Triangle and Outcomes Star Accessibility Statement

Date of last update: 28th October 2023

Scope of this statement

This statement applies to our digital platform, Outcomes Star Online (www.staronline.org.uk), our Outcomes Star resources, our training offer and our implementation support.

It does not apply to our public website, www.outcomesstar.org.uk.

Our commitment

Triangle are committed to making our products and services inclusive and accessible for the widest possible audience. We want everyone who uses our products and services to feel welcome, to feel heard and to be equipped as much as possible with solutions that work for their needs.

We acknowledge that there is much more we need to do. We are actively working to increase the accessibility and usability of our products and services. We are actively finding ways to sustainably meet a wide variety of requirements and adaptations.

This statement sets out what we currently have in place, the things we are currently working on and plan to have available in the short-term, and the things we want to work on and make available in the long-term.

Current provision

Outcomes Star Online

Application built using the fifth revision of the HTML markup language (HTML5) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards. The course displays correctly in current browsers, using standards compliant HTML/CSS code, which means any future browsers will also display correctly.

Follows the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities and user friendly for everyone. Currently compliant to WCAG 2.1 AA.

On the website you can:

  • zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen, as the pages are optimised for different screen dimensions
  • navigate most of the website using a keyboard or speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)
  • access an easy read version of the Service User consent form, for gathering consent to process data from data subjects where consent

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

See below for our development plans to improve the experience for users using any of the options above.

Outcomes Star PDF resources

We have made alternative versions for most of the Outcomes Star PDFs (Star Chart and Scales) using a larger font.

The Star Chart includes an alternative design for the Star visual – a harlequin design – using high-contrast colours.  The original version of that design was developed through the development of the VIP Star (Outcomes Star for people with visual impairment) with the Pocklington Trust and Blind Veterans in 2013.

These are available for licensed users on request.

Training

Our Core training slides (used by Triangle Trainers and our Licensed Trainer community) were redesigned in 2023 to support accessibility – including simpler, visual designs, a non-bright-white background and larger, sans serif font.

We explicitly ask all training organisers to inform us of any accessibility needs of training participants and will work closely with the client organisation to explore how best we can meet those needs. This can include being flexible with duration, location, learning styles and approaches within training courses to accommodate learners needs and preferences.

We have large print versions of the User Guides which we can make available in hard copy for training participants on request. Previously we have printed these on yellow paper to support participants with dyslexia.

Where training participants are deaf or have a hearing impairment, usually the client organisation will provide a BSL interpreter as part of their accessibility and inclusivity commitments. Where there are barriers to this, we have funded this provision ourselves, and discuss solutions with client organisations on a case-by-case basis.

Areas of improvement

We acknowledge that there several areas today that are not accessible or inclusive enough:

  • The language used in some areas of the Outcomes Star Online and Outcomes Star resources, and the design and layout, is not as simple, accessible and inclusive as it could be – eg font sizes are too small
  • You cannot modify the font, font or background colours, line height or spacing of text on the Outcomes Star Online.
  • The colour contrasts on certain reports and Star visuals within the Outcomes Star Online are not effective for people with visual impairment or colour blindness.
  • Outcomes Star PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
  • Not all images used in the Outcomes Star Online Help Centre have alt text provided for screen reader software.
  • There is a need for easy read resources for some Star versions, and a need for resources that are more accessible for people with low literacy or at a point of cognitive overload for all Star versions.
  • Stars are used within many different communities in the UK and internationally. We have a limited range of available translated resources and cannot directly meet the increasing need for more professional, high-quality translations due to costs. An efficient and sustainable approach is being explored.

We are keen to be transparent and open about our accessibility journey. We are committed to learning about and implementing best practice as quickly as we can within what is reasonable for an organisation of our scale and capacity.

Short-term plans

A redesign of the Live Completion features within the Outcomes Star Online is currently underway and is anticipated to go live by summer 2024. We have worked with Usertopia (https://usertopia.co) who are user experience and accessibility specialists to ensure that the redesign is accessible and addresses as many of the issues listed in the previous section as possible (for example colour contrasts, screen reader optimisation, simpler design and language, alt text for images.)

We are working to optimise Outcomes Star PDF resources for screen readers. This will be prioritised based on how widely Star versions are used, and so will be delivered throughout 2023 and 2024.

We are also planning to continue with piloting easy read resources, for example through the 2024 pilot our ‘Navigation Stars’ for young people with neurodivergence and their parents, in collaboration with the pilot Key Worker Service from Devon Partnership NHS Trust.

In the meantime, we will continue to be responsive to needs and requests as much as we can within our available capacity.

Longer-term plans

We are committed to maintaining and improving our published Outcomes Stars, ensuring they benefit from our latest learning in best practice as well as responding to changes in the service provision landscape. Through those processes, we aim to continually improve the overall design and language of the Outcomes Stars to ensure they are as inclusive and accessible as possible.

We are also committed to continuing to invest in the Outcomes Star Online, with an ambitious roadmap focused on accessibility and inclusivity as well as adding value to our client organisations. On our longer term roadmap is supporting client organisations to be able to configure Outcomes Star content to suit the accessibility and communication needs of individual practitioners and the people they support, either on screen or into a PDF to be printed.

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact us on email info@triangleconsulting.co.uk or phone 0207 272 8765.

You can also use the contact details above to let us know if you need Outcomes Star resources or any of our products and services in different formats like large print, easy read, audio recording or braille. Your request will be passed to our Product and Content Team, and we will get back to you within 5 working days to acknowledge your request.