Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to the Swindon and Wiltshire Institute of Technology (SAWIOT) website. It does not apply to content on subdomains or partner websites.

This website is run by New College Swindon on behalf of the SAWIOT. It is designed to be used by as many people as possible. The text should be clear and simple to understand. You should be able to:

• Zoom in up to 300% without the 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 (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

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

How accessible is this website?

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

• Some PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
• Course details content is not fully semantic, and some heading elements are not consistent.
• Not all videos are completely accessible.
• Not all images have alt-text.

What to do if you have problems accessing the site?

If you need information on this website in a different format then please:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you.

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 email ncsmarketing@newcollege.ac.uk.

Enforcement procedure

If you contact us with a complaint and you’re not happy with our response contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

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’).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

SAWIOT is committed to making its website 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 2.2 AA standard, due to non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Issues with PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be marked up so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value). Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish should meet accessibility standards.

PDF unique views within the our partner site, New College Swindon, last year were 207, making up only 0.02% of all page views on the website.

Issues with images, video and audio

If a video has captions, we do not always provide a separate transcript or audio description as well. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.1 (audio-only and video-only – pre-recorded).

Not all videos have edited, synchronised captions, which does not meet WCAG success criterion 1.2.2 (captions – pre-recorded) – in these instances, a downloadable transcript will be available instead.

We do not currently provide audio descriptions for all pre-recorded video content. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.5 (audio description -pre-recorded).

We will look to resolve the non-compliance issues with video by December 2024.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations: Third-party tools

YouTube

We embed YouTube videos on the site. We know there are accessibility issues with these features. We don’t have accessible alternatives and, as we don’t control the platform, are unable to make the changes required to improve them.

Disproportionate burden

External accessibility audit of this website

A grant from the Gatsby foundation was used to fund the development and build of this new site and as part of that process accessibility testing using automated and manual procedures was undertaken. We will review the need for an external accessibility audit within 12 months of the website going live (May 2025).

How we tested this website

This website was last tested on Tuesday 7th May 2024. The test was carried out using Chrome’s Lightspeed and the Axe accessibility tool, in addition to some manual checks.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

• Update essential PDF documents. Complete by December 2024.
• Setting up a more robust procedure for website content creation. This includes the following:
  • Specific training on the CMS tool and accessibility procedures for all new staff involved with content creation
  • Accessible pdf document templates have been created
  • Online training available to staff on how to create accessible word documents.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on Wednesday 8th May 2024. It will be reviewed in May 2025.