Nature Screen ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT

1.content

Nature Screen is characterised by uncut natural scenes from a fixed camera position. This is inherently a natural experience that is calming and softly fascinating – as if sitting in nature. We want this to be accessible to all children including those with SEND.

Some features of the natural world are not peaceful and can be disturbing. These are not included here. We only include natural scenes recorded in the UK, many of which will already be familiar to children. Where natural sounds are dynamic, guidance is provided and teachers can choose from a range of screens with different sensory profiles to suit most children and situations (see our Safeguarding Policy).

2.Website

Two different ways of engaging with Nature Screen are for Teachers and for Classroom use, including allowing children to make choices and look at screens on their own devices. They both require a secure log in by a Teacher. The Classroom pages are stripped back and contain no unnecessary clutter, just the screens, descriptive text or stories and four child-friendly characters called the Nature Team. These were originally developed for a BBC series and have passed editorial guidelines for children’s content.

Teachers pages include guidance for use and further support for understanding how the natural features within the screens can affect children’s mood and behaviour. They support implementation and use for different contexts and needs.

All Nature Screen public pages, the Teachers pages, Classroom pages and a representative sample of the Screen pages have been tested against the WCAG standards as follows:

• Text and colours checked for contrast across devices including phones

• Picture links and images described or marked as decorative.

• Every page has a main heading; links in running text underlined

• Keyboard use: clear outline shows where you are and player works by keyboard

• Zoom allowed; nothing plays by itself

• No speech in screens (Growth Mindset videos have subtitles)

• Fixed-camera scenes, screened for flashing following Ofcom guidelines

• Screens announced to screen readers by title

3.Neurodiversity

Nature Screen provides many screens that suit neurodivergent children, but not all the screens are suitable. Following testing in schools, we are currently reviewing and re-versioning screens with more dynamic shifts in weather that can result in greater sensory stimulation. With this in mind, teachers should not automatically assume the content is suitable for all their children. The guidance notes on Teachers pages are helpful and previewing content is recommended at this stage. We expect to revise this guidance shortly (see para 5. Known Issues below).

4.Other Providers

Some features are provided by others, including Squarespace signup forms, Google reCAPTCHA and the Vimeo player. We have chosen settings for the greatest accessibility and offer to support schools who encounter any difficulty. Only teachers are able to sign up for Nature Screen so this only applies to adults and not children.

5.Known Issues

1.        Content: updated sound description for each screen on Teacher Guidance

2.        Content: PDFs not yet tagged for screen readers

3.        Content: Consistent loudness and Relax versions with lower dynamic range

4.        Content: Reading levels of text and guidance for teacher or child reading

Target dates for resolving 1, 2 and 3, is by the next review date (see above). Target date for 4. is beginning of term 2027 (4th January 2027).