Accessibility notice

Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Chevening website

This accessibility statement applies to https://www.chevening.org/ website.

This website is run by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 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
  • zoom in up to 200% without the text spilling off the screen
  • View the browser in a one column format (1280px browser width and Zoom in to 400%)
  • 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.

Accessibility

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

  • Non-descriptive alt text has been used on some images
  • Content is added to the page after a search has been performed but does not inform people that use a screen reader.
  • The contrast of non-text content did not meet the expected ratio of 1.3:1 where borders on form fields were used.
  • Links are not always descriptive of their intended purpose or destination.
  • Links that open in a new window do not inform users that this will happen.

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, please email communications@chevening.org. Please put ‘Chevening.org accessibility request’ as the subject line.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 7 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, please email communications@chevening.org. Please put ‘Chevening.org accessibility issue’ as the subject line.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 7 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’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 Foreign Commonwealth Organisation is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

The Chevening website chevening.org  is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 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

Images

Non-descriptive alt text has been used on some images so people using a screen reader cannot understand the purpose of the image. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A).

We plan to add meaningful text alternatives for all images by the end of September 2021. When we publish new content, we will make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Forms

Buttons have been used in the mobile hamburger menu that are not labelled so screen reader users may find it difficult to determine its purpose when browsing both in and out of context. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A) and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A).

We plan to make sure that all form fields are labelled and done so descriptively by the end of September 2021. When we publish new content, we will make sure our use of form elements meets accessibility standards.

Updating content

We work with a third party called Postgraduate Solutions to provide our course search tool. When using this tool, content is added to the page after a search has been performed but does not inform people that use a screen reader. This means that people that use a screen reader are unaware that the search has been successful and results are displayed. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.3 Status Messages (Level AA).

We are working with Postgraduate Solutions to ensure that all content that is dynamically added to the page informs people that use screen readers as soon as the search results appear and are aiming to have resolved this by December 2021. When we publish new content, we will make sure updating content meets accessibility standards.

Colour

We work with a third party called Postgraduate Solutions to provide our course search tool. The contrast of non-text content within this tool did not meet the expected ratio of 1.3:1 where borders on form fields were used. This means that it may be difficult for people with low vision and/or colour deficiencies to know where to input information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (Level AA).

We are working with Postgraduate Solutions to ensure that all non-text content is clearly visible by December 2021. When we publish new content, we will make sure our use of colour contrast of non-text content meets the accessibility standards.

Links

Links are not always descriptive of their intended purpose or destination. This means that people with motion impairment are unable to skip links that they are not interested in, people with cognitive limitations may be disoriented and people with visual disabilities are unable to determine the purpose of a link without leaving the link to explore its context. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose – in context (Level A) and 2.4.9 Link Purpose – Link Only – (Level AAA).

We plan to ensure that all links are descriptive of their purpose and destination both in and out of the context of the page content by the end of September 2021. When we publish new content, we will make sure that links are descriptive and meet the accessibility standards.

Some links that open in a new window do not inform users that this will happen. This means that people can be disorientated when the new window appears. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.2.5 Change on Request (Level AAA).

We plan to ensure that all links that result in a new window opening inform people prior to selecting by the end of September 2021. When we publish new content, we will make sure that links inform people that a new window will open prior to selecting to meet the 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 2020, 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. For example, we do not plan to fix our Impact Report from 2018.

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

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 3 August 2021.

This website was first tested on 16 April 2020. It was subsequently retested in February 2021 and most recently on 3 August 2021. The test and retests were carried out by The Digital Accessibility Centre and covered the following journeys, which are representative of the main templates used on the website.

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