Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to the Diocese of Westminster Academy Trust website: https://www.dowat.co.uk

Commitment to accessibility

The Diocese of Westminster Academy Trust (DoWAT) is committed to ensuring our website is accessible to all users, regardless of ability or technology.

We aim to provide a website that is accessible, inclusive and easy to use. We continually review and improve accessibility to ensure that all visitors can access information and services with ease.

This website is designed to comply with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 and aims to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA.

Key details about the accessibility of our website

We have made our website layout and text as streamlined and simple as possible; and have ensured our navigation can be utilised by screen readers and other adaptive technology.

The website contains many positive accessibility features, including:

  • Responsive design that adapts to different devices, screen sizes and technology, such as computers, tablets and smartphones
  • Consistent navigation and page layouts
  • Appropriate page landmarks and structural elements in-line with accessibility recommendations
  • Support for keyboard navigation
  • Support for Google Translate technology
  • Extensive use of accessibility-enhancing ARIA attributes
  • Alternative text provided for many images and linked content
  • Good colour contrast across the majority of pages
  • No widespread accessibility barriers identified across the site, as per guidelines

We know that some areas of the website are not yet fully accessible.

The issues identified include:

  • Documents: some PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software, however we are assessing methods of transitioning to HTML-based policy information.  
  • Some images may not have descriptive ‘alt’ text
  • Navigation and links: some links do not currently contain accessible text or labels that can be interpreted by assistive technologies
  • Embedded content: some third-party embedded content may require further review to ensure the most accessible user experience possible

Sharing feedback with us

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website.

If you encounter any accessibility barriers, have difficulty accessing information, or require information in an alternative format, please contact us.

When contacting us, please provide:

  • The webpage address (URL) where you experienced difficulty
  • A description of the issue
  • Any assistive technology used, if applicable

Contact details

Diocese of Westminster Academy Trust
Waxwell House
125 Waxwell Lane
Pinner
HA5 3EP

Email: adminandprojects@dowat.co.uk

Website: https://www.dowat.co.uk

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations.

If you are not satisfied with our response to your accessibility concern, you may contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS):

https://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/

Technical information about this website's accessibility

The Diocese of Westminster Academy Trust is committed to making its website accessible in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Based on internal accessibility testing and review, this website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard due to the issues identified within this statement.

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons:

  • Some non-essential hyperlinks may not have text/may be duplicated
  • Some non-essential hyperlinks may be presented as icons without text, in contravention of WCAG criterion 2.44 (Link Purpose). Similarly, some adjacent links may go to the same destination, resulting in repetition for screen readers.
  • When we next review the design and build of the website we will carefully consider the coding of such links.
  • Such documents fail various WCAG criteria (text alternatives, document structure, operability and readability) where they lack proper tagging, text recognition (OCR), or alternative text for images.
  • When we publish new documents we will endeavour to make sure our use of documents complies with accessibility regulations.

Commitment to improvement

We remain committed to ensuring our websites are accessible and prioritise essential content. We will continue to review and improve our website, as outlined earlier in our statement.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared in September 2026.

The statement was based on:

  • Automated accessibility testing using the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool
  • Manual review of identified accessibility issues
  • Assessment against WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility principles

This statement will be reviewed annually and updated following significant website changes or accessibility improvements.