Accessibility Statement for the Bury College Website

This website is run by Bury College. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

• zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen,
• navigate most of the website using a keyboard or 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.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Bury College is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This accessibility statement applies to Bury College’s website.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the exemption listed below:

• some PDF documents not being fully accessible to screen readers.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reason(s):

(a) non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some PDFs documents are not fully accessible to screen readers, and so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails:

• WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
• WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1: providing text alternatives for non-text content (e.g. graphics, logos), and success criterion 1.3.1: making content adaptable.
• WCAG 2.4.2 Page titled
• WCAG 3.1.1 Language of page
• WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships: Forms

Some of our PDFs don’t currently meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be marked up so that they are accessible to a screen reader. We now have processes in place to make replacements in an accessible format. Any new PDFs we publish will meet accessibility standards, unless we determine that they represent a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

We are working towards addressing this by removing older PDF documents and replacing them with accessible documents, or accessible web page content where this does not represent a disproportionate burden.

Please contact the Marketing Team (marketing@burycollege.ac.uk) if you have difficulty with any of the PDFs on the site and we will work to provide you with the content in an alternative, more accessible format.

What we're doing to improve accessibility

We regularly monitor the accessibility of this website using automated Quality Assurance software. We use this software to identify and fix any issues that arise.  We also use tools such as Deque Axe, Google Lighthouse and WAVE to assess our websites and find and fix issues.

We work with our suppliers and third parties to ensure compliance with standards and plan for improvements and fixes where possible.

Disproportionate burden

The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 require public sector bodies, subject to various exemptions and conditions, to:

1. Make public sector websites and mobile applications accessible.
2. Provide an accessibility statement.

The accessibility regulations state that a public sector body does not need to meet the accessibility requirement if this would put a disproportionate burden on them, provided that a disproportionate burden assessment is undertaken. The following disproportionate burden assessments relate to inaccessible PDFs on our site.

Inaccessible PDFs

Some of our PDFs are documents that are essential to be made public for Governance reasons (e.g. Corporation meeting minutes). Our assessment of the burden of making all of the PDFs on our site into accessible versions is that:

• these are historical documents created by the organisation.
• each document would require a number of hours of work to be recreated in a fully accessible version (estimated based on extensive experience of converting the active documents at between 2 and 30 hours per document, depending on length and complexity, plus any required sign-off).
• many of the documents are officially published and publishing a new version requires detailed checking, a formal sign-off process.
• many of the documents contain complex elements which are difficult to retrospectively convert, such as detailed tables, graphs, and diagrams.

Also relevant to this decision are that:

• interest in these documents is low – few people access them.
• the documents do meet accessibility requirements for a large number of users, although some groups will find them disproportionately difficult.
• of the documents we are proposing would represent a disproportionate burden, requests for additionally accessible versions are rare.
• we have, and will always, assist with accessible versions on request

Assessment

Where documents are no longer in active use, or no longer being updated, there is a high cost in terms of employee hours to convert. Some documents are part of the public record, but no longer represent the current position, and interest is limited. We will always respond to requests for different formats on a case-by-case basis, so accessible versions are available on demand.

We consider that the costs of converting older documents where there is little evidence of demand would be a poor use of limited staff time and would represent a disproportionate burden on the organisation in terms of cost.

Third-Party Content

site contains third-party content. We do not have control over and are not responsible for the accessibility of this content, but we endeavour to work with the third party to improve its accessibility. This may include:

• Content/functionality on our website.
• Content hosted on other websites, such as social media sites.

Feedback and contact information

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of our site, so if you find anything on the site difficult to use or wish to provide us with feedback on what could be improved we would welcome this feedback.

Please contact the Marketing Team by either:

• emailing: marketing@burycollege.ac.uk
• calling: 0161 280 8280 and asking to speak to the Marketing Team
• writing to: The Marketing Team, Bury College, Market Street, Bury BL9 0BG

To help us understand the problem as quickly as we can, please can you provide:

• the web address or title of the page where you found the issue,
• the exact nature of the issue,
• what computer and software you use.

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, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Preparation of this accessibility statement

The statement was prepared following an evaluation of the website by the Government Digital Service.

This statement was prepared on 23rd September 2024. It was last reviewed on 23rd September 2024.

This website was last tested on 17th September 2024.

This website was tested against the WCAG 2.1 AA standard. It was tested via automated testing, performed on 20 randomly selected pages, including the Home page. It was also tested via automated and additional manual testing, performed on the Top 30 most visited pages on the site.

The statement will be reviewed annually, and/or following a substantial revision of the website.