Hereford College of Arts Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to the Hereford College of Arts website.

This website is run by Hereford College of Arts. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

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.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. These areas are described in the Non-accessible content sections of this statement.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, audio recording or braille, please contact the marketing team on 01432 273359 or email marketing@hca.ac.uk. We’ll try and respond as quickly as possible but this will be no more than 5 working days.

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 the marketing team by emailing marketing@hca.ac.uk

Please provide your name, the subject of your feedback and the comments of your feedback.

Note: this is not for reporting technical issues you experience while trying to access a service (for example, website not working).

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

To visit us in person, please view maps for each campus.

If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact’ page, call or email us for directions.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Hereford College of Arts 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 not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1.

The non-compliance’s are listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Focus indication is lost when moving through all areas of the site. This may cause serious issues for some users. If you cannot access content because of this issue, please contact us. This fails WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible (AA).
  • If viewing the website using magnification and the navigation menu is a collapsed menu, keyboard users may be unable to navigate the website. This fails WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard (A).
  • There are several pages that have testimonial content. These testimonials queue messages for screen reader users which forcefully reads out the testimonials every time the testimonial carousel scrolls. This significantly disrupts screen reader user experience. If you cannot access content because of this issue, please contact us. There is also no way to control the testimonials to stop or navigate through manually. This fails WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard (A), 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide (A) and 4.1.1 Parsing (A).
  • On the website are content sections called “explore the course in images”. These cannot be controlled by keyboard users. This fails WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard (A).
  • There is no skip to content functionality on this website. This fails WCAG 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (A).
  • Across many pages of the website are duplicate links or links that are not as descriptive as they could be, such as on the Events and News pages. This extends to the use of image links which also are often not correctly described. This fails WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (A) and 4.1.1 Parsing (A) and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A).
  • The chat widget on the website does not have permanent form labels and the errors are not clearly read out to screen reader users. This fails WCAG 3.3.1 Error Identification (A) and 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (A).
  • Keyboard and screen reader users have to navigate through the main navigation menu twice because there is a hidden repeat of the menu. This fails WCAG 4.1.1 Parsing (A) and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A).
  • Across many pages there are elements which create horizontal scrolling at any magnification and when used on a phone can cause the user to completely lose track of all other content and be lost in white space. These elements such as “Explore our Instagram” and “Past Events” lists do not reflow at all. This fails WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow (AA).
  • Across many of our links we use arrows as a visual cue. These are read out to screen reader users as “greater than”. This is not descriptive. This fails WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A).
  • None of the social media links are described correctly, only ever called “link F, T or I”. This fails WCAG 2.4.4 Link purpose (A).
  • There are a number of contrast errors which mainly occur with footer content or dates listed for events. This fails WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast Minimum (AA).
  • Some decorative images such as those on the student experience page are not marked correctly and so can confuse some screen reader users with their descriptions. This fails WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content (A) and 3.2.4 Consistent Identification (AA).
  • There are some other carousels across the website mainly used for decorative purposes or the “discover uni” widget. These have no controls to stop the animation. This fails WCAG 2.2.2 Name, Role, Value (A).
  • Course info forms, ordering a prospectus and the online application form suffer with labels not being associated with the user input fields and often not having permanent labels (A). This fails WCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (A).
  • In the “more about halls” section there are some images of text which are not alternately described. This fails WCAG 1.4.5 Images of Text (AA).

Disproportionate burden

At this time, we have made no claims of disproportionate burden.

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

Portable Document Format (PDF) and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. By September 2020, 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. For example, we do not plan to fix historical council meeting minute documents published before 23rd September 2018.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Online maps

Maps that are present on our website and are not used for navigational purposes are exempt under the regulations. We use several maps to show planning or other geographical information. If users require an accessible alternative to this information, please contact us.

Existing Video content

We have pre-existing video on this website. The regulations do not require us to fix issues with video content published before September 23rd 2020. This video contains captions but does not have audio descriptions or a suitable alternative. If you require this content in a different format please contact marketing@hca.ac.uk

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Hereford College of Arts is doing the following to improve accessibility:

  • A regular quarterly website audit, followed by prioritisation of issues with key user journeys.
  • We create a design framework which has been tested for accessibility issues. This cuts down, but doesn’t totally remove, the risk of web editors adding design elements that are not accessible.
  • A project is currently in place to upgrade the website. During this process accessibility will be one of overarching principles and priorities and a project plan will be put in place to address and resolve each issue listed above.
  • Support, guidance and training process to be put in place for website editors to increase awareness of accessibility and what our responsibilities are.
    • As part of this training we will highlight the importance of Word and PDF accessibility and train users in how to audit and then improve the accessibility of these documents.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 21/09/2020.

It was last reviewed on 22/09/2020.

This website was last tested on 20/09/2020. The test was carried out by All Able Ltd.

All pages of the website were tested along with a sample of the documents from each area of the website.