Introducing website accessibility

What website accessibility is and how we’re making our website accessible

One our our key priorities is to improve the accessibility of our website and digital platforms. This means we’ll be reviewing the content, design and technical architecture of our platforms to meet global accessibility standards.

Why accessibility is important

According to government statistics, 1 in 5 people in the UK have a disability. Disabilities may be:

• Visual
• Auditory
• Physical
• Cognitive
• Neurological

People with disabilities may use assistive technologies to improve their experience of using websites. For example, a person with a visual impairment may use a screenreader to read out content on a website and aid with navigation through the site.

Website accessibility is creating websites that are written, designed and developed to be used by visitors who are permanently or temporarily disabled.

Inaccessible websites may make it impossible for people with a disability to understand and use the website by reducing the effectiveness of assistive technologies.

We have a responsibility to make our digital platforms accessible to all. Visitors to our digital channels should not be excluded because of inaccessible content or designs.

Making our website more accessible will also benefit people who don’t have a disability, such as people using our website on different devices with slow internet connections.

How we measure accessibility

The process for creating accessible websites is governed by a set of global standards managed and maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - an international community managing open web standards. The latest version of web accessibility standards is contained within the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.

As outlined in the WCAG, website accessibility is scored on 3 levels:

A: The minimum standard of website accessibility. Meeting this level will have a minimal impact on the design and functionality of the website but the website may not work properly across different browsers or assistive technologies.

AA: The generally accepted standard of website accessibility. Meeting this level will ensure a website works with most browsers, devices and assistive technologies but may impact the design and functionality of the website.

AAA: The highest standard of website accessibility. Meeting this level will ensure a website works across all browsers, devices and assistive technologies. It is likely that meeting this level will significantly impact the design and functionality of the website.

Since 2018, it has been a legal requirement for all public sector websites (including universities) to meet the WCAG 2.1 AA standard of website accessibility.

Website accessibility applies to all content on a website, including PDF and Word documents, videos and HTML webpages.

How we are making our website accessible

To make our website accessible, we are:

• Making technical improvements to the functionality and design of our website, such as changing colours to improve contrast
• Developing a new digital style guide that is based on creating accessible and inclusive content
• Providing training and support for people who create and edit content on our website
• Contributing to a University-wide accessibility working group
• Undertaking user-testing to better understand how people engage with our website and digital platforms
• Publishing an accessibility statement on our website highlighting any areas of the website that do not meet accessibility standards

To monitor accessibility issues on our website, we use a website quality assurance tool called Siteimprove. Siteimprove crawls our website every week and highlights any elements that do not meet the WCAG standards. Reports are sent to website editors to review and fix.

Improving accessibility on our website is an ongoing process that will be built into our development and content creation processes. We will continually review the accessibility of our website and digital platforms to make sure that we are keeping up-to-date with the latest WCAG standards and changing user behaviours.

In future blog posts we will be sharing more details on the steps we are taking to make our website accessible.

Photograph by Christopher Gower on Unsplash