Colchester Institute – Accessibility Statement
About our website
The Colchester Institute website aims to be highly accessible for all users. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website and to facilitate this the website uses the latest coding techniques that adhere to web standards.
Accessibility scope and aspirations
This accessibility statement applies to the primary website for Colchester Institute – https://www.colchester.ac.uk
Our aim is to make sure this website is as user-friendly as possible for all website users.
For example, users can:
- Change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- Zoom in to 300%, without text spilling off the screen
- 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
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.
For further information on making your device easier to use if you have a disability, AbilityNet is a useful resource for help and advice.
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 is this website
We know some parts of this website are not yet fully accessible and are working hard to ensure our website is fully compliant:
- Some downloadable content are not fully compatible with accessibility software
- Some of our website colours
- Not all video content contains captions
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
An updated version of this website is currently under development to ensure that we fully meet accessibility expectations.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons
- Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
- PDFs and other documents that are not yet
Non-accessible images
A few of our images do not yet have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
We plan to add text alternatives for all images by September 2022. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.
Subtitles on videos
All of our videos are in the process of being transcribed and subtitled. In order to view subtitles where applicable, please click the “CC” button at the bottom of the player.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
Throughout 2023 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.
Some PDFs and downloadable documents are essential to providing our services. There are published PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and some older forms may be published as Word documents. We are in the process of replacing these with accessible HTML pages or updating the documents.
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.
Any new PDFs or Word documents published on our website will meet accessibility standards or be accessible in an alternative format.
Further Information
If you need any additional information regarding content published on our website, or for it to be provided in a different format please contact us on the below:
01206 712000
We will do our best to accommodate your request and will respond within five working days with any outcomes or resolutions.
Language Translation
The Colchester Institute 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.
Website Feedback
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. Although we aspire to accommodate for the needs of all website users, we always welcome any feedback and suggestions for improvement.
Reporting Accessibility problems with this website
If you find problems not listed on this page please contact us. This can be done by filling in and submitting our website feedback form:
https://www.colchester.ac.uk/forms/website-problem-report-form/
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
Colchester Institute 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 reviewed on 19th October 2023 and the website was last tested on 19th October 2023. This testing and house-keeping was carried out using a number of the UK Government’s approved testing tools including screen reader technology (VoiceOver), keyboard only control, W3C Validator tool, WAVE browser plugin, WebAIM contrast checker, and AXE browser plugin.
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 course 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.
