Accessibility Statement for Forth Valley College Virtual Learning Environment

This accessibility statement applies to Forth Valley College’s Virtual Learning Environment, Moodle.

This website is run by Forth Valley College. 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. AbilityNet is a UK charity that exists to change the lives of disabled people by helping them to use digital technology at work, at home or in education.

How accessible is Moodle?

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. We are aware of the following and aim to improve our website accessibility over the next academic session:

Course content on Moodle is predominantly text heavy and most information is presented in Word, Powerpoint or PDF.
Many video links do not include captions or text-based transcripts
There are variations in the levels of accessibility across individual courses
Moodle does not always work well with a screen reader
Contrast ratios are not always optimum for users
Some of the elements of Moodle do not work as they should for keyboard-only users

What to do if you cannot access parts of the Virtual Learning Environment

If you need information on Moodle in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

email accessibility@forthvalley.ac.uk
call 01324 403000
Visit us at

- Forth Valley College, Falkirk Campus, Grangemouth Road, Falkirk, FK2 9AD
- Stirling Campus, Drip Road, Stirling, FK8 1RD
- Alloa Campus, Devon Road, Alloa, FK10 1PX

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, call us on 01324 403000 or email us at info@forthvalley.ac.uk for directions.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of Moodle. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, call 01324 403000 or email accessibility@forthvalley.ac.uk.

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

We are happy to accept calls using the video relay service ContactSCOTLAND-BSL for people who are d/Deaf and British Sign Language users.

Our offices and classrooms have fixed or portable audio induction loops or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

You can e-mail us at accessiblity@forthvalley.ac.uk or telephone us on 01324 403000. For more information, please visit our website.

Technical Information

Forth Valley College is committed to making Moodle 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 2.1 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

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

There are issues using the ATbar colour contrast options feature in the Google Chrome browser however, it works well in Firefox. In Google Chrome the whole screen changes colour.
There are some inconsistencies that would impact on non-mouse users. The keyboard focus is not visible when tabbing through the home page on Moodle, which makes it difficult for keyboard users to identify where they are.
The Moodle accessibility block colour contrast features only seems to work on the Moodle home and not on others.
Moodle magnifies and reflows well ensuring text stays on page for enhanced readability. The main body of text magnifies to 500% but header/log in page presents in a way that would be less accessible.
Text to speech software does not allow highlighting and listening to text from the carousel banners at the top of the Moodle homepage.
The carousel sliding banner can be problematic for some people using keyboard navigation
Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information.

Content that is 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. Following our Moodle upgrade, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible pages and documents.

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.

Preparation of this Accessibility Statement

This statement was prepared on 23^rd September 2020. It was last reviewed on 23^rd September 2020. The website was last tested in September 2018. The test was carried out as a snapshot test by JISC using a variety of techniques and tools such as NVDA screen reader, Paciello Colour Contrast Analyser, ClaroRead Chrome and dynamic carousels.

What are we doing to improve accessibility?

We are committed to ensuring that Moodle is accessible and will be working improving our accessibility over the next academic session.

Accessibility

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