Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to www.calat.ac.uk which is run by CALAT. 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 200% 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’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.

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
embedded videos do not all have captions
elements of the embedded Google maps do not have visible focus
no visible focus on tab links when zoomed to 400%
some embedded content from third party sites is not compliant with code standards, which may make it difficult to use. Alternative content formats are given wherever possible.

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:

send us a message
call 020 8726 7777
email calat@croydon.gov.uk
visit us at Croydon Clocktower, Katharine Street, Croydon, CR9 1ET

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

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 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’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

CALAT 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, due to the non-compliances and exemptions.

Non-accessible content

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

Users are unable to access various elements in the cookie banner using the keyboard. This includes the ‘Yes, accept and close’ buttons, expansion of the ‘Necessary Cookies’ and ‘non-necessary cookies’ elements and ‘Enabled/Disabled’ slider in the cookie settings. This fails WCAG success criteria 2.1.1 Keyboard.
When the site is viewed at 200% and 400% zoom the links in the submenus within the hamburger menu, cannot be accessed using the keyboard. This fails WCAG success criteria 2.1.1 Keyboard.
The focus is barely visible on the ‘Save & Accept’ button in the cookie settings banner. This fails WCAG success criteria 2.4.7 Focus Visible.
There is no visible focus on the ‘Home’ link in the main navigation bar. This fails WCAG success criteria 2.4.7 Focus Visible.
There is no visible focus on the ‘Click to see courses’ link on the banner area of the homepage . This fails WCAG success criteria 2.4.7 Focus Visible.
There is no visible focus on the three social media icon links in the page footer. This fails WCAG success criteria 2.4.7 Focus Visible.
When the site is viewed at 200% & 400% zoom and in mobile view (320×256), the search bar icon, close icon within the search bar and the hamburger menu icon do not have visible focus. This fails WCAG success criteria 2.4.7 Focus Visible.
The carousel of background images behind the ‘Change your life through learning’ heading on the homepage cannot be paused, stopped or hidden. This fails WCAG success criteria 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide.
When receiving focus, the white on yellow background links in the dropdown menus from the navigation bar, do not have sufficient colour contrast. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum).
The ‘Enrol’ button in the navigation bar does not have sufficient colour contrast. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum).
The ‘”*” indicates required fields’ text under the ‘Get news about CALAT’ heading on the homepage does not have sufficient colour contrast. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum).
The images in the carousel on the homepage slider do not have an alternative text. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content.
There are approximately seven image links below the ‘Course and event updates’ heading on the homepage that do not have discernible text. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) and WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.
There are maps on the contact page that do not have visible focus on the ‘Croydon Clocktower’, ‘Thornton Heath’ and ‘New Addington’ tab links. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard.
There is no visible focus on the ‘Croydon Clocktower’, ‘Thornton Heath’ and ‘New Addington’ tab links. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible.
On the contact page, the focus is missing for 8 tabs between the map frame in each tab and the ‘Name*’ form field. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible.
At 200% & 400% zoom and in mobile view (320×256), the search bar icon, close icon within the search bar and the hamburger menu icon do not have visible focus. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible.
At 400% zoom, some of the options in the select element below the ‘I am contacting CALAT about:*’ text, such as ‘English or Maths course /assessment query’, are partially cut off. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow.
When receiving focus, the white on yellow background links in the dropdown menus from the navigation bar, such as the links below ‘Learners’, do not have sufficient colour contrast. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum).
The ‘Enrol’ button in the navigation bar does not have sufficient colour contrast. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum).
The tab content wrapper (elementor-tabs-content-wrapper) does not contain an ARIA parent/child. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.
The accordion items below the ‘Course Results’ heading, cannot be accessed using the keyboard. This also means that users accessing the page via keyboard cannot get to the ‘Enrol’ and ‘View Course Details’ buttons within these accordions, even though the buttons themselves are keyboard accessible. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard.
At 400% zoom and in mobile view (320×256), the placeholder text in the input box below ‘Search Courses’ is partly cut off. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow.
There are elements in the document -Curriculum Strategy 2022-2023 PDF – that does not have sufficient colour contrast. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum).
The page title is missing from the document settings within the Curriculum Strategy 2022-2023 PDF. his fails WCAG success criteria his fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum).
There is alternate text missing on figures in the Curriculum Strategy 2022-2023 PDF document. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text content.
The Curriculum Strategy 2022-2023 PDF document is missing tags. Assistive technologies like screen readers rely on correct markup within documents to understand and show the correct information to a user. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
The linked texts in the body of the accessibility statement page, such as ‘AbilityNet’ and ‘Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS)’ is not distinguishable without the use of colour. Links must be distinguishable without relying on colour. This fails WCAG success criteria WCAG 1.4.1 Use of Colour.

Although an accessibility statement for the website was available, the following information was missing:

A commitment to make the website accessible, as required in the model GDS accessibility statement.
A scope for the statement or it was not clear enough. The statement implied that it applied to calat.ac.uk, but it was not clearly stated.
Known accessibility issues within the ‘non-accessible content’ section.
A statement review date.
A heading for “Feedback and contact information”.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

This website is in review and non-compliant issues detected in our testing will be resolved in order of impact and difficulty. Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). We plan to add text alternatives for all images by June 2024. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

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

PDFs and other documents 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. New PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. Live video We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are currently working with internal teams and external suppliers to improve accessibility on calat.ac.uk and its connected services. We will continue to monitor accessibility using automated and manual checks.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 26 January 2021. It was last reviewed on 14 March 2024. This website was last tested on 15 December 2020 against the WCAG [2.1] AA standard. The test was carried out by our internal team. The most viewed pages were tested using automated testing tools by our website team. A further audit of the website will be carried out by June 2024, to the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. A copy of the full accessibility test report will be published when available.