Accessibility Statement for Chelmsford College

Accessibility scope and aspirations

This accessibility statement applies to the primary website for Chelmsford College https://www.chelmsford.ac.uk.

Our aim is to make sure this website is as user-friendly as possible for all website users, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• listen to most of the website using a screen reader

Compliance status

At the time of publication this website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below

How accessible this website is

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

• Contrast: Some of our website colours and contrast.
• Keyboard & Focus Visible: Some links, elements and 3rd party applications are not accessible using a keyboard, including keyboard focus.
• Pause, Stop, Hide: For animations, videos and carousels: No option to pause banners on homepage
• Images of Text: Some use of text on images
• Gist - Live Chat Software is not accessible using the keyboard (however alternative contact information is available)
• You cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader
• Some downloadable content are not fully compatible with accessibility software

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

We will continue to develop and improve our website, allowing for additional content presently outside of scope to meet the current accessibility expectations and will include the replacement or updating any old content that is not yet in compliance.

Any new content published on our website will meet accessibility standards.

We are reviewing external plugins to try and source alternative options that offer better accessibility features.

Disproportionate burden

• The chat box is currently an external plugin – we are looking at alternative solution to improve accessibility – there are alternative options that are currently accessible to access the same service.
• Issues relating to external plugins and features that we have added to the site to offer additional ways of accessing information (that is also available on accessible areas of the site). We are reviewing these external plugins to try and source alternative options that offer better accessibility features.
• When certain pages are zoomed into &/or text size increased– the flow of the page can be disrupted, with some content overlapping. Also, the keyboard focus is not visible on the hamburger menu. We are investigating ways to accommodate access at this level of zoom.

Help with Website Accessibility

Most internet browsers allow users the ability to change the size of the text on webpages. The text size function is usually located in the browser menu, and provides users with a number of different size settings to choose from.

Holding control (Ctrl) on the keyboard and scrolling the mouse wheel or holding control (Ctrl) and then pressing the + or – key will also function similarly.

AbilityNet is a useful resource for help and advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

Language Translation

The College website is available to view in a range of languages. Users can change the language used on each page using freely available website browser translation tools such as Google Translate.

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

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

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 09th January 2023. It was last reviewed on 14th May 2024.

This website was last tested on 23rd March 2023. This testing and house-keeping was carried out using the UK Government’s approved testing tools including W3C Validator tool, WAVE browser plugin, WebAIM contrast checker, AXE browser plugin and manual testing.

Each page template is checked, in a variety of browsers (including Chrome, Safari and Firefox), against success criterion for both WCAG 2.1 A and WCAG 2.1 AA standards using, but not limited to the above tools and criteria checklist.

Where one page or template was used to produce multiple pages, a number of pages were selected at random to ensure compliance, where currently possible, with the accessibility standards.