Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Statement for Aberystwyth University’s main website and course pages

This statement relates to all webpages with web address beginning www.aber.ac.uk, courses.aber.ac.uk, or cyrsiau.aber.ac.uk.

This website is run by Aberystwyth University. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change colours and fonts
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible, for example:

  • most older PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams don’t have captions
  • some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact Information Services.

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 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, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

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

The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) [2.1] AA standard.

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). 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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). 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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). 

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. 

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). 

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). 

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). 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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). 

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). 

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). 

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.

Our accessibility roadmap shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 05/12/20. It was last reviewed on 05/12/24.

This website was last tested on 26/9/22 against the WCAG [2.1] AA standard.

The test was carried out by Aberystwyth University. The most viewed pages were tested using automated testing tools by our website team.