Accessibility Statement.

This accessibility statement applies to the Gateshead College website, www.gateshead.ac.uk. This website is run by Gateshead College with the support of Inspired Agency.

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 or 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.

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

• The Live Chat and Yes Cookie widgets use the lang attribute to identify the language of the page on some pages.
• Some images don’t have accessible names.
• Some links don’t have visible labels.

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read audio recording or braille:

• Email [email protected].
• Call 0191 490 0300.

We will consider your request and get back to you in 20 working days.

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, contact Helen Richardson at [email protected].

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).

Gateshead College is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

The website is partially compliant with the requirements of the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

The partial compliance is due to some content having outstanding accessibility problems/non-compliance issues that we are currently working to fix.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

• Some course information isn’t formatted correctly. Element li not allowed as a child element in this context. This fails WCAG 2.1 A success criterion 1.3.1.
• Some figures and images in PDF documents have blank ALT text. This fails WCAG 2.1 A F65 Section 508 (2017) A F65.
• Some image elements don’t have an accessible name. This fails WCAG 2.1 F65 Section 508 (2017) A F65.
• Some links share the same link text and surrounding content, but go to different destinations. This fails WCAG 2.1 A F63 Section 508 (2017) A F63.
• Some links don’t have a visual and accessible label. This fails WCAG 2.1 A F96 Section 508 (2017) A F96.

As part of our website maintenance retainer, we run accessibility checks across the site on a monthly basis to highlight any issues.

We then work with our website agency Inspired Agency to fix content which fails to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines versions 2.2 AA standard.

We will review this accessibility statement every year.

This statement was prepared on 8 November 2024. It was last reviewed on the 8 November 2024.

This website was last tested in November 2024 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. This test of a representative sample of pages was carried out by Inspired Agency.