Accessibility Statement for CDN’s LearnOnline

This website is run by College Development Network (CDN). We want as many people as possible to be able to use our websites. 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’ve installed the Userway Accessibility Menu to help achieve these aims and 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. AbilityNet is a UK charity that exists to change the lives of disabled people by helping them to use digital technology at work, at home or in education.

How accessible is our website?

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

  • Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Live video streams do not have captions
  • Some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
  • You cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website, please contact:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.

What to do if you can’t access parts of this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. Please contact us if you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements.

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, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

Find out how to contact us here

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

CDN 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 listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
    When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.
  • Some of our forms are missing a corresponding form label. The function or purpose of that form control may not be presented to screen reader users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
    This issue will be addressed as part of our website refresh.
  • Where a form label is present, for some of our forms it does not contain any content. It will not present any information about the form control to the user. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). This issue will be addressed as part of our website refresh.
  • Our website has an issue with some empty headings – some users, especially keyboard and screen reader users, often navigate by heading elements. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (info and relationships). This issue will be addressed as part of our website refresh.
  • Our website has an issue with some empty buttons; the function of the button is not indicated to screen reader users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role, value). This issue will be addressed as part of our website refresh.
  • Our website has an issue with some empty links; if a link contains no text, the function or purpose of the link will not be presented to the user. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). This issue will be addressed as part of our website refresh.
  • Our website has an issue with very low contrast between foreground and background colours. Adequate contrast is necessary for all users, especially users with low vision. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (contrast minimum). This issue will be addressed as part of our website refresh.

Disproportionate burden

Navigation and accessing information

There’s no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option).
It’s not always possible to change the device orientation from horizontal to vertical without making it more difficult to view the content.

Interactive tools and transactions

Some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment in 2025.

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

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages as part of our website refresh work, due to complete in 2025.

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 our archived newsletters.

Any 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 undertaking a refresh of our website and plan to improve accessibility as a key aspect of that work, which is due to complete in early 2025.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 8 May 2024. It was last reviewed on 8 May 2024.

This website was last tested in May 2024. We tested the website using the Userway Accessibility Checker which provides a view on where we meet or do not meet the guidelines – but only from a technical perspective. We plan to undertake further accessibility audit activity, following Gov.UK advice.