Accessibility statement for the British Council Film website

This statement was prepared on 5th May 2021. It was last updated on 5th December 2022.

This statement applies to content published on the Film website.

It does not apply to other British Council websites.

This website is run by the British Council. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts of web pages (not including document downloads)

• zoom in up to 300 per cent 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 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.

How accessible is this website?

• some images do not have appropriate alternative text

• some link text is generic (or non-specific)

• there may be some issues with colour contrast with errors on our forms

• many documents are in PDF format and are not accessible

• not all media (pre-recorded or live) may have been captioned or have available transcripts.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: accessibility@britishcouncil.org

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Images

Some images don’t have a text alternative, so the information in them isn’t available to people using a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

Links

Some link text is non-descriptive and therefore does not inform the user where the link goes (without the context of the surrounding content). This may be problematic for screen reader users. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose).

Some links open in new windows but the link text does not inform the user that a new window will be opened. This can be disorientating for some users. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose).

We have an ongoing training programme in place for all our editors which covers accessibility best practice and are working to establish guidelines for our editors on how to create descriptive links. We continuously review all our sites to check that this best practice is being adhered to and flag any instances where it is not so they can be fixed.

PDFs

Many of our older PDFs don’t meet accessibility guidelines - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role, value).

Some of our PDFs are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services.

Any new PDFs we publish will be made as accessible as possible.

Video

Live video streams do not have captions. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live).

We don’t plan to add captions to live video streams because, currently, the technology that automatically creates the captions are not accurate enough.

Some pre-recorded videos do not have captions or audio descriptions. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.2.2 (captions - pre-recorded) and 1.2.3 (audio description or media alternative).

We have an ongoing training programme in place for all our editors which covers accessibility best practice and are working to establish guidelines for our editors on how to create, provide captions and audio descriptions on pre-recorded video content.

We continuously review all our sites to check that this best practice is being adhered to and flag any instances where it is not so they can be fixed.

Third-party content

Any web content that has not been funded, developed or controlled by the British Council, such as:

• social media elements

• interactive maps

• payment forms

• live chats

• online survey tools

• booking forms

• human verification such as CAPTCHA

may be inaccessible to those who cannot use a computer mouse and some assistive technology. Third-party content on the British Council website may fail to meet the following WCAG 2.1 success criteria:

1.1.1 (non-text content)

1.3.1 (info and relationships)

1.3.2 (meaningful sequence)

2.1.1 (keyboard)

3.3.2 (labels or instructions)

4.1.2 (name, role, value)

4.1.3 (status messages)

We do not plan to fix any issues within content that has been produced outside of the British Council.

How we test this website

This website is tested for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level A and level AA. We use both automated testing tools along with internal and external manual audits. For our external audits, we use the Digital Accessibility Centre who will be carrying out the next audit in January 2023.

We will aim to fix any issues that are identified during the audit by June 2023.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We have an ongoing training programme in place for all our editors which covers accessibility best practices and are working to establish guidelines for our editors. We continuously review all our sites to check that this best practice is being adhered to and flag any instances where it is not so they can be fixed.