Accessibility Statement for a "College" website

This accessibility statement applies to the College website (website URL)

This website is run by College. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

How accessible this website is

You can magnify the content on this website up to 400% using inbuilt browser features (e.g. CTRL plus/minus sign for PCs or Command plus/minus sign for Macs) and the website has been designed to reflow according to device screen size. Browser plugins (for example A+ FontSize Changer Lite for Chrome) can also increase font size separately to zooming.

The website has been designed to support menu navigation using a keyboard. Keyboard focus provides a visual indicator on the menu elements. Each menu and submenu element can be activated by a combination of tab key, arrow keys and the enter key.

All images on the website have been audited and found to contain meaningful accompanying alt-text or image description, where required.

Our website contains both audio and video content. All audio and video content is accompanied by appropriate transcripts, captioning and audio descriptions (where relevant). To access captions, click on the CC button on the media player toolbar.

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

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

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

● email [email address]

● call [phone number]

● [add any other contact details]

[If there are different contact addresses for alternative formats, complaints, support requests etc. List each of them here clearly labelled.]

We aim to get back to you in [number] days.

If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact’ page, call or email us for directions.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: [provide both details of how to report these issues to your organisation, and contact details for the unit or person responsible for dealing with these reports].

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).

If you are in Northern Ireland and are not happy with how we respond to your complaint you can contact the Equalities Commission for Northern Ireland who are responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’) in Northern Ireland.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

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

Compliance status

This website is not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. The non-compliances and exemptions are listed below.

Non-accessible content

We formally test the accessibility of key user journeys that represent the breadth of content across our website on a regular basis against WCAG 2.1 AA standards using a mixture of manual and automated testing.

If you find something that does not work that we missed, remember to contact us.

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Colour Contrast

There are some issues with colour and contrast which we are working to remedy. In the meantime, you can change the colours and contrast of this website to your preference by using a variety of third party tools such as Change Colors for Chrome and Color Changer for Firefox. Alternatively, a high contrast viewer such as High Contrast for Chrome may make your viewing experience better. This issue fails WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast Minimum (AA). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by [date]...

Focus indication

Whilst we’re working to improve the visibility of the keyboard focus you might like to try a browser plugin such as Focus Indicator for Chrome. It highlights the current tab focus. This makes it easy to browse for and follow relevant links. This issue fails WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible (AA). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by [date]...

Skip to content

Due to the absence of skip links, it takes many actions to reach the bottom of the page. Whilst we are working to improve this, you may find it helpful to access content near the end of the page using shift tab instead of tab. This will work you backwards through the tab order from bottom to top. This issue fails WCAG 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (A). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by [date]...

Keyboard access

The media player we are currently using on the VLE is not keyboard accessible. Please contact your tutor or course leader who can supply direct links to the relevant media. The course information is currently hosted on an inaccessible platform. Please contact the marketing department on the following email and we will send you an accessible Word version of the course information. These issues fail WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard (A). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by [date]...

Links

The majority of hyperlink text on the website includes meaningful information for users. However, we have identified the following pages where hyperlinks have been created that do not comply to our required standards. Whilst we work to fix these issues, please contact us if you are experiencing issues with identifying and accessing content through hyperlinks. This issue fauls WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (A). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by [date]...

Headings

The heading structure currently bears no relation to the visual heading structure on pages across the website. If you require headings for navigation, please contact us for an alternative format version of the pages you need. This fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by [date]...

Forms

Although the main features of this website work with a screen reader, we know the forms on the Student Support area are currently confusing for screen reader users. This fails WCAG 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose (AA) and 2.1.1 Keyboard (A). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by [date]... Please use the main student support email or telephone contact for one-to-one support on alternative ways of accessing the service. The majority of forms on this website are accessible. However, the following forms have been identified as containing accessibility issues due to missing meaningful form labels.

● Module registration form

● Contact us form

● Prospectus request form

Please contact us for alternative methods of form submission in these cases.

Languages

On the international language studies pages there are several pieces of content which are displayed in languages other than English. Some screen reader users may find that their software struggles to pronounce these pieces of content. This fails WCAG 3.1.2 Language of Parts (AA). We are doing the following to resolve this issue by [date]...

If you find an issue that we have yet to identify, please contact us using one of the routes described in the ‘Reporting accessibility problems with this website’ section of this statement.

Disproportionate burden

This section covers issues that we cannot fix right now. We’ve assessed the cost of fixing these issues but believe that doing so would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the regulations.

We are unable to provide alternative text descriptions for all visual materials within our highly image based archive service.

We have created a full disproportionate burden assessment for this archive that is available on request.

In summary many of the materials in these collections have rich and detailed context. To retroactively provide the in depth alt text for these thousands of images that would be required, would constitute an unmanageable cost. If you have a request about a specific item please contact us and we will be happy to provide alternate formats on request.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

Portable Document Format (PDF) and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. By September 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we do not plan to fix historical council meeting minute documents published before 23^rd September 2018.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Online Maps

Contact us page - A map showing the location of the college. There is a full postal address in the footer of every page that can also be used to find us if you cannot use the map for any reason.

Interactive campus map - On the explore the campus page the interactive map gives information about the facilities in different buildings. All information is also available as a list that can be navigated by keyboard.

Existing Video content

We have pre-existing video on this website. The regulations do not require us to fix issues with video content published before September 23rd 2020. This video contains captions but does not have audio descriptions or a suitable alternative. If you require this content in a different format please contact us.

Third-party content

The best way to learn more about the technical accessibility of a third-party platform is to review the accessibility statement for the platform provided by the supplier searchBOX, a centralised, independent directory of third-party accessibility information is a reliable source of this kind of information.

To help accessibility compliance across the sector, the College supports  searchBOX, a centralised, independent directory of third-party accessibility information. 

searchBOX catalogues the contact information and accessibility statements of third-party suppliers, enables the sharing of community-generated accessibility statements, and allows users to map their supplier ecosystem.  Users may directly source third-party accessibility statements using the free searchBOX Finder service.

The College encourages all our partners and suppliers to support this effort by ensuring that their accessibility information is included in the searchBOX Finder Service.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

The College is working with the website supplier to resolve accessibility issues on the website.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on [date when it was first published]. It was last reviewed on [date when it was last reviewed].

This website was last tested on [date when it was last tested] by [pick from below].

[Testing was carried out internally by the College] or [Testing was carried out by X 3rd party auditing service]