Accessibility statement

Website accessibility statement 

This accessibility statement applies to the www.gbmc.ac.uk website.

This website is run by the Greater Brighton Metropolitan College (GB MET). We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. This means, for example, that you should be able to:

  • Zoom text up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • Listen to most of the website using a screen reader
  • Modify spacing of text using an extension such as Easy Read in Chrome
  • Modify the colour contrast using an extension such as High Contrast in Chrome 
  • Use captions on videos, all of which are hosted on YouTube 

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.   

The College uses Google Workspace to support learning and we recommend using the Chrome Browser. There are a number of Chrome Extensions for accessibility.  Click here for more information. For Google's accessibility statements for individual Google elements, please view this website

How accessible this website is

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

  • You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • Some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software

Feedback and contact information

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. Please contact us using the details below if you:

  • Need information on this website in a different format such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille
  • Find any problems not listed on this statement, or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements

Email: marketing@gbmc.ac.uk

Call: 01273 667788 and ask to speak to the Marketing department.

We will consider your request and get back to you within three working days.

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 are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

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

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  

Text can be zoomed or magnified, and can also be spaced out using an extension such as Easy Read in Chrome. However, it is currently not possible for users to modify text spacing or line height. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.12 (text spacing). We are looking into a solution to this issue and will update this statement with our plan to resolve this issue as soon as we can.

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations 

PDFs and other documents 

Some of our older PDFs and Word documents may not meet accessibility standards; for example, they may not be accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value). The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential for active administrative processes. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. We will ensure all applicable PDFs are accessible by 31 December 2020 with the exception of our financial statements; these are physically signed by our auditors and a scanned copy uploaded to our website. An accessible copy can be requested from our finance department by emailing finance@gbmc.ac.uk 

What we are doing to improve accessibility

We have a rolling programme of updating content in accordance with the guidelines set out by the WCAG. We also have an internal Equality & Diversity Board which regularly reviews matters of accessibility to ensure ongoing improvements. 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 22 September 2020.

This website was last tested on 14 September 2020. Testing has been carried out by Greater Brighton Metropolitan College and BozBoz, our web agency, through a mixture of manual page reviews, interaction with browser extensions and automated testing using the Wave Accessibility tool and the Lighthouse tool.

We started by testing the homepage and then each of our different page templates and the modules that are used on the website. This included a random sample of individual pages where these different templates and modules are used. Where recommendations were found, these were either reported to our web agency and actioned, or actioned internally. The small number of outstanding issues will be resolved within the stated timeframes.