Technical Accessibility Roadmap for Aberystwyth University’s job vacancy pages

Improvements Required

Many of the improvements identified are outside the capability of the University to resolve, as it procures the system from a third-party provider. The University will work with the third-party provider (Hireserve) to seek to identify solutions for the following:

Buttons

Some buttons do not contain alternative text, which means that people using assistive technology may not be able to identify the purpose of these buttons. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.6 Headings and Labels.

Contrast

Some user interface components and form controls do not appear sufficiently distinct from their surroundings, so that people with visual impairments are still able to clearly see them. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast.

Documents

Some documents available on our website are not accessible as they don't have alternative text on images, aren't structured correctly or have issues with tables, headings and lists. 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.

Fields

Some fields do not identify their purpose programmatically, to allow browsers to help users fill in forms with known information. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose.

Headings

Some pages skip a heading level. 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.

Some section link headings are not set up as list items. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.10 Section Headings.

Landmarks

Some of the content of our pages is outside of any landmark. This could be confusing to people using assistive technology. This doesn't meet WCAG success criterion 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks.

Links

Some pages have links using text that doesn’t clearly tell the user where the link will take them. This is confusing when the pages are accessed using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context).

Some pages have multiple links using the same text. This is confusing when the pages are accessed using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context).

Lists

There are lists which only contain one item. This means that people using assistive technology may find the lists confusing. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.

Recent Accessibility Improvements Made

Animation

The homepage had an image slideshow which interfered with the ability of screen readers to read out the text on the page. This meant that the content didn't make sense to people using screen readers. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 conformance requirement 5.2.5 Non-Interference. The image slideshow has been removed.

The homepage had an image slideshow which moved automatically. There was no mechanism to pause the animation. This can be very distracting for some people and can make it hard to access the information on the sliders. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide. The image slideshow has been removed.

Colour

There was insufficient colour contrast on parts of the text. This meant that people with certain visual impairments were not able to read this content. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum). Colour contrast has now been corrected.

Documents

Documents were only available in PDF format. This could mean that people cannot enlarge text in the document without needing to scroll left to right to read it. This didn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.10 Reflow. Documents are now available in Word format.

Forms

Some forms did not have labels set correctly for some fields and were using a placeholder rather than a label. This meant that it was not clear to people filling out the form what data they should enter into the field. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. The forms were updated to fix this error.

Some forms had no visible focus on the radio buttons to help users know which element has keyboard focus and where they are on the page. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible. Visible focus is now provided for radio buttons in forms.

Headings

Some pages had multiple heading 1s. This was confusing when the pages were accessed using assistive technology. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. The additional heading 1s have been removed.

There was text that was tagged as a heading, but it was not being used as a heading. This was confusing when the pages were accessed using assistive technology. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. These have now been removed.

Landmarks

There were multiple main landmarks. This could be confusing to people using assistive technology. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. There is now only one main landmark.

Links

All link names were not accessible by a screen reader and were not descriptive enough to tell a user where that link will take them. This didn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value. These links have now been updated.  

Lists

Some lists did not contain semantically correct parent and child elements. When lists contain other elements or they are ordered incorrectly, screen readers are not able to read the lists accurately. This didn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. This has now been resolved.

Text

Line height for text could not be overridden. The meant that people who needed to change the spacing of the text were unable to do so. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.12 Text Spacing. This has now been fixed.