text only' version of all graphical images to ensure all the information on the website is accessible by all.
If you are using an Internet Explorer browser, you can go to View or Tools> Internet Options> Advanced> in the Multimedia section, remove the tick next to 'Show Pictures'> Click 'Apply'> Click 'OK'.
We aim to use images across the website to make it more visually exciting and to help explain content. All graphics on this website are optimized for web use, meaning that they are reduced in quality so that they do not delay the webpage loading, so it should only take a short time to appear on your monitor. We try to keep images quite small so that users viewing with an 800x600 screen set up or using a screen magnifier can still navigate around the page easily. Images used on the site are in JPEG or GIF format.
Our site does not use frames or flash, to prevent user restriction. On the rare occasion that pop up windows may be present, we give warnings. All our images are provided with appropriate ALT tags, to serve as a text alternative to images when required.
How to listen to Our website
You can listen to our website using headphones or speakers connected to your computer. Please see 'Listen to Our Website' for further information.
How to translate a webpage
This website is in the English language and we aim to use clear and simple words to make translation and understanding easy. You can translate a webpage on this website using free Babelfish software. Please see our 'Translation' webpage for further information.
How to download a document
Each document on this website is on its own webpage which tells you how long it will take for you to open (or download) it, depending on your internet connection and the document size. Documents on this website are generally in Word or PDF (Portable Document Format) and we supply a link for you to download the free viewing software if you do not have these programs installed on your computer.
All you need to do to download a document is to click on the document icon on the page.
View an example of a ‘Download’ page for the 'Your Cheshire' magazine Sept 2006
How to use Access Keys
Access Keys allow visitors to press keys to jump from page to page instead of clicking on links to navigate. We have used the Access Keys as recommended by the 'Guidelines for UK Government Websites'. Hold down the Alt key and the number below, then press Enter.
Alt 1 Enter - Home page
Alt 4 - Search
Alt 7 Enter - Complaints procedure
Alt 8 Enter - Terms and conditions
Alt 9 Enter - Feedback form
Alt 0 Enter - Access key details
Automated testing
Every time a webpage is altered or a new one is created, we perform an automated test on it to check that it complies with the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative’s Guidelines 1.0 (W3C WAI) website accessibility guidelines. The test checks the coding, format and content of the page against the guidelines and passes or fails it against 3 statuses – A, AA or AAA compliance. This website is AA level compliant on most automated testers.
Manual testing
Every webpage is also checked manually before it is published on the website, based again on the W3C accessibility guidelines. Manual testing consists of ensuring links go to the correct page and that page content is written in way that is easy to understand. We have also performed manual tests on our website using external groups, such as:
Coding
This website uses Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML) 4.01 Transitional and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for formatting and layout, which enables the look of the website to be altered to suit your needs.
Applications are created using .net coding and are tested in all common browsers. They are best viewed using a screen resolution of 1024x768 pixels or above. See 'How to change screen resolution' for further information.
Accessibility in General
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