Accessibility

Accessibility Statement for HSDC

This accessibility statement applies to www.hsdc.ac.uk. This website is run by Havant & South Downs College (HSDC). We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. Below you’ll find the various ways you can view the information.

To make your computer easier to use, AbilityNet has created an online tutorial called ‘My Computer My Way’.

Colour contrast

You can change the colour contrast for the website.

Text size

You can enlarge or shrink the words on the page so that it is easier for you to see them.

Navigation

You should be able to navigate most of the website using just a keyboard, speech recognition software and listen to most of the website using a screen reader.

How accessible this website is

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

• you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
• most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
• you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader

Feedback and contact information

If there are any areas of the website you discover are not accessible then please do contact marketing@hsdc.ac.uk so that we can look into it because we are always looking to improve the accessibility of the website. If you need information on the website in a different format such as PDF, large print, braille, please email marketing@hsdc.ac.uk.

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).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

Please contact us before your visit and we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter. Find out how to contact us.

Technical Information about this website’s accessibility

Compliance status

HSDC is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. We know that some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible therefore the website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed as follows:

Non-accessible content

• Not all images, video, audio and other media inside PDFs specify alternative text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We are working to address this and will only be adding alternative text to PDFs published after 23 September 2018. Where a PDF is a scanned copy of a document and we cannot source the original document, we will not be able to provide alternative text. We are working to address this and when we publish new content, we will make sure our use of media within PDFs meets accessibility standards.
• Some 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). We are working to address this and when we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.
• Some images, where they are the only content for a link, do not have a text alternative that describes the purpose of the link. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We are working to address this and when we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images, where they are the only content for a link, meets accessibility standards.
• There are approximately eight PDFs on the website that are not machine-readable therefore accessibility software cannot access them. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). The PDFs have been identified as scanned documents. Where the original document can be sourced and displayed on the website, they will be replaced however if the original document cannot be sourced or cannot be displayed (e.g. signatures to be in PDF mode only), we will not be able to replace these PDFs.
• We have a large number of adjacent links with the same destination. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). An example is our Course Finder where the image for the course and the course title both link to the course page. We will be working with our web developers to ensure we can combine links where possible.
• Some images may be incorrectly labelled as decorative, this fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). Silktide has flagged a manual list of checks and we are working to address this and when we publish new images we’ll make sure they are correctly labelled.
• Some alternative text for images may not be appropriate or sufficient, this fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We have a list of manual checks to work through, provided by Silktide and will correct any alternative text that does not serve the same purpose and the same information as the media describes it. Any future images published on the website will have appropriate alternative text.
• There are approximately 10 instances where alternative text is the same as adjacent text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We will be correcting this and ensuring any future alternative text is not the same as adjacent text.
• There is one pre-recorded video on the website (https://www.hsdc.ac.uk/study-with-us/apprenticeships/catering-apprenticeships-fullers/) that does not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2 (time-based media). We will be adding captions to this video or a script for users who may be deaf or hard of hearing.
• There are missing ARIA descriptions IDs on the website. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (adaptable). We will be working with our web developers to address this.
• Not all tables have headers. This is mostly on the course pages where there are multiple sessions/classes to choose from. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (adaptable). We will be working with our web developers to address this.
• Not all PDFs have headings. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (adaptable). We are working to address this and will be adding headings to PDFs published after 23 September 2018. Where a PDF is a scanned copy of a document and we cannot source the original document, we will not be able to provide headings.
• There are instances where related links are not marked as lists. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (adaptable). We will be working with our web developers to address this.
• The colour of the text does not sufficiently contrast with its background colour in some places on the website. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (distinguishable). We will be working with our web developers to address this.
• Some pages require zooming and 2D scrolling on small screens. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.10 (distinguishable). We will be working with our web developers to address this.
• Users cannot quickly skip to content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1 (navigable). We will be working with our web developers to address this.
• Not all PDFs have a title. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 (navigable). We are working to address this and will be adding titles to PDFs published after 23 September 2018.
• Some areas of the website use the same link text for different destinations. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (navigable). We are working to address this.

The above list is not exhaustive, and the full report can be accessed here.

We are working to ensure any new content added to the site is accessible. Please note that the above is a working list of non-accessible content and an ongoing project that is being worked on, with the goal that the non-accessible list will reduce over time.

Interactive tools and transactions

Some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag or the form controls don’t change appearance when they are selected. Our forms are built and hosted through third party software and ‘skinned’ to look like our website. We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when the supplier contract is up for renewal, likely to be in one year.

We use a third party platform to provide career information on each course page via widget. The widget code is provided by a third party and does not have a title for the frame. We will work with the web developers and the third party to see if this can be changed.

The Cookie Consent plug-in that the website uses does not have sufficient colour contrast for the ‘save & accept’ button.

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

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, policies and forms published as Word 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 we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 14 March 2022.

This website was last tested on 14 March 2022. The test was carried out by web governance platform Silktide and manually spot-checked by Laura Adshead (LA), Digital Marketing Officer at HSDC. We used this approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test – 1156 pages were tested by Silktide (including all page templates) and LA manually checked a sample of highly viewed pages.

Commissioning a third party to carry out a detailed compliance check for the website against the international WCAG 2.1 AA standard would place a disproportionate burden on HSDC therefore accessibility checks have been reviewed against web governance platform Silktide. Silktide scans the website automatically every five days and flags any new accessibility issues. The first full scan of the website was completed in January 2022 and we are working through the various checks flagged by Silktide with a view to having reviewed all checks by September 2022. The disproportionate burden also relates to only one jobholder being able to carry out these checks as part of their role.