Accessible documents policy

Accessible documents at the Student Loans Company (SLC).

This information applies to documents published by the Student Loans Company. It does not apply to other content on the www.gov.uk domain published in HTML: the main GOV.UK accessibility statement covers that. It does not apply to services provided by the Student Loans Company: the page Accessibility information for Student Loans Company services covers these.

Using our documents 

Student Loans Company publishes documents in a range of formats, including: 

  • PDF 

  • Microsoft Excel spreadsheets 

  • CSV (Comma-Separated Values) 

We want as many people as possible to be able to use those documents. For example, when we produce a document, we make sure to: 

  • provide an HTML option where possible 

  • tag headings and other parts of the document properly, so screen readers can understand the page structure 

  • make sure we include alternative text alongside non-decorative images, so people who cannot see them understand what they’re there for 

  • avoid using tables, except when we’re presenting data 

  • write content that is easy to understand 

How accessible our documents are 

Some of our published documents, particularly older documents, may be only partially accessible. They should be able to be viewed or completed online, however may not all be fully accessible with all types of assistive technology. 

For example, some of them: 

  • may not be marked up in a way that allows screen reader users to understand them 

  • may not be structured appropriately - for example, they do not contain proper headings 

  • may not be written in plain English 

  • may contain images without a textual description 

  • may include complex tables or tables with merged cells 

What to do if you cannot use one of our documents 

If you need documents published on this website in an alternative format, please contact [email protected]. 

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible. 

Reporting accessibility problems with one of our documents 

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of our documents. If you find any problems not listed on this page or you think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact [email protected]. 

Enforcement procedure 

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) 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 the Student Loans Company respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS), or the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) if you live in Northern Ireland. 

Technical information about the accessibility of our documents 

The Student Loans Company is committed to making our documents accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. The documents the Student Loans Company publishes are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below. 

Non-accessible content 

The content listed below mainly applies to older documents, rather than newly published, and is non-accessible for the following reasons: 

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations 

Some of our documents may not be properly tagged or may not use accessible headings or structures. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. 

Some of our documents may include diagrams and/or tables or images which do not have an appropriate text alternative. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 non-text content. 

Some of the content in documents may not have the reading order set correctly. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence and 2.4.3 Focus Order. 

Some of our documents may not have appropriate colour contrast between the foreground text and background. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast Minimum. 

Some of our documents may contain images of text to convey information rather than plain text. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.5 Images of Text. 

Some of our documents may not reflow correctly. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.10 Reflow. 

Some of our documents may have incorrect or incomplete titles. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion Page Titled. 

Some links within documents may not contain context in the link text. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context). 

Some of our documents may not have clearly defined bookmarks. This does not meet the WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.5 Multiple Ways. 

Some of our documents to not display a visual indicator to show where the user is on the page. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible. 

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations 

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we do not plan to fix documents published before 23 September 2018 on the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/slcs-corporate-and-business-plans 

How we tested our documents 

We last externally tested a sample of our documents in November 2019. The test was carried out by User Vision. We tested: 

  • PDF documents 

  • Microsoft Excel documents 

We decided to test these types of documents as they are the main non-HTML formats published by the Student Loans Company. 

We also test our documents for accessibility when we create them.

Disproportionate burden 

PDF documents within this website 

Some of the PDF documents we publish may not be fully accessible to all users. We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with PDF documents within this website and we believe that fixing the issues within these would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulation. 

We are focusing on making documents for future academic years as accessible as possible and we will reassess this in 2025. If you need a copy of any of the documents on our website currently in an alternative format, please contact [email protected]. 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility 

We are actively taking steps to improve the accessibility of our websites, services, forms and documents. 

This includes: 

  • putting guidance and procedures in place to ensure that all new documents that we produce are accessible 

  • updating PDF templates to more accessible formats 

  • creating reports as HTML rather than PDF where possible 

  • raising awareness across the organisation about accessibility and encouraging the use of clear language in reports 

This page was prepared on 27 November 2019. It was last updated on 4 October 2024

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