Accessibility, with a clear plan.

Features you can use now

• Browse by keyboard, skip to the main content and see which control has focus. Page landmarks have distinct names.
• Enlarge text and use responsive layouts, including stacked course comparisons on small screens.
• Search and filter courses with labelled controls and announced result counts.
• Follow labelled forms with linked error messages and focus on the error summary. Invalid fields are identified in the page markup, including before JavaScript runs.
• Review your answers and go back to edit them. A warning appears two minutes before a session expires; you can extend it as often as needed, without clearing the answers you have entered.
• Use light or dark appearance through a named icon control. Mobile Apply is visible beside the menu. Motion is reduced when your device requests it. Image alternatives have been reviewed.
• Find public pages and all 45 courses through the site map. Confirm before resetting an application or clearing a saved list.

What has been checked

Responsive checks covered 17 pages at six widths from 320 to 1440px, in light and dark appearance, plus 27 mobile application, booking and payment states. Earlier automated accessibility checks covered all 45 course pages with their sections expanded.

The latest review checked mobile Apply, the appearance control, skip navigation, menu focus on short screens, linked form errors, application review, unavailable arrival slots, booking confirmation and payment decline/retry. Session-dialog Tab order and focus return were rechecked after a fix. An isolated timed session confirmed warning, renewal and expiry behaviour while retaining entered answers. Further checks covered staff error recovery, comparison-removal focus and Escape dismissal from the course-suggestion link.

The earlier baseline of 2,026 functional and markup checks across 17 suites passed on 2 November 2026, including print lifecycle, session-dialog and data-reset safeguards. These support the implementation review; neither functional tests nor automated accessibility checks establish WCAG conformance.

A further local review exercised real 200% and 400% browser zoom on the homepage and selected course/application states. At 400%, the search-suggestion list had too little room for a complete option; the local implementation now provides a readable search fallback when the popup cannot fit. The focused checks and a native post-fix retest passed: the query remained available, Enter opened the matching results, and suggestions and Escape worked at normal zoom. This sample is not a complete magnification assessment.

The local native itinerary print preview showed the college and event names, full date including the year, selected presentation and campus address on one page. Cancelling returned focus to Print my visit list. Cancelling a separate clear-list confirmation with Escape retained the selected presentation and returned focus to the clear control. Other printed outputs and complete keyboard processes still need review.

A further review recorded 23 page and interaction states across desktop, portrait and short landscape layouts. A 19-step keyboard walkthrough found visible focus outlines and unobscured focused controls, including leaving the short-screen menu for the main content. These are sampled findings, not a pass for every page or interaction. The retained film could be opened and paused by keyboard; Tab reached its close control, and closing restored focus to the original watch button. The paused player’s recommendations made that route lengthy.

Work still required

• College film — unfinished: English auto-generated captions and a transcript are available. A gap in the selectable transcript between 0:15 and 0:34, alongside different burned-in text, needs listening and timing review; this observation alone does not establish omitted dialogue. Full caption accuracy, meaningful-sound coverage, audio-description adequacy and continuous flashing-content assessment remain outstanding. The film is retained.
• College-hosted documents — unfinished: all six directly linked PDFs received structural inspection. Three are untagged; other findings include missing semantic headings and descriptions for meaningful diagrams or maps. These external documents have not been remediated. The employer form and bursary guidance have consequential roles in real enrolment/support processes, although the local simulated transactions do not require opening them. Those real processes must include accessible documents or approved equivalents. The document directory links to the college’s actual contact details; its demonstration enquiry form does not send requests.
• Magnification and printing: extend the native zoom and print samples to all required pages and complete journeys, and retest any fixes. Responsive viewport checks and a few successful native samples do not establish whole-site conformance.
• Assistive technology and user testing: actual screen-reader speech and complete journeys remain unverified. Devron’s documented manual and automated assessment is the proposed approach; no independent audit or certification is claimed. Testing with people with access needs would provide additional usability evidence.
• Complete review: the register covering all 55 WCAG 2.2 A and AA criteria remains in progress. Outstanding manual criteria, final college content and external services must be assessed before a production conformance statement is made.

Keeping content accessible

The production handover should train college editors in headings, link text, image alternatives, captions and accessible documents, with a publishing checklist and ongoing review. Training arrangements and support commitments will be agreed with the college.

Need college information another way?

Contact the College Careers Advice Zone on 01245 293031 or careersadvicezone@chelmsford.ac.uk.

Read the WCAG 2.2 standard and W3C guidance on the limits of preliminary accessibility checks.