Accessibility Statement
Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sittingbourne is committed to making our website as accessible and welcoming as reasonably possible for everyone who wishes to use it.
We want everyone to be able to access information about our parish, worship, Sacraments, activities and services, including people who may use assistive technology or have visual, hearing, mobility, cognitive or other accessibility needs.
Our Commitment to Accessibility
We aim to make this website clear, straightforward and easy to use across different devices and screen sizes.
Accessibility is an ongoing process. As the website is updated and developed, we will continue to consider how its content and design can be made easier for everyone to access.
1. Using This Website
We aim to make it possible for visitors to:
- Navigate the website using clear menus and page headings.
- Read content using clear text and contrasting colours.
- Use the website on desktop computers, tablets and mobile devices.
- Increase or decrease text size using browser controls.
- Zoom into pages without unnecessarily losing access to content.
- Follow links that are clearly identifiable.
- Access important parish information without unnecessary complexity.
2. Assistive Technology
We aim to structure website content so that it can be used with common assistive technologies and accessibility features provided by modern computers, smartphones, tablets and web browsers.
This may include screen readers, screen magnification, browser zoom, keyboard navigation and built-in device accessibility settings.
3. Images & Visual Content
Where practical, meaningful images used on the website should include alternative text or be accompanied by surrounding content that explains their purpose.
Decorative images do not necessarily require a text description where they do not convey information needed to understand the page.
4. Downloadable Documents
Some information on this website may be provided as downloadable documents, including PDF or Microsoft Word files.
Older documents or documents supplied to the parish by another organisation may not always be fully accessible to all assistive technologies.
If you need information contained in a document but cannot access it, please contact us and we will try to provide the information in a more suitable format where reasonably possible.
5. Third-Party Content
Some parts of our website may link to or display content provided by other organisations, such as maps, videos, donation services, social media or external websites.
We do not control the accessibility of third-party websites or services and cannot guarantee that all external content will meet the same accessibility standards we aim to apply to our own website.
6. Known Limitations
While we aim to make the website accessible, some areas may not yet be fully accessible. This may particularly apply to:
- Older PDF or Word documents.
- Historic images or scanned documents.
- Content embedded from third-party websites.
- Videos that may not contain captions or transcripts.
- Features controlled by our website platform or external providers.
We will aim to improve accessibility where reasonably practical as content is reviewed or updated.
Need Information in Another Format?
If you are unable to access information on this website because of an accessibility issue, please let us know.
Where reasonably possible, we will try to provide the information in an alternative or more accessible format.
Please contact the Parish Office and tell us which information you need and the format that would be most useful to you.
7. Reporting an Accessibility Problem
We welcome feedback about the accessibility of this website. If you encounter a page, document or feature that you find difficult to use, please tell us what the problem is and which page or content is affected.
This helps us identify areas that may need improvement.
8. Reviewing This Statement
We may update this Accessibility Statement as the website changes, new content is added or accessibility improvements are made.
The latest version will be published on this page.
Accessibility Help & Feedback
If you need help accessing anything on this website, or would like to report an accessibility problem, please contact the Parish Office.
