News: We’ve achieved Shaw Trust Accreditation status for website accessibility!
Equality and inclusion is something we pride ourselves on at Nottingham College, so the news of our Shaw Trust Accreditation status for website accessibility is really important to us. It means we can confidently say that we are delivering best practice and providing visitors to our website, including those with disabilities, with a good user experience.
This project was a huge undertaking for our Web Development team, who over the past few months, have been busy working in partnership with HeX Productions, a specialist agency for web accessibility, to make improvements to the College website in order to meet the government standards expected of all public sector organisations.
The Shaw Trust Digital Assessment and Accreditation process is rigorous. More than 60 hours of accessibility testing by users with a disability goes into each and every accreditation. This is in addition to a stringent technical assessment by a team of digital auditors.
Why is accessibility important?
Website accessibility may not be something you’ve considered before, but for someone with a disability, it can make a huge difference to their user experience.
Implementing accessibility best practices covers everything from applying appropriate colour contrast, in line with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines; ensuring the layout of pages and how they display are clear; the use of accurate captions/Alt text for images and video content; that plain, clear and concise language is used at all times; and that information is presented through multiple sensory channels, such as sight and sound.
Senior Web Developer, James White, said: “We embarked on this accessibility journey together with HeX Productions, who have provided us with invaluable guidance and knowledge to help us achieve what we have today.
As one of the largest Further Education providers in the UK, it is very important that we ensure our website is as accessible as possible, not only because of the regulations for public sectors, but for all our staff, students and stakeholders from the community we serve.
“We will continue to build on the accessibility journey we have undertaken and want to make it part of the College’s culture in everything we do.”
Our accessibility statement and trademark has now been updated on our website. You can also view our Shaw Trust certification page.
More on the Government guidelines and what’s expected of public sector bodies can be found on the Gov.uk website.
Published on:
- 18th May 2023 (2:14 PM)
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