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Accessibility Statement

1. Introduction

Chorus Education Trust is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This accessibility statement applies to all websites run by Chorus Education Trust.

This includes:

These websites are run by Chorus Education Trust. We want as many people as possible to be able to use these websites. For example, that 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 a keyboard or 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.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

2. Technical information about this website’s accessibility

2.1 Compliance Status

This website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.

This website is partially compliant with the WCAG 2.2 AA standard due to the non-compliances listed below.

Schools are partially exempt from the legislation – though we are required to ensure content people need in order to use our services are compliant, for example forms that let you report a student absence.

2.2 Non-accessible content

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

2.2.1 Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Alt Text: We endeavour to ensure that, where needed, we include alternative text for any images. At present, we have some images on our websites that are without appropriate alt text or are incorrectly defined as decorative. This fails criterion WCAG 2.0 A 1.1. We are seeking to resolve these issues as part of our current development work due for completion by August 2026.
Tables: We endeavour to ensure that, where needed, tables are correctly marked up and have appropriate headings and summaries set. Currently, there are some tables on our websites that are missing these details including our calendars. This fails criterion WCAG 2.0 A 1.3. We are seeking to resolve these issues as part of our current development work due for completion by August 2026.
Headings: All webpages should follow a logical order and contain a top-level heading. Currently some of our homepages and 404 pages are missing these features. This fails criterion WCAG 2.0 A 1.3. We are seeking to resolve these issues as part of our current development work due for completion by August 2026.
Colours: We seek to ensure sufficient contrast between the text and backgrounds on all our sites. Currently there are some instances where this contrast is not strong enough. This fails criterion WCAG 2.0 A and AA 1.4. We are seeking to resolve these issues as part of our currently development work due for completion by August 2026.
Links: We seek to ensure that links are descriptive, are distinguished by more than just colour, can be read by screen readers and avoid using the same link text for different destinations. Currently our footers and some of our link text fail this check. This fails criterion WCAG 2.0 AA 1.4 and A 4.1. We are seeking to resolve this as part of our current development work due for completion by August 2026.
Skip to Content: All users should be able to skip to the main content of a page using keyboard navigation. This feature is currently not working on the Trust websites. This fails criterion WCAG 2.0 A 2.4. We are seeking to resolve this as part of our current development work due for completion by August 2026.
Focus: Any controls on our websites should change appearance when they are selected, and a focus outline should be visible when navigating with a keyboard. Not all elements on our websites currently comply. This fails criterion WCAG 2.0 AA 2. We are seeking to resolve this as part of our current development work due for completion by August 2026.
Components: All interactive elements of the website should be far enough apart. Currently our breadcrumbs fail this check. This fails criterion WCAG 2.0 AA 2.5. We are seeking to resolve this as part of our current development work due for completion by August 2026.
Content markup: There should be no duplicate IDs and all lists should be marked up correctly. Currently there are duplicate IDs in our news items, and lists are not correctly marked up for some of our news and social media elements and some of our menus. This fails criterion WCAG 2.0 A 4.1. We are seeking to resolve this as part of our current development work due for completion by August 2026.
Pinch-to-zoom: Pinch-to-zoom is not currently enabled on our websites. This fails criterion WCAG 2.0 AA 1.4. We are seeking to resolve this as part of our current development work due for completion by August 2026.
PDFs: Not all PDFs published after 23 September 2018 are fully accessible. This fails multiple criteria including WCAG 2.0 A 1.1, 1.3, 2.4 and 3.2. We plan to remove or fix all non-compliant PDFs by December 2026.
Translation: Our integrated translation tool uses Google Translate and fails multiple criteria including WCAG 2.1 AA 1.3 and 1.4. We are currently investigating alternative tools or approaches to enable translation on our websites.

2.2.2 Disproportionate burden

While we would like to achieve WCAG 2.2 AAA compliance, we believe that achieving this higher level of compliance would be a disproportionate burden due to the associated development costs and design costs that would be required of our brand identities.

Wherever possible we will resolve AAA guideline issues, but we are unlikely to resolve them all.

We also make use of some third-party systems including Google Maps, Google Translate, Heyzine, MyNewTerm and Vimeo. While we seek to ensure our usage of these tools meet accessibility guidelines, we cannot control the accessibility of their services. We encourage you to contact us if you have difficulties accessing any content on our websites using these external services.

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

2.2.3.1 PDFs and other 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.

We plan to remove or fix all non-compliant PDFs by December 2026.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish should meet accessibility standards and we are improving our processes to ensure this happens.

2.2.3.2 Live video

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

3. What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are currently developing a new Trust website (www.chorustrust.org) with the expectation that it will be WCAG 2.2 AA compliant. This is anticipated to launch around Easter 2026.

We are also working with our developers to make accessibility fixes to our school websites. We expect our websites to be fully compliant by the 2026-2027 academic year.

4. Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared in January 2025. It was last reviewed and updated in January 2026.

The website was last tested in January 2026 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

The test was carried out by our Digital Marketing Manager using automated and assisted testing tools.

5. Feedback and contact information

If you encounter any accessibility barriers or have suggestions to improve your experience, please contact us:

Email: communications@chorustrust.org
Phone: 0114 235 7983
Address: Digital Marketing Manager, Chorus Education Trust, Unit 4 Acres Hill Business Park, Acres Hill Lane, Sheffield, S9 4LR

When reporting an issue, please include:

The webpage or feature you experienced difficulties with – if possible, provide details on your browser, any assistive technology being used, and any screenshots of your experience
Your contact information – this is optional, but being able to get in touch with you may help us solve the difficulties more effectively

6. 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).

Eckington School