Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to the Heart of Yorkshire Education Group website at www.heartofyorkshire.ac.uk, including content relating to Castleford College, Selby College, and Wakefield College.

This website is run by the Heart of Yorkshire Education Group. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, this means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels, and fonts using browser or device settings
• zoom in up to 400% 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 have also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

To support our users, we provide Recite Me, an assistive toolbar available on every page of the website. Recite Me allows you to:

• have the page read aloud
• translate content into more than 100 languages
• change the text size, font, colour, and spacing
• use a screen mask or reading ruler
• access a dictionary and thesaurus

The Recite Me toolbar is supplementary to the accessibility built into the website itself and is not relied upon for compliance with the accessibility regulations.

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. The known issues are listed in the Non-accessible content section below.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording, or braille, please contact us:

Email: webmaster@heartofyorkshire.ac.uk
Telephone: 01924 789195
Address: Heart of Yorkshire Education Group, Margaret Street, Wakefield, WF1 2DH

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 10 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 you think we’re not meeting the accessibility requirements, please contact us at:

Email: webmaster@heartofyorkshire.ac.uk
Telephone: 01924 789789

Please tell us:

• the web address (URL) of the page
• a description of the problem you experienced
• the assistive technology (if any) you were using, including the make, version, and any settings

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 provide a text relay service for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired, or have a speech impediment.

Our colleges have audio induction loops at reception, and if you contact us before your visit, we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to contact us for more information about visiting our colleges.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Heart of Yorkshire Education Group is committed to making its website 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 (WCAG) version 2.2 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

Some interactive elements may not be reachable by keyboard. Some accordion-style controls and dropdown menus may not be fully operable using a keyboard alone. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.1.1 (Keyboard). We plan to fix this by 31 July 2026.

Some images may be missing meaningful alternative text. Some news article thumbnails, banner images, and decorative images may not have appropriate text alternatives. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content). We plan to fix this by 31 July 2026.

Some links are not descriptive or have empty destinations. Some headings and call-to-action elements are marked up as links without a destination, or with non-descriptive text. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criteria 2.4.4 (Link Purpose) and 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value). We plan to fix this by 31 July 2026.

Some pages do not have a meta description or page-specific title structure. This may affect users of screen readers and assistive technology when navigating between pages. We plan to fix this by 31 July 2026.

Some embedded third-party content may not be fully accessible. The website embeds content from third-party services including Issuu (publication viewer), YouTube (video player), and Eventbrite (event booking). We do not control the accessibility of these services. Where possible, we provide alternative formats — please contact us if you need an alternative.

Some PDF documents and other downloadable files are not fully accessible. See the next section for details.

Disproportionate burden

At this time, we have not made any disproportionate burden claims.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Some of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards — for example, they may not be structured so they are accessible to a screen reader. This applies to documents such as:

• archived corporate reports and minutes
• older policy documents
• some archived newsletters and prospectuses

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. If you need a document in an accessible format, please contact us.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Third-party content

Some of the content on this website is provided by third-party services that we use to deliver our service, including:

• YouTube video embeds
• Issuu publication embeds
• Eventbrite event booking embeds

We do not have control over the accessibility of these third-party services, but we work with our suppliers to encourage improvements wherever possible.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

The Heart of Yorkshire Education Group is committed to improving the accessibility of this website on an ongoing basis. Our plan includes:

• carrying out regular automated accessibility testing across the site
• arranging for an independent accessibility audit of the website against WCAG 2.2 AA
• training all staff who create web content on accessible content authoring
• testing new features with assistive technology before they are released
• reviewing this accessibility statement at least once a year

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 26 May 2026. It was last reviewed on 26 May 2026.

This website was last tested on 27 May 2026. The test was carried out by the Heart of Yorkshire Education Group internal team.

We tested a sample of pages chosen to cover the main user journeys and page templates of the website. The pages tested included:

• the homepage
• the Courses landing page and course search
• a sample course detail page
• the Students section
• the Employers section
• the About Us section
• the News & Events section
• the Contact Us page

The Heart of Yorkshire Education Group reviews this statement at least once a year, and whenever significant changes are made to the website.