Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to the Wirral Metropolitan College website: https://www.wmc.ac.uk/

This website is run by Wirral Metropolitan 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
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)

We have 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:

most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
some videos are missing closed captions

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, please contact the Marketing team:

email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
call 0151 551 7777
Use our online enquiry form to contact us.

We will consider your request and get back to you within 5 working days.

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

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or you think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact the Marketing team:

email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
call 0151 551 7777
use our online enquiry form to contact us.

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 are 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

Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Wirral Metropolitan 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 not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. The non-compliances and exemptions are listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

A few remaining images across our website are not consistently identified or contain appropriate alt text. This fails WCAG 1.1.1 Non-test Content (A) and 3.2.4 Consistent identification (AA). We are doing the following to resolve this issue:

Every effort has been made to ensure that alt-text descriptors are present on all imagery used on this website. On occasion, some older images may be missing these descriptors and we will update them as they become apparent.

Actions taken since our August 2020 audit

There was no ‘skip to’ content feature on our website. This means some users may have found it difficult to get to our main content easily. This failed WCAG 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (A). Our website agency added a ‘skip to’ feature to resolve this issue.
On our cookie popup the focus order was not in the expected left to right, top to bottom order. Users were offered the accept cookies button before the options to change preferences. This failed WCAG 2.4.3 Focus Order (A). Our website agency corrected the focus order.
Many user input elements across our website were not well labelled which may have caused some users difficulty in identifying the purpose of user inputs. On our apply and enquire forms this was only Date of Birth inputs and radio button questions. This failed WCAG 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose (A) and WCAG 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (A). Our website agency updated the labels on the apply and enquire forms.
Across the website are many collapsible pieces of content that structure large amounts of information on a page. These did not function as expected when used with keyboard and may make it very hard for screen reader users in particular to access the content. This failed WCAG 3.2.3 Consistent navigation (AA) and 4.1.1 Parsing (A). Our website agency amended the collapsible content so that this now functions when used with keyboard.
There were a few examples of elements that were not accessible by keyboard such as the Course filter reset button, course view more buttons on specific course pages and prospectus request category radio buttons. This failed WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard (A). Our website agency adapted these buttons to make them accessible.
On some of our pages such as enrolments and apprenticeships there were images that can be expanded. Once expanded these cause a keyboard trap with the user having no way to close the content. This failed WCAG 2.1.2 No keyboard trap (A). Our website agency resolved the keyboard trap issue.
On our term dates pages, table headings were not read out throughout the tables to preserve context. This failed WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A). Our table headings have been updated so that they are now accessible.
On the vacancy listings pages the navigation menu was moved through from right to left. This does not match the expected left to right, top to bottom focus order. This failed WCAG 2.4.3 Focus Order (A). Our website agency updated the navigation so that it reads from left to right, top to bottom.
On our Course fees funding page, we used other symbols besides the standard * to identify footnotes. These were not read out by screen readers and could have made it hard for users to understand context. If you require help with this content, please contact us. This failed WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A).
On our virtual tours pages the navigation menu was read out as button to screen reader users. This was not descriptive and failed WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A). We have resolved this issue by amending the navigation menu descriptor to ‘navigation menu’ and we have invested in audio and text ‘hotspots’ to improve accessibility for each virtual tour.
Many links across the website were not descriptive, this was a highly prevalent issue with our site using many “read more” and explore links that are not well associated with their surrounding content as well as many other instances. This failed WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (A). To resolve this issue, we have amended the text ‘read more’ and replaced it with descriptive text.

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 26 February 2021, 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 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.

Older video content

The regulations provide an exemption to the requirements to make older video content accessible that was published before 23rd September 2020. Many of our videos do not have appropriate audio descriptions or media alternatives. If you require this content in a different format, please contact us. We are committed to ensuring that all future videos will be delivered with these additions in place.

We have many embedded videos across our website. They have an issue with the controls when used with a keyboard that causes the play button to function as other previously tabbed through video controls. This fails WCAG 3.2.4 Consistent identification (AA) and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A). It has not been possible to fix this issue as the videos are embedded within Youtube and is out of the control of the College. We understand that these are exempt at the current time.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Wirral Metropolitan College is working to resolve accessibility issues on the website and have invested into accessibility and quality assurance software.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 10/09/2020. It was last reviewed on 02/12/2020 and is due to be reviewed next on 26/02/2020.

This website was last tested on 13/08/2020. The test was carried out by All Able Ltd.