Accessibility statement

Skills Connect: Accessibility Statement

Skills Connect: Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Statement for Skills Connect

 

Skills Connect is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. We are continually improving the user experience for everyone and applying the relevant accessibility standards.

This accessibility statement applies to the Skills Connect domain.

This website is run by the West of England Combined Authority. 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 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)
  • 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.

We are currently partnering with Recite Me to integrate an accessibility toolbar into Skills Connect, enhancing the website's accessibility, particularly for individuals with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

How accessible this website is

We strive to ensure that all content on this website is fully accessible. However, we are aware that some areas may not be fully accessible, including:

  • Some third-party applications or embedded content may not meet accessibility standards.
  • Some form elements and interactive features may lack full keyboard accessibility.

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

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

  • Email us at info@skillsconnect.org.uk
  • Call us on 0117 456 6955

We will consider your request and get back to you within 7 business days.

 

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or believe we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact us via:

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. If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you can 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. If you contact us before your visit, we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Our office is located at: 70 Redcliff Street, Bristol, BS1 6AL

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Skills Connect 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 the non-compliances listed below.

Non accessible content and features

Skills Connect 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 the non-compliances listed below.

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

  1. Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
    • Videos: Some of our video content does not yet have accurate captions. We aim to provide captions for all videos moving forward.
  • Forms: Certain interactive forms may not be fully accessible to screen readers or keyboard navigation. There may be some accessibility issues on forms we have created using Dotdigital and Lamplight. These issues include technical coding issues relating to ARIA text, labelling, confirmation pages not being correctly announced, and radio buttons not being associated with visual labels. We have requested the developers update the software.
  1. Disproportionate burden
    • We’ve assessed that it would be a disproportionate burden to fully address the accessibility issues of third-party services, such as YouTube video embeds. However, we provide alternative access to the video content when feasible and aim to use accessible third-party services moving forward.
  2. Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
    • Third-party content that we cannot control, such as Google Maps integrations and YouTube videos, may not be fully accessible.

How we tested this website

This statement was prepared on 22nd August 2023 internally, and updated 10th October 2024.

Accessibility compliance and quality assurance checks were made by the website development agency (JBI Digital) as part of their development process on this site, which was to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards on launch. In our next review, we will audit against WCAG 2.2 AA.

We tested:

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are working to address the issues highlighted and ensure that all new content is compliant with WCAG 2.2 AA.

We’re significantly reducing our use of PDFs, and ensuring that all PDFs pass accessibility checks before upload to the website.

We’re considering the use of third party tools and plugins to improve language, legibility and contrast for our users. We are considering the introduction of accessibility toolbars, making the website more accessible, especially for people with SEND.

We regularly review our site and will update this statement accordingly. We intend to commission independent accessibility audits every other year.