College Websites

My intention is to run a full review in the near future of all the published Accessibility Statements on College and Service websites. On a provisional review, what has been a real surprise has been the high number of Accessibility Statements that are underdeveloped or are simply missing.

I am not certain which is worse, to be presented with an incomplete Accessibility Statement such as this example or this example on the right, or to instead be presented with nothing at all in 23% of all instances. To be presented with an empty page, to be presented with a 'Information Coming Soon' message, to be teased with a broken link, to be simply mis-sold, or, with the upmost irony, to be presented with restricted access is really, really bad.

For the second time in 2024, the Government Digital Service ran their own sample testing and found 14% (173 from 1,203) of Institutions did not have a published Accessibility Statement, which is actually 9% better than the 23% result of this comprehensive sectorwide assessment.

The irony is that this is a remedial qualitative assessment of a basic templated exercise (see right) to be undertaken by both Colleges that all boast dedicated Quality and Assessment managers, and by Services that are entirely funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which, of course, has its own fully compliant Accessibility Statement.

Maybe there is a lack of knowledge, or capacity to undertake this simple bureaucratic project. Hopefully these links will enable the pass rate of this template assessment of the technical operations of the the Sector to be 100%. And if you feel that I am being too harsh, The Bible provides a very good justification for me being so:

James 3:1
Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgement.

The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 came into force on 23rd September 2018 and are 'financed, for the most part, by the State, regional or local authorities, or by other bodies governed by public law'. It requires corporate websites to be 'perceivable, operable, understandable and robust'.

Institutions must 'perform an assessment of the extent to which compliance with the accessibility requirement imposes a disproportionate burden'.

Institutions must publish 'an accessibility statement in accordance with the model accessibility statement, and keep that statement under regular review'.

The Accessibility Statement must be 'provided in an accessible format and published on the website'.

The Accessibility Statement must include:

1. An explanation of those parts of the content that are not accessible and the reasons why, and
2. A link to a contact form which enables notification of an institution of any failure of its website to comply with the accessibility requirement, and
3. A link to the enforcement procedure to which recourse may be had in the event of an unsatisfactory response to the notification or the request.

A website is be presumed to be in conformity with the accessibility requirement to the extent that the website or mobile application conforms to Level A and AA Success Criteria as set out in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium.

The HTML Sample Accessibility Statement is straightforward to adopt and adapt and contains all of the sample wording and guidance on what to include in an Accessibility Statement.

It also very usefully provides a tickbox assessment criteria:

1. For websites, publish the statement as a normal HTML page.
2. Make sure it is linked to from a prominent place on the homepage or from every page on the website in a consistent place like the website footer.
3. Make sure it is in an accessible format that everyone can use.
4. Accessibility statement for [website names]
   Nota Bene This wording is legally required and must not be changed.
5. How accessible this website is
6. Feedback and contact information
7. Enforcement procedure
   Nota Bene This wording is legally required and must not be changed.
8. Technical information about this website’s accessibility Section
   Nota Bene This wording is legally required and must not be changed.
9. Compliance status
10. Non-accessible content Section
    Nota Bene If the website is fully compliant with the Accessibility Standard, then this Section should be left out.
11. Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
12. Disproportionate burden
13. Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
14. What we are doing to improve accessibility
15. Preparation of this accessibility statement

Excellent examples of Accessibility Statements and 'Road Map' schedules of review and improvement or compliance completion tasks:

The process of categorisation requires artificial characterisations. Most instances are clear and obvious but some are ill-defined or present in more than one category. This exercise in categorisation of the 431 FE/6F/AE corporate logos landed on six distinct characteristics and each is detailed in its own column; a Text Only category and 5 Hybrid subcategories. But please do feel free to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you see any that can be recategorised with a more developed characterisation.

Also feel free to circulate this report to colleagues in faculty that are teaching courses in graphic design, website operations, or enterprise to see if it would be useful as a learning resource.