Accessibility Statement for Gardening Barnet

This Accessibility Statement explains how Gardening Barnet and related Barnet gardening services work to ensure access for everyone. We value inclusive access to information about gardening in Barnet, community green spaces and practical resources. Our aim is to reduce barriers and enable participation across a range of abilities and assistive technologies.

We design with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at the AA level in mind. This means we follow principles of perceivable, operable, understandable and robust content. Our commitment to WCAG 2.1 AA helps make Gardening Barnet information clear whether someone uses a screen reader, keyboard only navigation or alternative input devices.

We provide explicit support for screen-readers through semantic HTML, appropriate heading structure, visible focus indicators and ARIA where necessary. Alternative text is added to images and meaningful descriptions are used for controls. We test with common screen readers and update content to reflect accessibility best practice for gardening in Barnet and community outreach materials.

Keyboard navigation is essential. Our pages are operable without a mouse: you can reach interactive controls using the Tab key, Shift+Tab and other standard keyboard gestures. We include skip links, logical tab order and clear focus states so people can find key resources like plant care sheets and event listings.

The following features support inclusive access:

• Screen-reader support through semantic markup and labelled controls.
• Keyboard navigation with visible focus, skip navigation and fully operable forms.
• Contrast and legibility to meet WCAG contrast ratios.
• Alternative formats for materials on request, such as large print or plain text summaries.

We use plain language and clear structure so that information about local horticulture, community plots and Barnet gardening events is understandable to as many people as possible. Documents and downloadable files are evaluated and improved to be accessible; where a document cannot immediately meet standards we will provide an accessible alternative on request.

Third-party content and integrations are monitored. While we strive to ensure all embedded tools and maps used to support gardening in Barnet are accessible, some external content may not fully meet WCAG 2.1 AA. In those cases we work with providers to seek improvements and provide alternatives where necessary.

If you encounter an accessibility barrier on a Gardening Barnet page, please let our accessibility team know using the contact options available on this site. We will acknowledge requests and work to provide information in an alternative format or fix the barrier. Our response process aims to be timely and collaborative; we log issues, prioritise fixes and publish progress as part of continuous improvement.

We test accessibility through a mix of automated scanning, manual checks and real-world testing across browsers and assistive technologies. Training for staff includes accessible content creation, semantic heading use, descriptive link text and how to create inclusive event pages for community gardening activities. Regular reviews help keep our Barnet gardening resources up to date.