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Accessibility Statement

Last updated: 25 January 2024

We’re committed to easy access for everyone

Aptem is developed by Aptem Ltd. The Aptem team embraces diversity and inclusion. We want everyone who uses Aptem, regardless of circumstance and ability, to feel welcome and find the experience rewarding.

This accessibility statement applies to the Aptem learner console. Our development roadmap includes releasing new consoles every few months to replace existing interfaces. Each new console will have accessibility as a key design characteristic.

Note: All new User Interface functionality is tested for accessibility (including Tutor and Employer consoles).

Applicable standards & guidelines

Aptem aims to comply with Level AA from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.2). We believe that conformance with these guidelines will help make Aptem more user-friendly for everyone. We use Wave plug-in to test to AA standard. All new FE components are tested to AA standard. 

Measures to support accessibility

Aptem Ltd takes the following measures to improve the usability and accessibility standards of Aptem: 

  • Continually updating our platform with releases that improve the user experience for everyone while applying relevant digital accessibility standards for people with disabilities. 
  • Accessibility is considered and implemented throughout the design and development process for seamless integration with product updates. 
  • Building out component libraries to create consistency across our products and ensure that all our design patterns are accessible. 
  • In addition to WCAG guidelines, we follow the principles of universal design where possible.

Accessibility features

We have completed the implementation of many compliant accessibility features for the Aptem learner console, including: 

  • Responsive pages that fit a variety of modern browser windows and mobile devices.
  • Maintaining WCAG compliant colour/contrast ratios for text (4:5:1) and visual objects (3:1).
  • Text alternatives for non-text content. Screen reader and other assistive technology support: exposing information to the accessibility API through the use of ARIA attributes (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver).
  • Providing keyboard accessible navigation.
  • Structural, semantic markup is used to provide information to assistive technologies on relationships and meaning within the application.
  • Providing labels to identify all form controls, including text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, and drop-down menus. 
  • Most legacy PDFs have been migrated to HTML.
  • Users are warned of time limits shorter than 20 hours and time limits cannot be turned off or extended.

Accessibility plan

Aptem is committed to facilitating Aptem accessibility and usability. Our efforts are ongoing, with our software development team implementing new accessible features every month. The conclusion of this process will be all Aptem areas achieving WCAG 2.2 – Level AA compliance. The Aptem learner console is the first released console with AA accessibility as the goal. It is currently partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances, listed below: 

  • Bypass Blocks: users cannot skip to the main content or bypass repetitive blocks of content when using a screen reader’ in some areas of the console.
  • Some sections are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard.
  • Assistive Technology Support for some old PDF documents. 

Compatibility with browsers and assistive technology

Aptem is designed to be compatible with popular assistive technologies (NVDA, VoiceOver & JAWS) and the latest versions of major modern browsers. 

In order to be up to date with new frameworks and technologies that respect modern web standards and to reduce our dependence on old/insecure technologies, we have decided to cease support for Internet Explorer (IE). 

Currently, we recommend our users transition from IE to Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox as stable and supported browsers for our upcoming releases. 

Different screen readers tend to be optimised to work with different browsers.

Third party content

Aptem customers can upload documents and eLearning into Aptem. The accessibility of these files is the responsibility of the customer.

Feedback and contact information

We strive to meet the needs of our users with disabilities and we are working hard to remove and prevent barriers to accessibility. Please let us know if you encounter accessibility barriers.

Email: accessibility@aptem.co.uk