Accessibility Statement
We are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability. We are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our website and in doing so adhere to many of the available standards and guidelines. This website endeavours to conform to level Double-A of the World Wide Web Consortium W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1. These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities. Conformance with these guidelines will help make the web more user friendly for all people.
Whilst we strive to adhere to the accepted guidelines and standards for accessibility and usability, it is not always possible to do so in all areas of the website. We are continually seeking out solutions that will bring all areas of the site up to the same level of overall web accessibility. In the meantime should you experience any difficulty in accessing this website, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Make this website work for you
The pages have been tested using various browsers to ensure that the information contained within the site is accessible to a range of different browsers. We do however recommend, that to get the best experience from your visit to our site, you view the site with an up-to-date browser.
By using an up-to-date browser (the program you use to access the internet) you will have access to a much richer set of options to aid you as you navigate your way around this site. The standard browsers we would recommend are below with links to install each of them:
Once installed, each will bring its own selection of accessibility options and may allow further customisation via the use of extensions. For more details see the Accessibility page for each one:
AbilityNet has further advice on making your device easier to use.
Changing page appearance
Most modern browsers include common accessibility tools – here is a list of useful features:
Text fonts
Depending on your browser, you may be able to override all fonts on the site to one that is easier for you to read. Guides here: Change Font in Firefox, Change Font in Chrome, Change Font in Edge
Enlarge your view
You can activate the browser zoom via these keyboard shortcuts: Zoom in Firefox, Zoom in Chrome, Zoom in Safari, Zoom in Edge
Navigating our Site
The Exeter College website is very large containing a great deal of information for a wide range of users. The site’s navigational structure is intended to make it easy for people to find the information they need. However, if you have difficulty finding what you want there are navigation aids available to assist you:
- Spatial Navigation. Hitting tab will jump you to each of the items you can interact with on any page. Holding the SHIFT key and then pressing tab will take you to the previous item.
- Search box. There is a search box on pages that allow you to search the Exeter College website and its courses.
- Breadcrumb trail. A breadcrumb trail has been provided to show you the path from the homepage to where you are in the site. This is available once inside the main sections of the site.
- ‘Skip to main content’ link. A ‘Skip to main content’ link has been provided on most pages as an aid to screenreader users. This link bypasses the banner and main navigation links going directly to the main content of the page. The link is invisible to graphical browsers but is usable to screenreaders.
- The Exeter College logo at the top left hand corner of each page is a direct link to the homepage.
- Links. Every care has been taken to ensure links make sense out of context. Title attributes have also been used where appropriate to provide further information about the target of the link. You will also be warned if clicking on a link will open a file or web page in a new browser window. The warning will either be in the link itself, the text immediately following the link, or in the title attribute.
Presentation
- Style sheets have been used in order to separate the content from the presentation. The content is still readable if style sheets are turned off or unavailable.
- Alternative text for images. All content images on the site use the alternative text attribute (often called alt text). This allows the image to be understood by text only browsers and assistive technologies such as screen readers. However, some of the images on the site do not have appropriate text alternatives. Images used for decorative purposes only have been kept to a minimum and when used they have been given an empty alt attribute. This means screenreaders will ignore these images completely.
- Plain English. The site is free of jargon using plain, simple English. Sentences are kept short using simple, everyday English.