Accessibility statement

Our aim

Everyone choosing a college should be able to use CollegeMatcher — with a keyboard, a screen reader, magnification, voice control or any other way they browse. We aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA.

Where we are: we believe the site is partially conformant — most of it meets the standard, with the exceptions listed below. This is our own assessment; the site has not been audited by an independent tester.

What we do

• A “Skip to content” link is the first thing on every page, and every control can be reached and used with a keyboard, with a visible focus outline.
• Pages use real headings, lists, tables with header cells, and labelled form fields.
• Colour contrast is checked automatically every time the site is built: every country's colour and every site colour theme must reach at least 4.5:1 for text, or the build fails.
• Nothing is shown by colour alone — results groups, warnings and badges always have words too.
• Text can be enlarged to 200% and pages work down to a 320-pixel-wide screen without scrolling sideways, except inside wide data tables (see below).
• If your device is set to reduce motion, the site's small animations and smooth scrolling are switched off.
• No time limits, no auto-playing media, no CAPTCHAs, and no account to create. The decorative country illustrations are hidden from screen readers.
• Many names in other languages and scripts are marked with their language (and Arabic with its right-to-left direction), so screen readers can pronounce them.
• Results are written as words, not just scores: each group says what it means and how it was worked out.

What we know isn't right yet

• Some pages have wide data tables (programmes, admission figures) that scroll sideways on small screens. The table headers are marked up, but these tables are long and can be tiring to read with a screen reader.
• Many institution and programme names are shown in their original language, as the official source writes them. Where we have an English name we show it alongside.
• The quizzes and calculators need JavaScript. The directory and institution pages work without it.
• Some wide tables that contain no links can't yet be scrolled sideways with a keyboard alone.
• We link to official sources — government sites and PDFs — that we don't control, and some of them are not accessible. If you need something from one of them, ask us and we'll help.

Tell us about a problem

If something on the site doesn't work for you, or you need information in a different format — for example the figures on a page as plain text in an email — write to accessibility@collegematcher.com. Tell us the page and what happened, and what you use to browse if you're happy to. We aim to reply within five working days, and we treat accessibility problems as bugs to fix, not features to consider.

How the site is built

CollegeMatcher relies on HTML, CSS and, for the interactive tools, JavaScript. We check pages with the axe automated accessibility checker against WCAG 2.2 AA and by using them with a keyboard alone. Automated checks catch only part of what matters, which is why we'd like to hear from you.

Students with disabilities

Looking for help with accommodations at college or in admission tests? See our guide for students with disabilities. For how we handle personal data, see the privacy policy.