Accessibility
Kildare and Wicklow ETB is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with European Union (Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications of Public Sector Bodies) Regulations 2020.
Web Accessibility Statement
Welcome to Kildare and Wicklow ETB Website. Kildare and Wicklow ETB is committed to making its website(s) accessible, in accordance with European Union (Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications of Public Sector Bodies) Regulations 2020.
We are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our website in accordance with many of the available standards and guidelines, and to deliver a more intuitive user experience to our stakeholders.
This accessibility statement applies to content published on https://kwetb.ie/.
This website is best accessed through Google Chrome to support the responsive features on site and to enhance the accessibility and usability of the site.
Compliance Status
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 (w3.org). Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board are in the process, from July 2023, of reviewing our entire website for compliance with EU Directives on accessibility, particularly the EU Web Access Directive 2020 Regulations.
Non-Accessible Content
Should you wish to contact us regarding accessibility please see the feedback and contact information section below. We will do our best to ensure that any content you request is made available and accessible in a timely manner.
We are working to improve the accessibility compliance of our websites and will endeavour to apply all accessibility standards to content being published to our website going forward.
Some content on KWETB’s website does not fully comply with the European Union (Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications of Public Sector Bodies) Regulations 2020. For example:
- Colour contrast: a number of pages may contain insufficient colour contrast for visually impaired users. We are working to improve the colour contrast ratio.
- PDFs: Portable Document Format (PDF) documents on this site may in some instances lack a correct tab order or headings. Some documents may have invalid language attributes, contain invalid or missing table structures. KWETB have made efforts to rectify our old documents to improve the accessibility to same.
- PDFs: Some PDF documents on site are owned by third parties therefore we do not have control over same and so are exempted (See Exempted content below).
- Embedded content: a small number of pages include content embedded from third party sources, i.e., YouTube Videos, Twitter Feeds and Course Search engines. This content may lack proper colour contrast, language attributes, discernible text for all links and correct Aria and title attributes.
- Video: Some video content fails to include the option of closed caption.
The above list of issues is not exhaustive. We are continually working to identity and resolve issues.
Exempted Content
In accordance with the European Union (Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications of Public Sector Bodies) Regulations 2020 certain content is exempt from having to be accessible due to the content being owned by third parties or the content being created before September 2018.
PDF documents that were published before 23 September 2018 are exempt from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines except where it is related to a service that a member of the public must use.
Videos or audio published before 23 September 2020 are exempt from these guidelines.
Accessibility feature: ReachDeck Toolbar
The ReachDeck toolbar is an accessibility feature that is available for all users on our website. It is accessed by clicking on the 
symbol of a Person and then clicking on the feature the user wants to avail of. Once you hover over the symbol the feature function will appear in writing. The main features include:
 | Hover to Speak feature reads on-screen text out loud, with read along highlighting, when text is clicked on or hovered over |
 | Play feature that will activate a reader to read out all the content on the webpage as well as a pause and stop recording feature |
 | Screen mask which only shows what is being read to help users focus |
 | Picture dictionary which provides a visual description of any written content |
 | Translator that will read out content in 40 of the most spoken languages |
 | Text magnifier that magnifies the text being read and is displayed at the top of the page with each word highlighted as it is read |
 | Web page simplifier that removes distracting content from the main body of text on the page, including further features such as summarized text and setting font size and colours to your preference |
 | Help feature for users to click on if they need any help on how to use the features and access them |
Preparation of this Accessibility Statement
This statement was prepared by the KWETB Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) working group.
In preparation of this statement an evaluation of the website’s compliance with the requirements of Directive (EU) 2016/2102 was carried out by way of an automated auditing tool, (axe Monitor from Deque: https://www.deque.com/axe/monitor/) by the National Disability Authority in July 2023 against WCAG 2.1 to highlight accessibility issues through a Simplified Review of the website.
Other tools used by KWETB staff and its web developer to assist with improving the website’s compliance include the Microsoft Accessibility checker, Accessibility Check (Acrobat DC), Chrome developer tools, and Axe Dev Tools.
This review identified a number of issues that staff are currently working to resolve – see Non-Accessible Content section above.
This statement was last reviewed on the 11th September 2023 . It will be reviewed regularly by both the EDI and Senior Management Team groups and updated in accordance with prevailing legislation.
Contact Us
We welcome feedback on the accessibility of this website.
If you find any issues that are not listed on this page or are not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, please contact us by email on customercare@kwetb.ie.
If you wish to view non-accessible content, please include the following details in your request:
- Your required format
- The content you wish to view (please include the url of the content where possible)
- Your name and email address
We will make all reasonable efforts to fulfil your request.
Enforcement Procedure
If you are not happy about our response to your issue, you can ask the Ombudsman to look into the matter.
Advice on making a complaint under the Disability Act is available on the website of the Office of the Ombudsman.
The Office of the Ombudsman, 6 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, D02 W773.
E-Mail: complaints@ombudsman.ie Phone: 01 639 5600
Disability Act 2005
KWETB is committed to giving particular emphasis to the Disability Act 2005 requirements in relation to the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies and to the Code Annex (2020) regarding gender balance, diversity and inclusion. This is in line with KWETB’s Public Sector Duty which aims to promote equality of opportunity and protect the human rights of staff and all of the learners and groups to whom we provide services.
The Disability Act 2005 provides a legal basis for making public services accessible. Sections 25, 26, 27 and 28 of the Act place obligations on public bodies to make their public buildings, services and information accessible to people with disabilities.
Access Officers
Section 26 of the Disability Act 2005 requires each Public Body to nominate at least one member of staff to act as Access Officer to arrange and co-ordinate the provision of assistance and guidance to people with disabilities in accessing its services.
Persons seeking assistance on issues of access can contact Kildare and Wicklow ETB as follows;
Access to Further Education and Training Provision;
Brenda Lynch
brendalynch@kwetb.ie
045 988 000
Access to Primary and Post Primary Schools Provision;
Dorothy Lawlor
dorothylawlor@kwetb.ie
0404 60500
Access to KWETB Buildings;
Emer Roy
emerroy@kwetb.ie
045 988 000
Access to Recruitment/Employment/Employee support;
Aine O’Sullivan
aineosullivan@kwetb.ie
045 988 000
