Website Accessibility
Our default website and CMS-generated code are compatible with WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility recommendations.
Key accessibility recommendations our code adheres to:
- Semantic code is used
- 'Skip links' to jump to the content
- Responsive build
- Colour is not used as the only way of conveying information or identifying content
- When users resize text or change text spacing, no information is lost
- Text reflows in small windows (“viewports”) and when users make the text larger
- All functionality that is available by mouse is also available by keyboard
- No moving text
- Default foreground and background colour combinations provide sufficient contrast
- There is more than one way to find relevant pages within a set of web pages
- Users are informed about their current location within a set of related pages
- Navigation mechanisms that are repeated on multiple pages appear in the same place each time
- User interface components that are repeated on web pages have the same labels each time
- Significant changes on a web page do not happen without the consent of the user
- Form fields have labels and clear instructions
Recommendations for you when adding content:
- The 'Image Description' field should be completed when adding images
- Images of text should be replaced with actual text or avoided where possible
- Any multimedia content should have captions
- No flashing content
- Pages should have clear titles and content organised using descriptive sub-headings
- Link titles should be obvious (rather than just 'click here')
UK Government Accessibility Guidance
The Government has published a useful guide to accessibility. We endorse these recommendations.
Whilst it's good for schools to follow these suggestions as far as possible, they are in fact partially exempt:
The following organisations are partially exempt from the accessibility regulations:
- primary and secondary schools or nurseries - except for the content people need in order to use their services, for example a form that lets you outline school meal preferences
Extra accessibility tools
UserWay offers a free accessibility widget as shown on our Holly Grange demo website (screenshot below).
You can generate your own free widget as described in this step-by-step FAQ. When you have finished customising, send us the 'embed' code and we will integrate it into the website for you. If you would prefer us to setup your UserWay account and generate the code, we would charge a one-off £75 to cover the work.
