Accessibility statement for hrc.ac.uk

This statement applies to content published at www.hrc.ac.uk.

It does not apply to content on hrc.ac.uk subdomains (for example, xxxxx.hrc.ac.uk).

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

The text should be clear and simple to understand. You should be able to:

• zoom in up to 300% without problems
• navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• use most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

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.

How accessible this website is

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

• most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
• some images and text have low contrast.
• some images do not have the alt text

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information in a different format contact us by email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and tell us:

• the web address (URL) of the content
• your name and email address
• the format you need, for example, audio CD, braille, BSL or large print, accessible PDF

We will consider your request and get back to you ASAP.

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 us This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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) at https://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Hertford Regional College is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

Non-accessible content

The content that is not accessible is outlined below with details of:

• where it fails the success criteria
• planned dates for when issues will be fixed

Low Contrast Issues

• In some cases, there is very low contrast between foreground and background colours.
• This matter because adequate contrast is necessary for all users, especially users with low vision. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (contrast).
• In order to correct this, we are working with our website development company and this should be corrected by 31st Oct 2020.

Issues with images not having a text alternative

• Some of our images do not 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).
• Woking with our website developer, we plan to add text alternatives for all images by 31st October 2020.When new images are published, they will meet accessibility standards.

PDFs and other documents

• Some of our older PDFs and other documents do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).
• Some of our PDFs and other documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By March 2021, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages or compliant Abode PDF versions.
• 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 other documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested on 16th Sept 2020. The test was carried out internally.
We conducted a preliminary evaluation of different web pages from the target website to identify obvious accessibility barriers and develop an overall understanding of the accessibility of the website, following the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) methodology.
We tested:

• our main website platform, available at hrc.ac.uk

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Guidance will be created to help content authors understand the requirements for captions and audio description for all new videos. This is related to WCAG 2.1A success criteria 1.2.2 (Captions (Prerecorded)) and 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded).

This statement was prepared on 18th September 2020