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Accessibility

Accessibility statement for learnwelsh.cymru

We will update this statement annually.

This accessibility statement applies to the National Centre for Learning Welsh’s information on learnwelsh.cymru.

Using the Website

This website is run by the National Centre for Learning Welsh. Our aim is for the website to be accessible to as many people as possible. For example, this 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 also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

Select the link for advice on making your device easier to use, if you have a disability: AbilityNet

Accessibility of learnwelsh.cymru

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

  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader

Feedback and contact information

If you would like to request to receive the information on this website in another format such as an accessible PDF, large print, an easy to understand version, and audio recording or braille, please contact us through one of the following methods:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in within 15 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:  

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).

Select the link for more information: Equality Advisory and Support Service (equalityadvisoryservice.com)

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The National Centre for Learning Welsh 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 2.2 – Level AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions of some of the content on the website, as listed below.

Select the link for more information: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 (w3.org)

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

Some interactive eLearning content and functions whereby the very nature of the learning cannot be undertaken in a fully accessible manner (for example: specific learning and assessment in different disciplines of speaking, listening, reading and writing. There are specific tasks and assessments for speaking but if you are unable to speak, the technology and content will not be able to accommodate with equivalence).

Due to language learning, there is some video and audio content where it is not possible for subtitles, transcript or captions to deliver the content in an accessible way (e.g. a video of watching and hearing how a letter or vowel is pronounced)

The live streaming videos do not have explanatory text.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulation

We plan to add text alternatives for all images by September 2026 - this is due to the large volume of images and the fact that materials are updated on a regular basis. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

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. By September 2026, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

 

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.

Select the link for more information: The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (legislation.gov.uk)

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.

Select the link for more information: The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (legislation.gov.uk)

What we’re doing to improve accessibility:

  • An internal Accessibility Group has been established.
  • An 'accessibility' section is included as part of every tender brief for published resources.
  • An accessible copy of the Entry Level (South Wales) and Entry Level (North Wales) course books is available in Pdf and Word format.
  • A transcript is provided to accompany the audio and video resources of most of the curriculum resources.
  • Audio files without background music are provided from most of the curriculum resources.
  • An audio book is provided from the Entry Level (South Wales), Entry Level (North Wales), Foundation Level (South Wales) and Foundation Level (North Wales) course books.
  • The website pages have been edited to ensure that the text of the website is as simple as possible to understand.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

The website developer tests all new functions and features of the platform as a part of the sprint based user centric development process. Sprints are clusters of user stories which describe the feature/function from a user’s (or persona) perspective (e.g. As a learner I want to be able to…) . Within the sprint project cycles, user stories are include from accessible users’ perspectives. These form a part of the QA process where the following work is conducted:

  • Functional testing – Does the feature or function do what is says it needs to do in the user story
  • Technical testing – is the technical solution successfully implemented in terms of code, performance and technologies used
  • Usability testing – is the feature/function simple and intuitive to use from the end user’s perspective
  • Accessibility testing – Testing against WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 guidelines. We Strive to meet AA levels in testing against Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust aspects of the guidelines.

The following tools and manual methods are used in testing.

14 October, 2024