Accessibility Statement for University of Edinburgh Policy Directory website
Website accessibility statement in line with Public Sector Body
(Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018
This accessibility statement applies to: https://policies.ed.ac.uk
This website is run by the Governance & Strategic Planning Directorate at 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:
- using your browser settings, change colours, contrast levels and fonts while retaining most functionality;
- utilise assistive technologies, including screen readers and speech-to-text software, to access most areas of the system;
- magnify content to 500%;
- use the directory with both desktop and mobile devices;
- experience no time limits, or flashing, scrolling or moving text, when using the site.
We have 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. 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:
Information on SensusAccess
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- the policy directory documents are not fully compatible with text-to-speech assistive technologies (including Job Access with Speech (JAWS) and NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA));
- the system is not 100% fully compatible with speech-to-text assistive software (for example, Dragon NaturallySpeaking) with all browser configurations;
- users may not be able to access all content by using the keyboard alone or solely through tabbing;
- it is not always clear for the user to identify a position on the page when navigating by keyboard;
- the system does not reflow at higher levels of magnification, meaning users may have to scroll in two dimensions on policy document, especially above 300%;
- colour contrasts do not necessarily meet the recommended Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 AA standard;
- alternative text is not present on all non-text content;
- links are not always formatted to be meaningful hypertext;
- help information is not always given in a consistent place on the page.
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format, including accessible portable document format (PDF), large print, audio recording or braille:
- Email: policygovernance@ed.ac.uk
- Postal address: Policy Governance, Governance & Strategic Planning, 1st Floor, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL
We'll consider your request and get back to you within 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: policygovernance@ed.ac.uk
- Postal Address: Policy Governance, Governance & Strategic Planning, 1st Floor, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL
We'll consider your request and get back to you within 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
- The way the content is presented affects its meaning, and a correct reading sequence is not programmatically determined
- There may not be sufficient colour contrast between font and background colours, especially where the text size is small
- Content can not be presented without loss of information or functionality, and requires scrolling in two dimensions at higher levels for policy documents (above 300%)
- It is not possible to use a keyboard to access all the content
- Links are not always presented as meaningful hypertext
- Visual information to identify user interface components, such as keyboard focus, do not always have a sufficient contrast ratio
- Help pages are not necessarily placed in the same order relative to other page content
- Content (especially the PDFs) are not robust enough that it can be interpreted by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies
We aim to improve our websites 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, including both the items within our control and the majority, which sits with Microsoft. We expect several improvements to be made by February 2025.
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 improvements to the accessibility issues highlighted, working alongside the software suppliers, Microsoft, to deliver a solution or suitable workaround. Unless specified otherwise, a complete solution or significant improvement will be in place by February 2025. There are some items within the control of the University that we will look to rectify which will be confirmed upon completion in the statement under the ‘change log’. This includes investigations to move away from PDFs to a more accessible format. However, most of the issues are not within our control but sit with the Microsoft SharePoint platform.
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 29th February 2024. It was last reviewed on 15th March 2024.
This website was last tested by our team and reviewed by the University of Edinburgh’s Disability Information team in February 2024 using both automated and manual methods. The site was tested on a PC, primarily using Microsoft Edge (120.0.2210.133), Firefox (115.6.0esr) and Google Chrome (120.0.6099.218).
Recent world-wide usage levels survey for different screen readers and browsers shows that Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge are increasing in popularity and 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 WAVE WebAIM 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;
- 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;
- Time limits;
- Compatibility with mobile accessibility functionality (Android and iOS).
Change Log
Accessibility improvements will be noted in this section.