Accessibility Statement

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Accessibility statement for Dudley College of Technology website  

Scope 

This accessibility statement applies to Dudley College of Technology, dudleycol.ac.uk, website domain. 

This website is run by Dudley College of Technology. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to: 

  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen. 
  • navigate the architecture of the website using speech recognition software. 
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader. 
  • the text will reflow into a single column when you change the size of the browser window.
  • you can produce and download alternative format versions of the page content using the Recite Me toolbar. 

The website incorporates the Recite Me cloud-based assistive technology toolbar which makes the website digitally inclusive by allowing visitors to customise your content so that they can consume it in ways that work best for them. This is available by clicking the ‘Accessibility Tools’ button at the top right-hand side of this website. 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: 

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days. If you cannot view any of the maps on our ‘find us’ pages, call: 01384 363 363 or email us at learner.services@dudleycol.ac.uk.

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: 

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  

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment. 

Find out how to contact us

Technical information about this website’s accessibility 

Dudley College of Technology 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 partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below. 

Non- accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons. We are in the process of transitioning all content from a site built on DNN to one built on WordPress, we are working through a list of priorities in increasing accessibility and we are initially focusing on making sure content is accessible on as many platforms/devices as possible, including changing the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations 

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

  • Some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software. (non compliant WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text content) 
  • not all videos have captions. (non compliant WCAG 1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only pre-recorded)
  • some of our website is difficult to navigate using just a keyboard.  (non compliant WCAG 2.1 Keyboard Accessible)
  • we are still working on making the application form more accessible. (non compliant WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text content) 
  • We make every effort to ensure that where appropriate all images have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader can access the site fully. We are aware that where we use plugs in from 3rd party suppliers i.e., the supply of LMI Careers data, this is not always the case. We are working with those suppliers to address this.  We are looking to introduce an automated mechanism to alert us of any non-compliance in this area. We will do this for the start of the 23/24 academic year in September 23. (non compliant WCAG 1.1.1  Non-text content)
  • From time to time, we use a WordPress pop-up message mechanism on some of our pages, which does not allow the keyboard to focus on the pop-up. We are looking for a new tool that addresses this issue to be in place for the start of the 23/24 academic year. In the circumstance we cannot find an alternative tool we will no longer use pop-ups using this mechanism on our site from September 2023. We acknowledge the pop-up message is not compliant with accessibility guidelines. (non compliant WCAG 2.1 Keyboard Accessible)

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, and forms published as Word documents. By September 2024, 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.

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.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility 

We are working hard to improve on any issues and our accessibility compliance is reviewed at least twice a year, in June and December.

Preparation of this accessibility statement 

This statement was prepared on 1st March 2020 and was last updated on the 14 April 2023. It was last reviewed on 14 April 2023.  

This website was last tested on 2 February 2023.  The test was carried out by our own internal technical teams testing. 

 We used the approach of deciding on a sample of pages to test, which were our most frequently visited pages:   

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