Accessibility statement

Under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018, public sector organisations and education organisations that are publicly funded are now required by law to produce accessible websites and apps, along with a full accessibility statement. NATECLA is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and not a public sector body or funded by public monies. However, accessibility is at the heart of our practice and extremely important for our work as a key organisation representing the ESOL and community language sectors. We are pleased therefore to share our accessibility statement below.

Website

Our website is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 level AA. Partially conformant means that some parts of the content do not fully conform to that particular accessibility standard.

Our website was built using the SquareSpace platform using the SquareSpace guidelines for making our website accessible. 

Online events

NATECLA holds a number of online events throughout the year. These online events will take good practice in accessibility into account. It is the aim that any slides used will be compliant and other resources will be developed with accessibility in mind.

Events and training

NATECLA’s training events will take the accessibility regulations into account. It is the aim that any slides used will be compliant and other resources will be developed with accessibility in mind. We will always endeavour for PDFs to be in accessible format, however, as we work with many third party organisations, this may not always be possible. 

We like to take a person-centred approach to our training sessions. As such, we consider the needs of our delegates as much as possible. We consider that Worchestershire Council’s SCULPT Model is an excellent point of reference, helping us to consider key aspects of resource development, including: Structure; Colour and contrast; Use of images; effective practice for sharing Links; the use of Plain English and clear Table structures.

Whether our training is facilitated online, as a hybrid activity or face-to-face in a physical environment, the NATECLA team believes in evidence-informed pedagogical approaches that model effective practice. Much of this evidence base has been built up through the shared experiences and insights from the many practitioners we have worked with and supported in the past, resulting in a tacit knowledge base and the utilisation of co-created practices for accessibility that truly resonate with, and meet the needs of, participants. This approach consists of: 

  • Sharing of presentations after an event, and will consider requests to send out materials in advance.

  • Designing presentation slides and worksheets in an accessible format. For example, we endeavour that there are no significant contrast issues that might disturb visual stress conditions. 

  • Not overloading our presentations with too many visual or sound effects.

  • Not using too many digital tools in a session, so that participants can feel comfortable.

  • Create participatory spaces in our events so that people can have safe discussions and share ideas.

  • Embedding opportunities for digital literacy development, supporting and empowering people to articulate and address accessibility challenges and engage in learning in ways that meet their individual needs.

  • Offering people a choice about how they engage in or respond to a learning activity. For example, in an online training situation, participants may be encouraged to share their responses to a stimulus question using Mentimeter, with the chat function on Zoom also provided as an alternative method of response. 

  • Allowing the use of closed captions in Zoom spaces.

  • Sending a follow-up email or evaluation form following training events, asking people to share their experiences of the training, whether they felt their needs were addressed effectively and to share their ideas about how we can continue to develop and improve our practice. 

In many of the face-to-face and online training sessions run by NATECLA, we use a number of third-party digital learning and engagement tools. We are sharing therefore the accessibility statements from the key tools used in our training sessions:

Date this statement was prepared: 21.03.2024.  It was last reviewed on 21.03.2024 by the NATECLA Events and Training Working Group.

For feedback on this statement, please contact info@natecla.org.