Technical Accessibility Statement
Technical Information about this website’s accessibility
Aberystwyth University is committed to making its website 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 version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.
Non accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
Colour
On a small number of pages, there is not sufficient colour contrast on parts of the text. This can mean that people with visual impairments cannot read the text. This doesn’t meet WCAG success criterion 1.4.3 Contract (Minimum). We will update the colours used by the end of August 2023 to ensure that the text can be read by everyone.
Documents
Some documents are only available in PDF format. This can mean that people cannot enlarge text in the document without needing to scroll left to right to read it. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.10 Reflow. When we publish new documents, we’ll make sure that they are provided in more than one file type to make them as accessible as possible. We will work our way through non-archive documents to provide alternative formats by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some documents available on our website are not structured correctly using headings. This is confusing when the pages are accessed using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. When we publish new documents, we’ll make sure that they are structured correctly. We will work our way through non-archive documents to improve them by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some documents available on our website do not have alternative text on all images. This means that the information in them isn’t available to people using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-Text Content. When we publish new documents, we’ll make sure that all images have text alternatives (unless they are purely decorative). We will work our way through non-archive documents to improve them by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some documents on our website do not have sufficient colour contrast in places. This can mean that text cannot be read by people with visual impairments. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum). When we publish new documents, we’ll make sure that they have sufficient colour contrast. We will work our way through non-archive documents to improve them by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Forms
Some form fields do not have appropriate autocomplete attributes defined. This can mean that it's more difficult for people using assistive technology to understand what data should be entered. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose. We are working on making improvements to all of our forms to ensure that all relevant fields have autocomplete attributes. We aim to complete this by March 2024.
Some form inputs have ARIA attributes that are not allowed. This can cause confusion for people accessing the forms with assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value. We will update the forms to remove the incorrect attributes by the end of August 2023.
Some form elements do not have labels. This can mean that the purpose of the form elements is not clear to people using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value and WCAG success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. We will update the forms to include labels for all form elements by the end of August 2023.
Headings
Some pages have multiple heading 1s. This is confusing when the pages are viewed using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure that there is only one heading 1 per page. We will work our way through the site, updating pages to remove excess heading 1s. We aim to complete this by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some pages may not include headings to separate the sections of the page. This can mean that people using assistive technology are not aware of when they have moved from one section to another. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.10 Section Headings. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure that headings are used appropriately. We will work our way through the site, updating pages add headings where necessary. We aim to complete this by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some pages skip a heading level. This is confusing when the pages are viewed using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure that headings are ordered correctly. We will work our way through the site, updating pages to fix up the heading order. We aim to complete this by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some pages use formatting such as bold to highlight text as a heading. This means that people using assistive technology may not know that the text is a heading. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure that headings are used correctly. We will work our way through the site, updating pages to mark up headings correctly. We aim to complete this by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some pages use headings to highlight text that isn't really a heading. This is confusing when the pages are viewed using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure that heading tags are only used for headings. We will work our way through the site, updating pages to remove heading tags from non-heading. We aim to complete this by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some pages have missing heading 1s. This is confusing when the pages are viewed using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure that there is a heading 1 on the page. We will work our way through the site, updating pages to add heading 1s where they are missing. We aim to complete this by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Images
Some images don’t have a text alternative. This means that the information in the images isn’t available to people using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-Text Content. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure that all images have text alternatives (unless they are purely decorative). We will work our way through the site, adding appropriate alternative text to existing images. We aim to complete this by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Interactive Elements
On some pages there are nested interactive controls where there are header images with video overlays. This can mean that they are difficult to access by people using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value. We will investigate ways to achieve the visual effect in other ways and aim to have a fix in place by August 2023.
Keyboard
Keyboard focus is not visible on call to action links on a small number of pages. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible. We will investigate ways to make the focus visible on these call to action links by the end of August 2023.
