Accessibility Statement for website and Virtual Learning Platforms

Reigate College is committed to making this website accessible, so that as many people as possible are able to use it. The site has been designed to enable you to:

• change colours, contrast and fonts using the accessibility tab on the right hand side of every page
• zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
• navigate most of the website using the keyboard
• Navigate using a screen reader
• view the site with responsive design on mobile devices

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 aware that some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

• some areas of the site don’t have high levels of contrast between text and the background
• not all PDF documents are fully accessible to screen reader software
• some images may have incomplete ALT text
• some forms on the site are not fully navigable with the keyboard

Feedback and contact information

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

•             email enquiries@reigate.ac.uk

•             call 01737 221118

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.

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.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

None.

Disproportionate burden

The disproportionate burden relates to our internal systems such as Moodle and Office 365. It would be a disproportionate burden to require staff to rewrite all of their teaching and learning resources in order to make them fully accessible.  Some resources are several years old and have been reworked a number of times.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when we do our annual review.

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

None.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

• Problem: some areas of the site don’t have high levels of contrast between text and the background
• What we’ve done about it: The accessibility helper sidebar enables users to change colours to improve contrast
• Problem: not all PDF documents are fully accessible to screen reader software.
• What we’re doing about it: We’re reformatting pdfs to make them accessible where possible, and educating content creators to help ensure newly created resources are accessible.
• Problem: some images may have incomplete ALT text
• What we’re doing about it: we’ve checked the existing images on the site for appropriate ALT text and will endeavour to ensure new images added to the site are compliant on an ongoing basis.
• Problem: some forms on the site are not fully navigable with the keyboard
• What we’re doing about it: some forms are in the process of being re-designed.

Moodle

The College uses Moodle for virtual learning. Moodle is an open-source learning platform designed to help educators create effective online learning courses. Moodle is designed to be accessible, but it is also highly customisable. Authors are free to create and upload content and resources of their choosing and arrange them according to preference. As a result, it is not possible to guarantee that all content hosted on Moodle is fully accessible. New content created by the College will be made accessible, in so far as this is possible, in line with the above principles and guidelines.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this VLE. For example, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts using in-browser tools
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software (Windows Speech Recognition)
• Navigate using a screen reader (Natural Reader)
• navigate most of the VLE using a keyboard

We are aware that some parts of Moodle are not fully accessible:

• some courses on the site (those set up in Grid format) are not fully navigable with just the keyboard. This is a limitation of Moodle.

Workaround:

• To optimise accessibility, Grid Format can be set to “Show one section per page” or
• the course format can be changed from Grid to Collapsed Topics.

Our Moodle VLE contains additional resources aimed at helping authors consider the readability and accessibility of the content they create.

SharePoint

SharePoint is part of the Microsoft Office 365 suite, a cloud-based application, and allows the College to share and manage content to allow collaboration across the College. As with Moodle (see above), content creators are free to create and upload content and resources of their choosing. Therefore it is not possible to guarantee that all content hosted on Microsoft Office 365/SharePoint is fully accessible. Content created by the College will be made accessible, in so far as this is possible, in line with the above principles and guidelines.

You should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts using in-browser tools (it’s recommended to use the most up-to-date browser available)
• navigate most of the VLE using a keyboard
• navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
• navigate using a screen reader
• view the site with responsive design on mobile devices

Video and audio content from Microsoft Stream (part of Microsoft Office 365), may be shared, via links or embeds, in Moodle or Microsoft Teams or uploaded to eStream. Microsoft Stream supports transcripts and captions. Automated transcripts and captions can be requested and made available to viewers. It cannot be guaranteed that transcripts and captions will be available on all our content or that they are checked and corrected for accuracy.

For more information on the accessibility support for Microsoft Stream, please see Accessibility support for Microsoft Stream.

Microsoft Office 365 and Windows 10 have inbuilt accessibility tools to make navigation easier, such as Microsoft Immersive Reader and Windows Narrator. Live captions can be used during Microsoft Teams meetings.

Planet eStream

Planet eStream provides management of on-demand user generated video content. We endeavour to ensure that closed captions/subtitles are published with all video resources where available, including resources from Reigate College’s YouTube channel that may also published on the College website and/or eStream. We try to ensure the closed captions are published and accurate, but this cannot be guaranteed. Subtitles are available upon request for our own internal videos which don’t have subtitles available. Please see Planet eStream’s Accessibility White Paper (link to pdf on their website).

Turnitin

Moodle and Microsoft Teams currently integrate with a similarity checking service, called Turnitin. Turnitin generates Similarity Reports on submitted assignments via the Feedback Studio Interface. For information on the accessibility of the Feedback Studio interface, please see Turnitin’s accessibility guidance.