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Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to the Milton Keynes College Group website, located at www.mkcollege.ac.uk

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

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts (using our Userway accessibility widget)
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

This accessibility statement outlines the work we have undertaken, rebuilding our website to make it as usable and accessible as possible – in addition to documenting areas we still need to improve.

Naturally we want to provide the best possible browsing experience for everyone, across all types of devices and assistive technologies.  There is some useful information from the organisation AbilityNet on making your devices easier to use which may be of interest.

Where we’ve made improvements

We know parts of our previous website were not accessible, which is why we have built our new website with accessibility, usability and inclusive design at the forefront, to aim to conform to the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA underpins these regulations, and compliance ensures websites are Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust (POUR).

On our new website:

  • Images now have a text alternative, so everyone can access these descriptions.
  • ‘Skip to content’ links have been introduced to improve the navigation experience for all. You can now bypass the navigation and move straight to the main content.  
  • There are now distinguishable navigation landmarks (sections) that benefit those using assistive devices.
  • Breadcrumbs (which help signpost where users are on the website) are now present on all second-level and below pages.
  • Our forms are now much easier to navigate using just a keyboard and the descriptions/labeling for some input fields has been improved.

How accessible this website is

There are a few areas within the website that are not fully accessible.

  • some third-party embedded functionality does not state title, name and legend attributes – useful for assistive devices
  • there is some content with duplicate IDs, empty heading tags, and empty anchor elements
  • some areas of the site could have their colour contrast improved
  • live video streams do not have captions
  • when zoomed into 400%, some areas of the site such as our website header, cookies bar and live chat take up a large amount of space

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:

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

Please note that arranging for alternative formats may take longer.  However, we will respond to you within the above time frame to discuss your requirements.

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, please email website@mkcollege.ac.uk or call 01908 684444 and ask to speak to the website team.

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

We provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired, or have a speech impediment.

Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to contact us here.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Milton Keynes College 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 partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast

  • Some design elements have insufficient colour contrast to meet all WCAG 2.1 AA standards.

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

Live video
We do not plan to add captions to all live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Accessibility and inclusivity are of paramount importance to Milton Keynes College. We continually evaluate our website – working closely with our external web development agency – to make sure it conforms to accessibility standards.

We recently completed an audit of all existing PDFs on the website and corrected them all from an accessibility perspective (e.g. descriptive titles). We will ensure that all future PDF documents are fully compliant or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

We also give users the ability to use our UserWay accessibility toolbar which has numerous useful features; such as the ability to simplify the page, text-to-speech, text enlargement, screen masking and translations.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared in May 2021.  It was last reviewed on 30 July 2024.

This website was last tested on 21 December 2022 by the Cabinet Office. Manual checks included using each page without a mouse, viewing the page at different zoom settings, and simulating viewing the page on a small screen. The automated tests were completed using the latest version of Axe. Tests were completed using different settings in the Google Chrome browser on Mac OSX with a 13-inch screen.

Our web development agency has previously used the ReachDeck accessibility checker to carry out tests but will be using Axe going forward to test the website.

WCAG 2.1 compliance issues have been flagged from our recent audit, and issues have been worked on by our external web development agency. All remaining issues are currently in the development roadmap to be addressed. More information and timeframes are available in the ‘Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations’ section on this page.