To mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day (15 May), the Education Workforce Council (EWC) is highlighting how it is working to make its services more accessible.

As the independent, professional regulator for the education workforce in Wales, the EWC is committed to delivering inclusive, accessible services for its registrants and stakeholders.

In April 2025, the EWC refreshed its Strategic Equality Plan 2024-28 (SEP) which sets out its commitment to promoting equality and diversity. As part of this, the EWC strives to continuously improve the accessibility of its services, aligning with best practice and legal requirements.

A key focus of this is removing barriers to participation in its events and resources. The EWC runs a regular series of events, which it hosts virtually to remove any physical barriers. During registration, individuals can note any accessibility issues they may have so the team can do their best to make reasonable adjustments. Event recordings are later shared online and are available on-demand, 24/7, with options for Welsh or English subtitles.

The EWC has also started creating some of their corporate videos with British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation. The regulator plans to continue this approach, ensuring its core documents and videos are available in BSL format.

Director of Professional Development, Accreditation and Policy, Bethan Holliday-Stacey, said “We want to make sure that everybody can access our services and resources. This means listening to registrants and adapting, where we can, to meet their diverse needs.”

In 2023, the EWC website underwent a full redesign ensuring its compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard. To offer further support, the site features the ReachDeck toolbar, which offers a range of accessibility tools to help users navigate the website.

Bethan continued, “We are always keen to hear about how the services we provide can be improved and made more accessible. If you have any feedback, please do get in touch”.

You can read the EWC’s SEP in full, and provide feedback on the services the EWC offers, by visiting the website.