Site Accessibility

Accessibility statement for www.visitgravesend.co.uk

We are committed to making the www.visitgravesend.co.uk website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This accessibility statement applies to www.visitgravesend.co.uk.

This website is designed and hosted by GoToPlaces, a company of Visit Kent. Gravesham Borough Council’s Tourism Team are responsible for the content published on the site.

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 browser or device settings
zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
navigate most of the website using a keyboard or speech recognition software
listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We aim to make the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

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

Some links do not clearly explain their purpose
Some lists or groups of links are not marked up semantically
Some pages require scrolling in two dimensions on small screens
Some interactive elements become fully obscured when focused
Some interactive controls are too small, making them hard to use

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page, think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, or need information on this website in a different format, please contact us at visitgravesend@gravesham.gov.uk or call 01474 337600.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 14 days.

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

Gravesham Borough Council is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Internet browsers

Most of our website works correctly on any web technology.

For security reasons, we only support TLS 1.2 and higher security protocols, and this means that some older browsers will not show the site.

How our site looks and works is based on HTML5, and we test for and support the following browsers:

You may experience unexpected behaviour in other browsers, although we use fully validated code which should work on any modern (HTML5) browser.

Internet Explorer is no longer supported as this browser is at the end of its life cycle.

Find out about Microsoft withdrawing support for Internet Explorer.

Compliance status

The website was tested on 29 August 2025 against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliance issues listed below.

Non-accessible content

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

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

Navigation and interaction

Some links do not clearly explain their purpose, so users may not understand where the link will take them. This fails WCAG 2.0 success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose).

Some lists or groups of links are not marked up semantically, making them harder for screen readers to interpret. This fails WCAG 2.0 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).

Layout and responsiveness

Some pages require scrolling in two dimensions on small screens, making navigation difficult for mobile users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.10 (Reflow).

Forms and structure

Some form controls do not have labels, so screen reader users cannot identify their purpose. This fails WCAG 2.0 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).

Visual design

Some interactive elements become fully obscured when focused, making it hard for keyboard users to see where they are. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.11 (Focus Not Obscured).

Some interactive controls are too small, making them hard to use. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.5.5 (Target Size).

Disproportionate burden

This is the disproportionate burden assessment for digital accessibility conducted for www.visitgravesend.co.uk.

This assessment was last updated on 5 November 2025 and will be reviewed on 2 February 2026.

Introduction

GoToPlaces, a company of Visit Kent, are the design agency responsible for designing, maintaining and hosting the www.visitgravesend.co.uk website on behalf of Gravesham Borough Council’s Tourism Team. On 3 September 2025, GoToPlaces went into liquidation and ceased trading.

This meant that GoToPlaces’s website development team responsible for supporting the development of the website were now unable to do so. This has left Gravesham Borough Council unable to address the accessibility issues identified within this accessibility statement.

Although we are committed to resolving accessibility issues, after careful evaluation since the liquidation of GoToPlaces, we have decided to reassess the long-term sustainability of the website. Consequently, allocating significant resources and costs to resolve the accessibility issues at this stage would represent a disproportionate burden given the uncertainty surrounding the website’s ongoing viability.

Cost of fixing the accessibility of the website

The website is still ‘online’ to customers. Access to the platform is extremely limited due to the nature of the liquidation of GoToPlaces.

Currently, we are unable to resolve the existing accessibility issues due to the lack of access to the website platform. Employing a new design agency is not feasible at this time, as they would also be unable to access the website code required to implement the necessary accessibility improvements.

The only option available would be to employ a new design agency to design and build a brand new website. The costs of this are unknown at this time, but assuming a design agency charges £1,500 plus VAT per day for design and development, and the website takes 10 days to build, the estimated cost is £15,000 plus VAT.

Hosting, support and maintenance costs are unknown at this time, but assumed costs are in the region of £2,000 per annum plus VAT.

One off implementation costs are unknown at this time, but assuming project management fees, training and handover are included in the costs, these are estimated to be in the region of £3,000 plus VAT.

Assessment of costs and benefits

We believe that

the costs of designing a brand new website to fix the accessibility issues on www.visitgravesend.co.uk would be a disproportionate burden on our organisation, especially if the future viability of the website is in doubt.
the benefit to users of paying for the development of a new website will not be justified and would impose a disproportionate burden on Gravesham Borough Council.

In reaching this decision, we have considered the following:

Our organisation’s size and resources

Gravesham Borough Council is a local district council managing increasing front-line service demands but reducing annual budgets.

We believe that maintaining statutory and essential front-line services should be prioritised over paying for a new website to be developed, especially if the future viability of this website is in doubt.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 3 November 2025 and is reviewed annually.

The website was last tested on 29 August 2025 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

Testing was conducted by Gravesham Borough Council’s Digital Team using a combination of manual checks and automated tools, including Silktide, AXE, and WAVE.

We’ll update this statement as we fix accessibility issues.