Accessibility statement for Falmouth Flexible

This accessibility statement applies to https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/, commonly referred to as VLE (Virtual Learning Environment).  

This website is run by Falmouth Flexible Ltd. 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 using browser or device settings 
  • zoom in up to 400% 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.  

How accessible this website is  

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

  • Some of our documents have contrast issues  
  • Some of our images do not have descriptions  
  • Some of our documents are not structured correctly for screen readers  
  • Some public or third-party sites’ live video streams do not have captions  
  • Some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard  
  • List items don't have tab-indexing on them so makes it harder to use the tab button to navigate around menus  
  • Some embedded text will not reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window  
  • You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text  
  • Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software  
  • Live video streams do not have captions  
  • Our older style accordions could be improved to make use of tab indexing  
  • You cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader  
  • There’s a limit to how far you can magnify the map on some of our content  

Feedback and contact information  

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: we@supportyou.tech to report this to the Learning Technology Operations and Support team. 

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille please use the available alternative formats.  

If you cannot locate the alternative formats button, please contact our Learning Technology Operations and Support team by email: we@supportyou.tech. 

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  

Falmouth Flexible Ltd 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 has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard. The website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below. 

Canvas VLE  

The Canvas platform is owned and run by Instructure. WebAIM, an independent authority in web accessibility, has evaluated the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) by Instructure and certifies it to be substantially conformant with Level A and Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1. While not fully conformant, conformance issues that pose a significant barrier for users with disabilities have been addressed in the sample evaluated. 

 https://www.instructure.com/en-gb/products/canvas/accessibility  

Resource lists  

Students access resource lists in Falmouth Flexible via a tool called Talis Aspire. Talis provide a Talis Aspire Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) which explicitly states how compliant Talis Aspire is as a product against each of the WCAG 2.1 AA criteria.  

https://library.fxplus.ac.uk/reading-lists-accessibility-statement  

Padlet  

Padlet are broadly compliant with WCAG level AA. Information about their compliance can be read on the following page: https://legal.padlet.com/accessibility  

H5P  

H5P lists the accessibility of each of its content types, which it tests against a WCAG 2.1 AA standard. When they list a content type as accessible. “it means that either there are no known accessibility issues that [they] are aware of.” Therefore the content type is accessible to a WCAG 2.1 AA standard or higher.  

https://help.h5p.com/hc/en-us/articles/7505649072797-Content-types-recommendations  

Wistia  

Most of Falmouth Flexible video content runs on Wistia, the default player aligns with WCAG AA Guidelines. Further information can be located here: 

 https://wistia.com/product/accessibility  

Big Blue Button  

Blindside Networks is striving to create an accessible online experience for all users of BigBlueButton. Blindside recognizes both the regulatory and usability benefits of complying with government standards for accessibility, and so strives to both comply with those standards and use them as a guideline for making BigBlueButton more accessible for persons with disabilities and difficulties. https://bigbluebutton.org/accessibility/  

Non-accessible content  

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

Contrast issues: WCAG 1.4.3  

Documents, images with text, and some page content may have a low contrast ratio between text and the background colour. Most of these issues are largely due to the nature of the creative courses and the learning material being provided.  

Where poor contrast exists, we are actively working with staff to address the colour choices for documents and images and aim to make any new learning material accessible.  

Images without a description: WCAG 1.1.1, 1.4.5  

Some images contain text-based information, or used to convey meaning, and have not provided a text alternative. This means people using a screen reader cannot access the information. Ongoing training with Staff aims to educate in this area, and where found or reported, the images will be fixed as far as possible to do so. We plan to add text alternatives for all images by May 2025. When we publish new content we will make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards. 

Headings: WCAG 2.4.3, 2.4.6  

Some of the content on pages and documents does not adhere to a typical heading hierarchy, so the structure and layout of sections may be confusing to those with assisted devices or tools.  

This is partly due to page template structure, however some errors are caused by content editors, where found or reported, these issues will be fixed by the 2024/25 academic year.  

Documents: WCAG 2.4.3, 2.4.6  

Some documents in PDF format are untagged and therefore do not appropriately highlight the structure of the document, e.g. defining what is a heading, paragraph, list. Where found or reported these issues will be fixed by the 2024/25 academic year.  

Scanned Documents: WCAG 1.4.5  

Some documents are either entirely scanned or contain pages that are scanned. Screen readers are unable to convert images into words, even if the image only consists of text. We plan to fix documents that are essential to study for 2024/25 academic year, as well as educate staff on accessibility best practice. The Falmouth Flexible platform also uses a tool within the VLE platform that can, where possible, provide optical character recognition versions of these documents.  

Videos without captions: WCAG 1.2.2  

Some older videos uploaded to the Wistia platform do not have captions. We will be remaking these videos over the coming academic year and uploading to other streaming platforms where they will be captioned.  

Content links without discernible text: WCAG 2.4.4 and 2.4.9.  

Some links do not have descriptive text or titles, we are working though these as we update and create new content.  

Forms: WCAG 1.3.1, 4.1.2  

Some form elements do not have a label. This is a third-party issue with the platform and outside of our control.  

Disproportionate burden  

We do not consider any of our accessibility issues come under disproportionate burden. 

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 fix these by the 2024/25 academic year.  

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. 

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.  

Videos without captions 

Video content published before September 2020 is exempt from the regulations and therefore may not be accessible. All new video content going forward will adhere to applicable regulations. 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility  

We are committed to improving accessibility and we are taking measures to improve the accessibility of our Virtual Learning Environments moving forward. Our content development teams follow guidance set out under applicable laws, regulations or codes, including the Equality Act, W3C standards and WCAG standards.  

Preparation of this accessibility statement  

This statement was prepared on 29 March 2023. It was last reviewed on 29 March 2023.  

This website was last tested on 28 March 2023 against the WCAG 2.1 AA standard. 

The test was carried out by Falmouth Flexible Ltd using Anthology Ally for LMS. We used this approach to test as Anthology Ally provides a comprehensive breakdown of the types of issues that have been encountered on Falmouth Flexible VLE.