Accessibility statement for instituteforapprenticeships.org

This accessibility statement applies to instituteforapprenticeships.org, including the Trailblazer Portal.

This website is run by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • 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 have 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 is this website

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

  • We publish our end-point assessment plans as PDF documents. We recognise that many of these are not fully accessible. We are currently working on a solution to publish our end-point assessments as web pages.

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:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 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, contact: enquiries.ifa@education.gov.uk.

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education 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 following non compliances:

  • Some images have inappropriate values for their ‘alt’ attributes
  • Some auto-generated captions are not present and accurate
  • Tab panel is not conveyed to screen reader software users
  • Data table headings are not marked up correctly
  • Some text elements should be in heading elements
  • Some content is not in a landmark region
  • Search filters have an onChange event that is not stated
  • The reading order on some pages is not correct
  • Some controls are not keyboard operable
  • Focus order is incorrect on some page
  • Some input elements do not have visible labels
  • The state of a hide-and-reveal control is not exposed
  • A parsing validation error occurs on one page
  • Alternative audio for video content is required
  • Some components do not provide sufficient colour contrast
  • A sticky component obscures the whole page
  • The role of the controls is not exposed to screen reader software users

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • We use a third-party website to run surveys and consultations (Cognito Forms). We are aware of some accessibility issues such as missing form labels and low contrast text which is outside of our control.
  • Some image descriptions require updating or clarification
  • A tabbing feature is not visible for screen reader software users
  • Some data tables have incorrect table headings
  • Some text elements should be in heading elements, and some heading elements are not consistent
  • Some content requires a landmark region or landmark role to allow screen readers to jump to a different region on the page
  • On some search features a text warning should be provided to notify users of an on-screen change
  • The reading sequence on some pages should be updated for screen readers
  • Some icons, text links, hide and reveal components and page controls are not keyboard operable and their role is not correctly
  • identified to screen readers
  • The focus order on some pages needs updating to improve navigation for keyboard and screen reader users
  • Some input elements do not have visible elements needed for voice recognition software users
  • Some menus cannot be opened or closed by screen readers
  • A page contains a nested unordered list which causes a validation error
  • Some videos require audio description versions
  • Some pages have poor colour contrast
  • Some pages have content that is obscured at high browser zoom settings

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 that provide information about end-point assessment plans (EPAs). We will fix older PDFs, that are essential to providing our services, on request.

We also host pdf documents from third-party organisations. These may form documentation needed for people to comment on consultations hosted by the Institute, for example consultation on Higher Technical Qualification applications.

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 PDFs of the Institute’s Board meetings. To view these files you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download free from Adobe’s website: Download Acrobat Reader
Visit http://access.adobe.com for tools that convert PDF files to HTML or text files and for further information about PDFs and accessibility.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 16 February 2022. It was last reviewed on 20 March 2023.

This website was last tested on 26 October 2022. The test was carried out by net-progress.co.uk

We decided on a sample of pages to test by choosing a representative sample of layouts that are used across the website, and included rich content such as videos.