Accessibility statement for Digital Research Services
Website accessibility statement in line with Public Sector Body (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018
This accessibility statement applies to:
https://digitalresearchservices.ed.ac.uk/
This website is run by the Digital Research Services Team, from the IT Infrastructure sector of the Information Services Group of the University of Edinburgh. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this application. For example, that means you should be able to:
- Change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- Use the website without experiencing any cognitive tests
We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand. However, some of our content is technical, and we use technical terms where there is no easier wording we could use without changing what the text means.
Customising the website
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability. This is an external site with suggestions to make your computer more accessible:
AbilityNet - My Computer My Way
With a few simple steps you can customise the appearance of our website using your browser settings to make it easier to read and navigate:
Additional information on how to customise our website appearance
If you are a member of University staff or a student, you can use the free SensusAccess accessible document conversion service:
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- Not all colour contrasts meet the minimum standards
- Not all content can be reached by keyboard users
- It can be hard to tell where you have navigated to by keyboard
- There are examples of information conveyed by colour only, for example links are differentiated by colour only
- Not all non-text items have appropriate alternative text
- there are examples of text as an image
- Not all links are meaningful hypertext
- New browser tabs and pop ups appear without alerting the user
- Tooltips are not accessible by keyboard or assistive software
- Some headings are not coded correctly, and some heading levels are missed
- The pages are not fully compatible with assistive software such as screen readers or voice recognition software
- There is movement that cannot be paused or stopped by the end user
- It is not possible to magnify all content to 200%
- Reflow is not enabled to 400%
- Not all audio-visual content has human corrected transcripts and captions
- Not all audio-visual content has audio description
- Tooltips are not always accessible by keyboard and assistive software
- Tooltips may contain information necessary for the operation of the item.
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format, including accessible PDF, large print, audio recording or braille:
- Postal Address: Lead Research Facilitation,
Information Services Group, The University of Edinburgh,
5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh EH1 2QL
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We are 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 contact:
- Email: digitalresearchservices@ed.ac.uk
- Postal Address: Lead Research Facilitation,
Information Services Group, The University of Edinburgh,
5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh EH1 2QL
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.
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)
The government has produced information on how to report accessibility issues:
Reporting an accessibility problem on a public sector website
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
The University of Edinburgh is committed to making its websites and applications accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
Compliance Status
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
The full guidelines are available at:
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard
Non accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Noncompliance with the accessibility regulations
The following items do not comply with the WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria:
- Not all non-text content presented to users has alternative text
- Human corrected transcripts are not provided for all pre-recorded audio / visual material
- Human corrected captions are not provided for all pre-recorded audio /visual content
- Not all audio / visual content has audio descriptions
- There are examples of information conveyed by colour only,
- There may not be sufficient colour contrast between font and background colours, especially where the text size is very small
- Not all content can be magnified to 200%
- There is moving content that cannot be paused, stopped or hidden by the end user
- Not all links have meaningful hypertext
- Some pages of the site do not have a heading structure to help with navigation
- It can be hard to tell where you have navigated to by keyboard
- Pop-ups and new tabs open without the user being alerted
- The site is not fully compatible with screen readers as not all elements are correctly labelled, some ARIA attributes are missing, and some elements do not have form labels
We aim to improve our website's accessibility on a regular and continuous basis. See the section below ('What we're doing to improve accessibility') on how we are improving our site accessibility.
We are working towards solving these problems and expect significant improvements by January 2027 for those items within our control. The site counts on elements that are not fully within our control and is supplied by different teams. We will liaise with the suppliers to work on making improvements to the site for those items out of our control.
Disproportionate burden
We are not currently claiming that any accessibility problems would be a disproportionate burden to fix.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
At this time, we believe no content is outwith the scope of the accessibility regulations.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We will continue to address and make significant improvements to the accessibility issues highlighted. Unless specified otherwise, a complete solution or significant improvement will be in place by January 2027, for items that are in our control. For things not within our control, we will work with the suppliers and ask them to make improvements.
While we are in the process of resolving these accessibility issues, we will ensure reasonable adjustments are in place to make sure no user is disadvantaged. As changes are made, we will continue to review accessibility and retest the accessibility of this website.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 30th January 2026. It was last reviewed on 30th January 2026
The website was last tested on 30th January 2026. The testing was carried out by ITI Research Services Team at the University of Edinburgh using both automated and manual methods. The site was tested on a PC, primarily using Microsoft Edge alongside Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.
Recent world-wide usage levels survey for different screen readers and browsers shows that Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge are increasing in popularity and Google Chrome is now the favoured browser for screen readers:
WebAIM: Screen Reader User Survey
The aforementioned three browsers have been used in certain questions for reasons of breadth and variety.
We ran automated testing using AXE(Google Chrome extension) and then manual testing that included:
- Spell check functionality;
- Scaling using different resolutions and reflow;
- Options to customise the interface (magnification, font, background colour, etc);
- Keyboard navigation and keyboard traps;
- Enhance contrast ratio;
- Frames with accessible names;
- ARIA attributes must conform to valid values;
- Data validation;
- Warning of links opening in new tab or window;
- Information conveyed in the colour or sound only;
- Flashing, moving or scrolling text;
- Use with screen reading software (for example JAWS);
- Assistive software (TextHelp Read and Write, Windows Magnifier, ZoomText, Dragon Naturally Speaking, TalkBack and VoiceOver);
- Tooltips and text alternatives for any non-text content;
- Compatibility with mobile accessibility functionality (Android and iOS);
- Any drag functionality and alternatives;
- No need to re-enter data already submitted;
- Any cognitive tests.