Hit enter to search or ESC to close

About
For Returners
Live Programmes
For Employers
STEM Returners Index
News
STEM Returners Australia

Contact
search

Programme Launches

SiXworks unveils return-to-work initiative for career break professionals

Programme Launches

SiXworks unveils return-to-work initiative for career break professionals

Royal Navy launches inaugural STEM Returners programme to encourage former service personnel to return

Programme Launches

Royal Navy launches inaugural STEM Returners programme to encourage former service personnel to return

Mott MacDonald support more engineers back to work An engineer in yellow PPE holding binoculars. Water in the background.

Programme Launches

Mott MacDonald support more engineers back to work

Powersystems launches new jobs programme to help engineers return to work Four Powersystems workers in yellow high-visibility PPE and white hard hats stood in front of a field of wind turbines.

Four Powersystems workers in yellow high-visibility PPE and white hard hats stood in front of a field of wind turbines.

Programme Launches

Powersystems launches new jobs programme to help engineers return to work

Leonardo and STEM Returners launch new career lifeline Woman working on a laptop in a modern engineering lab, surrounded by machinery, wiring, and technical equipment.

Woman working on a laptop in a modern engineering lab, surrounded by machinery, wiring, and technical equipment.

Programme Launches

Leonardo and STEM Returners launch new career lifeline

Domino launches second returners programme Group of Domino Printing Sciences staff standing together in a production facility beside industrial printing equipment.

Group of Domino Printing Sciences staff standing together in a production facility beside industrial printing equipment.

Programme Launches

Domino launches second returners programme

UKAEA deepen commitment to help engineers return to work

Programme Launches

UKAEA deepen commitment to help engineers return to work

EDF launches second returner programme at Hinkley Point C

Programme Launches

EDF launches second returner programme at Hinkley Point C

Thames Water has announced a new partnership with STEM Returners An engineer from Thames Water checking oxygen levels in water

Programme Launches

Thames Water has announced a new partnership with STEM Returners

GE Vernova supporting a new jobs programme in collaboration with STEM Returners Diverse group of people sat in a row laughing

Programme Launches

GE Vernova supporting a new jobs programme in collaboration with STEM Returners

CONTACT US

STEM Returners
7 Manor Court,
Barnes Wallis Road
Segensworth, Fareham
PO15 5TH

hello@stemreturners.com

01329 623 246

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

x-twitter
facebook
linkedin
instagram

Made with ❤️ by Recsites

Close Menu

About
For Returners
Live Programmes
For Employers
STEM Returners Index
News
STEM Returners Australia
Contact

Accessibility

Accessibility modes

Epilepsy Safe Mode

Dampens color and removes blinks

This mode enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.

Visually Impaired Mode

Improves website's visuals

This mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.

Cognitive Disability Mode

Helps to focus on specific content

This mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.

ADHD Friendly Mode

Reduces distractions and improve focus

This mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.

Blindness Mode

Allows using the site with your screen-reader

This mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.

Online Dictionary

Start typing to search in Wikipedia

Readable Experience

Content Scaling

Default

Text Magnifier

Readable Font

Dyslexia Friendly

Highlight Titles

Highlight Links

Font Sizing

Default

Line Height

Default

Letter Spacing

Default

Left Aligned

Center Aligned

Right Aligned

Visually Pleasing Experience

Dark Contrast

Light Contrast

Monochrome

High Contrast

High Saturation

Low Saturation

Adjust Text Colors

Adjust Title Colors

Adjust Background Colors

Easy Orientation

Mute Sounds

Hide Images

Virtual Keyboard

Reading Guide

Stop Animations

Reading Mask

Highlight Hover

Highlight Focus

Big Dark Cursor

Big Light Cursor

Cognitive Reading

Navigation Keys

Voice Navigation

Link navigator

STEM Returners

Accessibility Statement

stemreturners.com
12 February 2026

Compliance status

We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.

To fulfil this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.

This website utilises various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilise an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.

Additionally, the website utilises an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimises its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behaviour for screen-readers used by blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.

If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email hello@stemreturners.com

Screen-reader and keyboard navigation

Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioural changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:

Screen-reader optimisation: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.

These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.

Keyboard navigation optimisation: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviours using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.

Disability profiles supported in our website

Epilepsy Safe Mode: this profile enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky colour combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode: this mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode: this mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode: this mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode: this mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments

Font adjustments – users, can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
Colour adjustments – users can select various colour contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap colour schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over 7 different colouring options.
Animations – epileptic users can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasise important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
Audio muting – users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the entire website instantly.
Cognitive disorders – we utilise a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor colour and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.

Browser and assistive technology compatibility

We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.

Notes, comments, and feedback

Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to hello@stemreturners.com

🦠 STEM Returners Index 2025 is here! 🚀

Our 2025 Index shares in-depth insight into the experiences of people returning to STEM after a career break. It explores why returners leave, the barriers they face when trying to come back, and the support that helps them rebuild confidence and careers.

The Index is built on data collected from over 1,000 returners throughout 2025. It brings together real experiences, challenges, and outcomes to show what returning to STEM really looks like today.

READ OR DOWNLOAD OUR INDEX HERE

No thanks, I’m not interested

We use cookies to give you the best experience on our website. If you continue we will assume that you are happy with it.AcceptPrivacy Policy