On pages using the timeline component, keyboard focus is not visible on the link that sets the page to load all parts of the timeline at once. This could mean that people using keyboard navigation aren’t sure where they are on the page. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible. We will investigate the reason for this and aim to make the focus visible here by the end of August 2023.
On a small number of pages, the focus order is not correct and the keyboard focus jumps between the top and bottom of the page. This is confusing for people using keyboard navigation. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1. success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order. We will investigate ways to improve the focus order by the end of August 2023.
On our Clearing page, keyboard focus is not visible on the ‘Search now’ button in the course search bar. This could mean that people using keyboard navigation aren’t sure where they are on the page. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible. We will investigate the reason for this and aim to make the focus visible here by the end of August 2023.
Links
Some linked images have alternative text which describes the image rather than what it is linking to. This can mean that people using assistive technology don't know where the image will take them if they follow the link. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context). When we publish new content, we’ll make sure that all linked images have text alternatives that tell people about the link purpose rather than describing the image. We will work our way through the site, updating alternative text to existing images. We aim to complete this by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some of our links open in a new browser window. This can be confusing for people using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.2.5 Change on Request. Where it is necessary to open links in a new browser window, we will add this information to the link so that people will know that this behaviour will occur. We aim to complete this by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some pages have links to videos, but the link text doesn’t specify that it will open a video. This could be confusing for people using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context). We will work our way through the site, updating link text where necessary. We aim to complete this by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some pages have links using text that doesn’t tell the user where the link will take them. This could be confusing for people using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context). When we publish new content, we’ll make sure that all link text is useful and doesn't rely on context. We will work our way through the site, updating link text where necessary. We aim to complete this by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some pages have multiple links using the same text. This could be confusing to people using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context). When we publish new content, we’ll make sure that we don't use the same text for multiple links. We aim to complete this by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Tables
On some pages, there are tables which do not have headers. This can mean that it's more difficult for people using assistive technology to understand what data the table contains. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure that tables always have headers. We will work our way through the site, updating existing tables to ensure they have headers. We aim to complete this by March 2024. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
On a small number of pages there are complex tables that are difficult to understand. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. We will investigate ways that we can present this information in a more accessible way by the end of August 2023.
Text
On a small number of pages, text may overlap if you increase text spacing. This can mean that people who need to change the text spacing in order to read the page will miss some of the content. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.12 Text Spacing. We are working on improving the CSS for these areas by March 2024 to ensure that the text will reflow when text spacing is increased.
Video
Some videos embedded in our pages do not have captions. This means that people with hearing impairments may not be able to understand the video. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded). We will ensure that all new videos have captions and aim to add captions to existing videos by September 2025.
Some videos embedded in our pages have text visible which isn't available in the audio. This means that people with visual impairments may not be able to understand the video. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded). We intend to ensure that all relevant new videos provide an alternative and aim to update existing videos by September 2025.
Some videos embedded in our pages only have automatically created captions. This means that people with hearing impairments may not be able to understand the video if the auto-captioning is not accurate. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded). We will ensure that all new videos we produce have moderated captions and aim to update key existing videos by September 2025.
Issues related to 3rd Party Product - YouTube
On some pages keyboard focus is lost when tabbing through video content. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible. This is out of our control as the content is embedded from YouTube.
On some pages there are iframes containing elements which are using ARIA attributes which are not allowed. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value. This is out of our control as the content is embedding from YouTube.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards. The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We have rectified issues with some of our templates that were affecting large numbers of pages across our website.
We have provided training and guidance for staff who edit the website, so that they can improve the accessibility of the content they are responsible for.
We are ensuring that our development processes include accessibility considerations and testing as standard.
We have introduced a digital accessibility policy.
Information on improvements we have made to the site.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 3/9/20. It was last reviewed on 28/04/23.
This website was last tested on 26/9/22. The test was carried out internally using a combination of manual and automated testing. We used the following browser plugins for our automated testing: ARC Toolkit, axe DevTools, WAVE, HeadingsMap and WCAG Contrast Checker. We also used tested the site using the NVDA screen reader.