Accessibility Statement

At Music Mark, openess to a diversity of experiences and creating spaces where all are welcome are central to our values. We work collaboratively on our commitment to the pursuit of a high quality, equitable, diverse and inclusive music education for all children and young people.

We believe in the social model of disability, where disabled people can be prevented from full participation because of disabling barriers (e.g. lack of access, lack of quiet space, lack of audio description). We also believe in the cultural model of disability which values the unique experiences and contributions of disabled people and communities.

We know there is much more to do and we are always listening, learning and improving. We welcome your feedback on our work and you can get in touch with us at any time by emailing info@musicmark.org.uk.

Membership

At Music Mark we welcome a diverse membership and actively work to oppose discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background/status.

Our Approach

• We aim to create a welcoming and supportive membership community and take steps to ensure that debate is respectful.
• As part of the website accessibility approach detailed on this page, we work to ensure that our membership sign-up process and member benefits are compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
• We recognise that your needs are unique to you and we can provide additional support to help you access our membership offer where this is required. Please get in touch with us at info@musicmark.org.uk to let us know how we can help you.

Feedback

We always welcome feedback on our accessibility efforts. If you have any questions or feedback on the accessibility of Music Mark membership, please do get in touch by emailing info@musicmark.org.uk.

Training & Events

Everyone is welcome and included at Music Mark training and events. We work to make sure our events are accessible for all our attendees. We know that there is no typical attendee and that everyone has individual needs and we will endeavour to meet you where you are so that you feel able to attend our online and in-person events.

Our Approach

• Online training and events: We provide accessibility information on all event pages, which for online events, includes information on the technology used, whether captioning is available and whether breakout groups will be used. We also offer for presentations to be available ahead of the event, subject to agreement from speakers.
• In-person training and events: We provide accessibility information on all event pages. For live events, we list the venue and, where possible, link to their accessibility statements and information for visitors. We ensure that any venue we host an event at will be accessible, and communicate clear information about the venue before hand.

When booking, all attendees are asked to tell us about any access requirements they may have so we can remove any barriers to their attending. Any disclosures made during booking will be kept in the strictest confidence and picked up by a member of the team, enabling us to have a bespoke conversation where appropriate.

All attendees will receive communications before an event which will highlight further information including travel advice and accessibility of the building as well as details on what to expect during the event. We will also give a key contact for the day should any issues arise.

Feedback

We always welcome feedback on our accessibility efforts. If you have any questions or feedback on the accessibility of Music Mark training and events, please do get in touch by emailing info@musicmark.org.uk.

Website

Our Approach

Our approach to accessibility is informed by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These are an internationally recognised set of recommendations for improving web accessibility. Our target is to achieve as full compliance with WCAG 2.1 as is practically possible. To help achieve this we have embedded accessibility standards into our website development and content creation processes. This includes:

• Touch targets – We ensure that all elements of the user interface are sufficiently large and spaced to make them easy to individually click or tap.
• Colour contrast – Careful attention is paid to the contrast between foreground and background elements to ensure that text and user interface elements are always clear.
• Keyboard navigation – Users are able to navigate and interact with the website using just a keyboard.
• Screen readers – Additional support is provided specifically for screen readers to help interpret elements, identify menus and jump to different content areas.
• Font sizes – A font size of at least 16px is used for core content and user interface items. No text appears under 13px in size. Users can also scale text up to 200% without breaking the user interface.
• Clear headings – We use headings to give structure to our pages so it is easier to navigate, especially if you are using a screen reader.
• Content linearisation – As far as possible content is presented within the website code in the same order as it appears on the page.
• Use of images – Where images aren’t purely decorative, descriptive alternative text or captions are provided.
• Link anchor text – We try to ensure that button labels and linked text is meaningful in isolation and not overly repetitive.
• Reading level – Content is written using everyday English, avoiding jargon where possible. We try to keep sentences short and avoid common readability barriers such as allcaps.
• Browser & device support – We try to ensure that all content and functionality is accessible across the latest versions of the most popular web browsers and device types.
• Human-readable sitemap – This is a standalone page that provides a simple list of links into all the main sections and sub-sections of the website.

Known Limitations

We know some parts of our website are not fully accessible and this is something we are actively working to improve. These limitations includes:

• Some content is presented in PDF or other formats that may not be fully accessible to screen reader software.
• Some content may be hard to read, with long sentences or complex language.
• Not all parts of our website are searchable.
• In places heading levels are skipped in the presentation of text content.
• Not all links are descriptive or indicate when they lead to a file or external source.
• Where our website includes third-party content or services we cannot guarantee their accessibility.
• Not all motion animation can be disabled.

Feedback and Access Requests

We always welcome feedback on our accessibility efforts and we will also do our best to fulfill any requests to supply content in alternative formats. To get in touch with us, please email us at info@musicmark.org.uk.

This statement was first published on 10th August 2022 and last updated on 3rd April 2024.