This website is run by Student Loans Company Limited (“SLC”) on behalf of UK Government Digital Services. SLC is fully committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability. We’re actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our website and in doing so adhere to many of the available standards and guidelines. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
- zoom in up to 300% 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’ve 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.
What to do if you cannot access parts of this website
If you need any of our letters, forms or guides sent to you in Braille or large print, email brailleandlargefonts@slc.co.uk with:
- your address
- your Customer Reference Number
- what you need changing into Braille or large print
- for large print, include the font size and the font type you need
If there are any other parts of our website which you cannot access, please let us know by contacting us at accessibility@slc.co.uk
Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
We provide a text relay service for people who are unable to hear or speak on the phone. Our offices have audio induction loops for those with difficulty hearing and are visiting our offices in person. Or, if you contact us before your visit, we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter. Find out how to contact us: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/student-loans-company
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
SLC is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (“the Accessibility Regulations”). We’re striving to fully adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 (“WCAG 2.1”) AA standards. We acknowledge that this website is currently only partially compliant with those standards. We’ve provided details below of current areas of non-compliance, and details of when we expect those areas to be made compliant .
Non accessible content
Non compliance with the Accessibility Regulations
Page titles
Web pages need to have titles which describe the topic or the purpose of the page. This provides context for people with disabilities and helps them to find their way navigating through a website. Information should be included in the title to help those users who have visual impairments and rely on screen readers to provide context to them. Doing this will reduce the risk of these users becoming confused or disorientated when navigating through the website. The page title element of a web page should be an accurate and unique description of a page’s content.
Visual changes to the page are not announced (Screen reader users)
Policy documents page which gets updated with documents relevant to the option which the user has selected from the dropdown menu. This is visually obvious to sighted users but for visually impaired users it would not be obvious that this area of the page has changed and been updated with these links to the documents they are looking for.
Heading levels are skipped
The headings structure of the Exchange blog page has the potential to confuse and disorientate assistive technology users as headings communicate the organisation of the content on the page and can provide in-page navigation. Content that’s not within the scope of the Accessibility Regulations
PDFs and other documents
The Accessibility Regulations (opens in new tab) do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet AA accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value). Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By September 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages. Any PDFs or Word documents we publish from September 2019 will meet accessibility standards.
How we tested this website
The last test on this website was run in March 2019 . The test was carried out by User Vision. We tested:
- our customer account management areas, available at the following links:
- Student Finance England online account
- Student Finance Wales online account
- Student Finance Northern Ireland online account
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: accessibility@slc.co.uk
Enforcement procedure
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (“EHRC”) is responsible for enforcing the Accessibility Regulations. If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (“EASS”) for advice and assistance.
If you’re based in Northern Ireland and are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, you can contact the Equalities Commission for Northern Ireland, instead of the EASS and EHRC.
This statement was prepared on the 10th of September 2019 and published on the 23rd of September 2019