Accessibility Notice

This accessibility statement applies to:

Portland Charity website: www.portland.ac.uk  

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

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in up to 500%
  • change the font
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader and change the narrator voice, play speed and tone to suit your preferences
  • highlight links and headers
  • understand the structure and order of web pages and content

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

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 please contact us at marketing@portland.ac.uk or on 01623 499111.

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

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

Email:  marketing@portland.ac.uk

Telephone: 01623 499111

We’ll consider your request and get back to you with a response in seven working days.

You can find directions to our sites here: www.portland.ac.uk/choose-your-future/visit-us/.     

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Portland College is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA.

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.

How accessible this website is:

While we have invested significantly to ensure the majority of the website is accessible, we know some parts of the site are currently not fully accessible:

  • when registering for email alerts, some form fields do not have programmatic labels so are not announced in a meaningful way by a screen reader
  • PDF documents are not fully accessible to the in-built screen reader software, however they can be read out loud using the Adobe Read Out Loud function
  • Where possible, all images have a text alternative, however, there are a few instances where this alt text is not recognised by the accessibility testing software.
    This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
  • All images and buttons have been tested using Screen Reading software, there are only 4 images that cannot be read by a screen reader, these are the 4 arrows next to navigation items in the main menu bar. As these are a (toggle down) indicator of a sub navigation, we have decided to leave them in place to support website navigation.

As well as building the site to be as accessible as possible, we have invested in an accessibility widget which enables users to customise their experience through a range of functions to meet their needs. 

Disproportionate burden

Interactive forms

Some of our interactive forms have accessibility issues. These include:

  • Not all form fields are announced correctly by a screen reader because some form controls are missing suitable programmatic labels. This fails WCAG success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value)
  • Error messaging is not descriptive. This fails WCAG success criterion 3.3.3 (Error suggestion)
  • Error messaging is not announced by the screen reader. This fails WCAG success criterion 4.1.3 (Status message)
  • Some of our forms are built using a third-party plugin called ‘Ninja Forms’, this has enables us to build complicated forms for use on the site.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the above issues and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. This is because we do not have direct access to edit these forms and are reliant on the third-party organisation to make the fixes. We will continue to liaise with the third party to ascertain when a fix is available.

Carousel

The carousel on our website is currently difficult to use with just a keyboard. This fails WCAG success criteria 2.1.1 (Keyboard) and 2.4.7 (Focus visible).

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the carousel and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

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

PDFs and other 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.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 19th October 2021 and last reviewed on 12 September 2022. It will be reviewed 6 monthly here-in after.

This website was last tested on 12th September 2022.  The website was tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 Level A and Level AA using https://wave.webaim.org/  

We tested all pages through this system and will continue to test page samples periodically.