South Bank Colleges (SBC) strives to create an environment that promotes diversity, values inclusivity, provides support, and nurtures personal development; and we apply this same ethos to our website. 

As part of our commitment to inclusivity and support for all learners, we endeavour to provide web pages that are accessible to all users, and seek to ensure our website is fully-usable for people of all abilities and disabilities.

The SBC website aims to meet a minimum of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA (WCAG 2.1 AA) compliance, in line with the Web Accessibility guidelines standards.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, and we are continually working towards ensuring our website meets full compliance in the future.

Our website development partner provides technically-accessible platforms, which means our website has been tested in the WAVE tool which validates to a WCAG AA standard. There is a limited range of functionality which we cannot currently provide, but we are continuing to improve the accessibility of our website for all users. 

If you encounter an accessibility issue that is not listed on this page, or have any difficulty with accessing any of the information on this website, then please contact us at marketing@southbankcolleges.ac.uk.

We have prioritised the following functionality to assist with accessibility for all users:

• The ability to zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
• Navigating most of the website using just a keyboard
• Text is sized relatively to allow text scaling for visually impaired users
• Logical HTML headers allow screen reader users to skip between page content easily by moving between headings
• The majority of links are written to define their target, so will make sense when read out of context (there may be a small number of links that do not currently provide this function)
• All meaningful images have been assigned alternative text; if for some reason you cannot see the images, you will still be provided information on what the image is showing (there may be a small number of images that do not currently provide this function)
• 'Breadcrumb navigation' is used to provide location information within the website's information architecture and can be used an as additional navigation tool
• CSS is used to style page content, separating presentation from content, enabling users to access content using their own CSS
• Internet Explorer 11 will still display content and function correctly
• JavaScript is implemented unobtrusively so that if users disable JavaScript in their browser, pages degrade gracefully and continue to display key content. Please note: JavaScript is required for some features of the website, e.g. the course explorer function, but the website is navigable without JavaScript.
• The WAVE tool reports no contrast errors between background and foreground colours (AA)
• Text will reflow in a single column when you greatly reduce the size of your browser window
• Our online forms are designed to enable navigation using just a keyboard

• Untested areas of accessibility

  • Navigating the website using speech recognition software
  • Listening to the website using a screen reader

• Browser compatibility

  Our website is fully-compatible with the following web browsers. You are advised to upgrade to the latest versions for the best user experience:

  • Chrome
  • Edge
  • Firefox
  • Internet Explorer (IE11 only)
  • Opera
  • Safari (Mac)

• Customisation of the website’s appearance

  This website can be customised to suit your own visual needs and preferences; by changing basic appearance settings such as the size of the text, colour, and contrast.

  Changing the text size

  If you find the text hard to read, you may wish to make it bigger. If you are using Microsoft Windows and have a mouse with a control wheel, you can use this to change the display size. Press and hold the Ctrl button on your keyboard, then move the mouse wheel forwards to enlarge the text size, and backwards to decrease it. If you are using a laptop touchpad, then resizing can generally be achieved via the pinch-zoom functionality of the pad.

  Alternatively, you can control text size through your internet browser:

  • In Firefox select View>Zoom
  • In Internet Explorer select View>Text size
  • In Chrome select Settings>Appearance>Font Size

  You may want to change the colour and contrast of the website to make it easier to read:

  • You can change the browser setting for text and background colours in Firefox and Internet Explorer
  • You can install a browser extension in Chrome to change colours, for example ‘High Contrast’, ‘Midnight Lizard’ or ‘Pro Visu Look’
  • You can change the appearance of your operating system, including the appearance of most software, via a system setting: macOS, iOS and Android let you invert the colours and change to grayscale, but Windows gives you many more options with which you can change the colours of lots of different elements
  • You can use third-party software. Screen magnifiers often include the option to change colours as well, some literacy software can help you tint your screen; there is other software which allows you to do either or both

• Downloads, PDFs, Word documents, and alternative formats

  We aim to limit the number of downloadable documents on the website, as these documents could potentially cause problems for visually-impaired users.

  However, it is necessary for us to include documents that are intended for use in isolation from the website, e.g. a form that has to be downloaded and printed

  If you require information on the website in a different format, such as accessible PDFs, large print, easy read, an audio recording, or braille, then please contact our Customer Services Team at marketing@southbankcolleges.ac.uk. 

  To view a PDF file, you may need to download Adobe Reader (free of charge).

• Video content

  To ensure our videos can be enjoyed by as many people as possible, we are working towards providing captioning for videos which appear on our website or on Lambeth College’s YouTube channel. Where videos currently do not have captions, we are striving to ensure they reach compliance in the future.

• Third-party content

  Our website may include access to third-party content and functionality, or links to other websites. This may direct you to a related service, a partner we work with, or supporting documentation.
  We are not responsible for the accessibility of third-party content.
  If you do encounter any accessibility problems accessing third-party content, please contact us at marketing@southbankcolleges.ac.uk

• Reporting accessibility issues and providing feedback

  If you would like to report an accessibility issue with the website, or provide feedback on what we are doing right or where we could provide a better service, then please do not hesitate to contact our Marketing Team at marketing@southbankcolleges.ac.uk.

• Disclaimer

  It is possible that some of our older pages on some of our microsites may not conform to recent standards and guidelines. Our Web Team is continuously working to ensure that any non-compliant older web pages are rebuilt, and future web pages adopt our accessibility-focussed template. Where this is not appropriate, for example when websites are developed in partnership with external organisations, the Web Team is providing support and advice concerning accessibility.

  We have done our very best to ensure that our pages work well for any user and on a wide range of devices, including browsers on mobile phones. However, it is impossible to predict (and therefore test) for every possible issue. If you experience accessibility problems while viewing our websites, please contact our Customer Services Team and we will do our very best to resolve the problem for you, or provide you with additional methods to obtain the information you require.

• Contacting the Customer Services Team

  Clapham Centre
  45 Clapham Common South Side,
  London
  SW4 9BL