This website is run by London Borough of Bexley. 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 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.

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:

  • older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Calendar ‘Load more’ button on the homepage is not fully accessible using just a keyboard
  • The ‘Members of the board’ profiles do not receive keyboard focus when opened, but can be closed by keyboard users using the ‘Esc’ key
  • The navigation menu child items (hover dropdown) do not appear or receive focus in Internet explorer 11 and Microsft Edge browsers using just a keyboard, but can use ‘Skip to footer’ link to navigate to the footer, where these child items appear as links.

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

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 to explain how we will assist within 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:

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).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

If you are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment and need assistance when contacting us by phone or visiting us in person, then please contact the Bexley Deaf Centre:

For more information, visit the Bexley Deaf Centre website:
https://www.bexleydeafcentre.com/

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Strategic Education Partnership 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

Calendar ‘Load more’ button on the homepage is not fully accessible using just a keyboard. This fails Success Criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard. You are still able to access the calendar via the ‘Calendar of events’ heading link.

The ‘Members of the board’ pop-up profiles do not receive keyboard focus when opened. This fails Success Criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order. However, this can be closed by keyboard users using the ‘Esc’ key.

The navigation menu child items (hover dropdown) do not appear or receive focus in Internet explorer 11 and Microsft Edge browsers using just a keyboard. This fails Success Criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard. However, these navigation child items can be found in the footer as links. The ‘Skip to footer’ link can be used to navigate quickly to these child items.

Disproportionate burden

PDFs and other documents

Most of our PDFs and Word documents in the Document Centre and Calendar event pages do not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value). There are other more specific accessibility issues with many of these document as well, such missing alt text (Success Criterion 1.1.1, Non-text Content).

While we are now endeavouring to ensure any new PDFs or Word documents we publish (which are provided by a wide range of organisations) meet accessibility standards, the many past documents in the Document Centre and event pages are not essential to providing our services, are only accessed by a small number of people and are very rarely referred back to after initial publication. The cost of going back through the Document Centre and event pages and retrospectively making all these document accessible would be significant, and in light of their minimal use we therefore believe this qualifies as a disproportionate burden.

We are however happy to provide specific documents in alternative, more accessible formats, as and when requested via the following contact details:

How we tested this website

This website was last tested in June 2022. The test was carried out by the London Borough of Bexley’s internal Digital Team.

We used this approach to deciding on a sample of pages to test:

  • We tested every one of the site’s key features and plugins, since the functionality of each feature or plugin is replicated throughout that type of content, so if it is accessible in principle it should follow that all other content in that part of the site will also be accessible.
  • When plugins (third-party produced and publicly available web apps, which power the website’s functionality) require updates, we run updating testing in a development environment, that is a replica of ‘sep-bexley.gov.uk’. Each page is tested where the plugin is used to display or provide functionality to a page
  • When new content is proposed and drafted for ‘sep-bexley.gov.uk’, we:
    • use colour contrast checking tools to ensure contrast meets or exceeds the 4.5:1 ratio on background colours, text sizes combined with backgrounds and text colours combined with backgrounds
    • carry out keyboard-only focus order testing
    • test page or content using screen-reader software (NVDA)

This statement was prepared on 20/09/19. It was last updated on 03/05/23.