Website accessibility statement inline with Public Sector Body (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018
This website (which we call Digital Services Resources is run by the University of Edinburgh. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- zoom in up to 200% without the text spilling off the screen
- navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
- navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
- listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)
We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
Customising the website
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
AbilityNet - My computer my way
With a few simple steps you can customise the appearance of our website to make it easier to read and navigate.
Additional information on how to customise our website appearance
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- some parts may not be fully compatible with screen readers
- you may not be able to access all content by using the keyboard alone
- sometimes it can be hard to tell where you have navigated too by keyboard.
- some colour contrasts do not meet recommended guidance
- some non-text content does not have text alternatives
What to do if you cannot access parts of this website
If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, audio recording or braille please contact the website team by emailing digitalresearchservices@ed.ac.uk
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements please let us know by emailing:
digitalresearchservices@ed.ac.uk
Enforcement procedure
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) directly.
Contact details for the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS)
Contacting us by phone using British Sign Language
British Sign Language service
British Sign Language Scotland runs a service for British Sign Language users and all of Scotland’s public bodies using video relay. This enables sign language users to contact public bodies and vice versa. The service operates from 8am to 12 midnight, 7 days a week.
British Sign Language Scotland service details
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
The University of Edinburgh is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
The full guidelines are available at:
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1
Non accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Noncompliance with the accessibility regulations
The following items to not comply with the WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria:
- It is not possible to use a keyboard to access all the content
- Information is conveyed as an image of text rather than as text itself so that it's not compatible with screen readers and other assistive technology
- Most tooltips disappear as soon as the cursor moves. Also tooltips are not always present for all icons and images.
- There may not be sufficient colour contrast between font and background colours especially where the text size is very small.
- Visual information to identify user interface components, such as keyboard focus, do not always have a sufficient contrast ratio
- Not all non-text content has text alternatives
Unless specified otherwise a complete solution or significant improvement will be in place by September 2020.
How we tested this website
This website was last tested in June 2019. The website was tested by the University of Edinburgh’s Disability Information Officer on a PC using Internet Explorer (11.0.9600.19236) browser. This browser was chosen due to it being the most commonly used browser by disabled people as shown in the government survey: the Government Assistive Technology Browser Survey
We tested:
- Spellcheck functionality
- Data validation
- Scaling using different screen resolutions
- Options to customise the interface (magnification, font, background colour etc.)
- Keyboard navigation
- Warning of links opening in a new tab or window
- Information conveyed in colour or sound only
- Flashing or scrolling text
- Operability if Javascript is disabled
- Use with screen reading software (eg. JAWS)
- Assistive Software such as TextHelp Read and Write, and Zoomtext
- Tooltips and text alternatives for any non-text content
- Time limits
What we're doing to improve accessibility
We will continue to work with developers to address these issues and deliver a solution or suitable workaround. Work to tackle the accessibility issues raised in the testing report is currently scheduled for completion by January 2020 when further accessibility testing will be undertaken.
We will continue to monitor system accessibility and will carry out further accessibility testing if significant changes are made to the user interface or if a service user raises an issue. However, due to the complexities of the online system it may not be possible to resolve all accessibility issues. If this is the case, we will ensure reasonable adjustments are in place to make sure no user is disadvantaged.
This statement was prepared in August 2019. It was last updated on 14th October 2019.