Accessibility

We have procured Web Blackboard Ally to monitor the accessibility of web content. We have trained staff on accessibility standards, and Blackboard Ally to ensure that only accessible content is posted. Any issues identified by Blackboard Ally will be corrected before publishing. A plan is being developed to address older content. Compliance with accessibility standards is being monitored and reported on to our Executive Leadership Team. The Blackboard Ally tool is displayed on all pages and documents across the site, offering users various accessibility options to suit their needs including alternate versions, audio versions and translations.

The Blackboard Ally tool can be used by all users by simply clicking on the icon displayed on the bottom right side of every page. This tool offers users the opportunity to download the page content in an alternative format such as ePub, electronic braille, audio, BeeLine reader or translated versions. 

Tools such as ATbar can be used to improve user accessibility, Belfast Met’s website is compatible with ATbar. ATbar has been created as an open-source, cross-browser toolbar to help users customise the way they view and interact with web pages. The concept behind ATbar is simple: One toolbar to provide all of the functionality you would usually achieve through the use of different settings or products.

ATbar is free and allows you to change the look and feel of webpages, increase and decrease font sizes, have text read aloud, use coloured overlays, readability and a dictionary to aid reading. Spell check forms and try word prediction when writing. It is a simple tool which is available for most popular browsers.

ATbar can increase the accessibility of a website and offer a personalised user experience.

It is designed for those who may not have their assistive technologies to hand and need a quick way of accessing text on the screen with magnification and/or text to speech etc. It can help those with low vision, dyslexia, other reading difficulties as well as those who may wish to just reduce the glare of black text on bright white backgrounds. It is not designed for regular screen reader users who need their assistive technology to access the computer as well as their browser.

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, contact marketinganddesign@belfastmet.ac.uk

The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland 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, you can also contact the Equality Commission’s Discrimination Advice Officers for further advice, email ComplaintsOfficers@equalityni.org or telephone 028 90500 600.

You can contact us through our main switchboard on 028 9026 5000. You can also email us using a variety of email addresses. The ‘Contact Us’ section of our website provides a list of all email addresses.

You can also drop into any of our campuses all of which have reception areas and you can be redirected to the most appropriate person on site. Most of our non-student facing, support functions are based in either Castlereagh Campus or Millfield campus. Before travelling to any campus, you can check out the accessibility of that location through the online Accessible site. Details about parking, access routes and descriptions of the locations within each building are all listed there together with visual images.

Belfast Met will continue to upload content and publish documents in line with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard.

We have procured Web Blackboard Ally to monitor the accessibility of web content. We have trained staff on accessibility standards, and Blackboard Ally to ensure that only accessible content is posted. Any issues identified by Blackboard Ally will be corrected before publishing. A plan is being developed to address older content. Compliance with accessibility standards is being monitored and reported on to our Executive Leadership Team. The Blackboard Ally tool is displayed on all pages and documents across the site, offering users various accessibility options to suit their needs including alternate versions, audio versions and translations.

An Accessibility Steering has been established to oversee the actions required to improve web accessibility and project teams are progressing actions identified by a website audit in 2019 and a further audit by the Cabinet Office in January 2023. We aim to close out on most actions by the 31 March 2023 and other actions will be closed out by August 2023.