Web Accessibility

Making our website more accessible.

New regulations came into force for public sector bodies on 23 September 2018. To meet these new regulations, we must make our website more accessible and provide information for users that explains how accessible it is.

The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No.2) Accessibility Regulations 2018

What does web accessibility mean?

Making a website accessible means making sure it can be used by as many people as possible, including those with impairments to their:

  • vision - severely sight impaired (blind), sight impaired (partially sighted) or colour blind people
  • hearing - people who are deaf or hard of hearing
  • mobility - people who find it difficult to use a mouse or keyboard
  • thinking and understanding - people with dyslexia, autism or learning difficulties

At least 1 in 5 people in the UK have a long-term illness, impairment or disability. Many more have a temporary disability.

Accessibility means making your content and design clear and simple enough so that most people can use it without needing to adapt it, while supporting those who do need to adapt things.

For example, someone with impaired vision might use a screen reader (software that lets a user navigate a website and ‘read out’ the content), braille display or screen magnifier. Or someone with motor difficulties might use a special mouse, speech recognition software or on-screen keyboard emulator.

 

What the university is responsible for

Information Services staff are responsible for making sure the website as a whole is accessible. This includes things like:

  • making sure site navigation can be used without a mouse
  • making sure text can be enlarged by the user without making the page unreadable
  • making sure that images used in the header and footer of pages have alternative text
  • making sure that forms have field labels
  • making sure that there is sufficient contrast between text and background colour

Guidance for CMS Users

You are responsible for making sure that the content that you create using the CMS is accessible. There are many CMS authors and many web pages on our sites, so we need you to take responsibility for your own content. You may already be creating accessible content, but take a look at the document below to make sure you are following these guidelines.

To help you assess and improve the accessibility of your content, use the documents below:

Please work through Digital Accessibility Training for CMS Users as soon as you can.

 

Short on time? See our top 5 accessibility tips!

Guidance for Managers

You are responsible for making sure that the content that you provide for CMS Editors is accessible. Although you are not the person putting the content onto the website, you need to understand how to provide your content in the best format, and with additional information (such as alternative text) included. You may already be creating accessible content, but take a look at the document below to make sure you are following these guidelines.

Please book yourself onto a Digital Accessibility Training for Managers session as soon as you can.