Technical Accessibility Roadmap for Aberystwyth University’s main website and course pages
Improvements Required
Colour
On a small number of pages, there is not sufficient colour contrast on parts of the text. We will update the colours used by the end of June 2025 to ensure that the text can be read by everyone.
Documents
Some documents are only available in PDF format. 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 June 2025. 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. 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 June 2025. 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. 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 June 2025. 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. 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 June 2025. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Forms
Some form fields do not have appropriate autocomplete attributes defined. 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 June 2025.
Some form inputs have ARIA attributes that are not allowed. We will update the forms to remove the incorrect attributes by the end of June 2025.
Some form elements do not have labels. We will update the forms to include labels for all form elements by the end of June 2025.
Headings
Some pages have multiple heading 1s. 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 June 2025. 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. 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 June 2025. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some pages skip a heading level. 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 June 2025. 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. 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 June 2025. 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. 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 June 2025. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some pages have missing heading 1s. 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 June 2025. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Images
Some images don’t have a text alternative. 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 June 2025. 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. We will investigate ways to achieve the visual effect in other ways and aim to have a fix in place by June 2025.
Keyboard
Keyboard focus is not visible on call to action links on a small number of pages. We will investigate ways to make the focus visible on these call to action links by the end of June 2025.
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. We will investigate the reason for this and aim to make the focus visible here by the end of June 2025.
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. We will investigate ways to improve the focus order by the end of June 2025.
On our Clearing page, keyboard focus is not visible on the ‘Search now’ button in the course search bar. We will investigate the reason for this and aim to make the focus visible here by the end of June 2025.
Links
Some linked images have alternative text which describes the image rather than what it is linking to. 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 June 2025. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some of our links open in a new browser window. 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 June 2025. 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. We will work our way through the site, updating link text where necessary. We aim to complete this by June 2025. 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. 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 June 2025. We are educating our content editors to ensure that they create accessible content.
Some pages have multiple links using the same text. 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 June 2025. 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. 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 June 2025. 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. We will investigate ways that we can present this information in a more accessible way by the end of June 2025.
Text
On a small number of pages, text may overlap if you increase text spacing. We are working on improving the CSS for these areas by June 2025 to ensure that the text will reflow when text spacing is increased.
Video
Some videos embedded in our pages do not have captions. 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. 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. We will ensure that all new videos we produce have moderated captions and aim to update key existing videos by September 2025.
Recent Accessibility Improvements Made
Animation
Our virtual tour homepage had moving images with no method to pause the movement. This can be very distracting for some people and can make it hard to access the virtual tour. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide. We worked with the 3rd party responsible for our virtual tour to create a more accessible version which includes a pause button.
Some pages had image sliders which moved automatically. They could be stopped by mouseover, but there was no mechanism to pause the slider while continuing to use the page. This was very distracting for some people and could 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. We have changed the way our image sliders function so that they can now be paused correctly.
Some pages had image sliders 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. We have changed the way our image sliders function so that they no longer interfere with screen readers.
Audio
Our virtual tour page played music automatically and the mute button was not accessible via keyboard. This could cause difficulty for people using screen readers as it interfered with their ability to hear what was being read out. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.2 Audio Control or 2.1.1 Keyboard. We worked with the 3rd party responsible for our virtual tour to create a more accessible version which includes a mute button that is accessible via keyboard. In addition, the music no longer automatically starts when the page loads.
Forms
Some forms did not have radio button or check box selections contained within a fieldset. This could mean that it was not clear to people filling out the form that the radio buttons or checkboxes belonged to a single question on the form. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions. We have improved our form systems so all radio buttons and check box selections are now contained within a fieldset.
On some forms, the focus indicator was not visible when accessing a set of radio buttons or check boxes. This could mean that people were not sure where they were on the page while trying to fill out the form using a keyboard. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible. We have improved our form systems so the focus indicator is now visible on all radio buttons and check boxes.
Some forms contained fieldsets which had no legends. This could mean that it was not clear to people filling out the form what fields were included in the fieldset. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions. We have improved our form systems so all fieldsets now have legends.
Some forms did not have labels set correctly for some fields and were using a placeholder rather than a label. This could mean that it's 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. We have added aria labels to the fields to clarify their purpose.
Some forms had orphaned form labels. This could mean that it was not clear to people filling out the form what field the label belonged to. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions. We have updated forms to ensure there are no orphaned form labels.
Images
We have ensured that all centrally controlled images (those outside of web editors' control) have a text alternative unless they are purely decorative. We have ensured that content templates allow web editors to add text alternatives to the images that they upload.
Headings
We have ensured that all centrally controlled headings (those outside of web editors' control) are correctly nested.
Keyboard
Some pages had areas that could not be accessed via keyboard. This included pages using ‘accordions’ or ‘tabs’. This meant that the information contained in the accordions or tabs was not available to people navigating via keyboard. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 Keyboard. We have changed the way our accordions and tabs function so that the content within them is now accessible via keyboard.
On some pages, the focus indicator was not visible when you tabbed onto image sliders. This could mean that people were not sure where they were on the page while accessing it via a keyboard. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7 Focus Visible. We have changed the way our image sliders function so that the focus indicator is visible at all times.
Landmarks
Some of the content of our pages was outside of any ARIA landmark. This could be confusing to people using assistive technology. This didn't meet WCAG 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks. We have updated our code to ensure that all content is contained within an ARIA landmark.
Links
Links used to open and close the sub-sections in our global navigation did not have text or titles. This meant that people using assistive technology may not have known what the links did. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context). We have added text to these links explaining what they do.
Text
Some pages use ‘accordions’ or ‘tabs’ which could mean that the content within them was not available to a screen reader user or that the content was available, but not in an obvious way (e.g. by skipping through lists on the page). This meant that the content may not have been available to some people and was likely to be confusing. This didn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. We have changed the way our accordions and tabs function so that the content within them is now accessible via screen reader.