Accessibility known issues

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

We are working to remedy specific instances of non-accessible content that we have identified.

Issues with images

Not all images across the website have appropriate alternative text and some decorative images have redundant alt text (1.1.1.) which means they could be miscommunicated by assistive technology or invisible to some users. We are working to ensure appropriate alt text is applied to all historical images and all new images are uploaded with the correct information.

Social media image links lack alternative text (1.1.1),which means they could be miscommunicated by assistive technology or invisible to some users. We will work with our developers to consider using an ARIA label to name the anchor text and hide the internal icon.

The college map image has embedded text (1.4.5) which can make the content inaccessible for those who rely on screen readers. We have provided information on this page about how to contact college via telephone, email or post. However, we will work with our designers to look at implementing an accessible college map.

Issues with links

Some link text is used for multiple different destinations (2.4.4) and alternative text for image is identical to link text (1.1.1). We are going through each page on the website to remedy this.

Issues with formatting

Table header is not marked up as such (1.3.1) which may make it difficult for some users to understand the content of the table.

Text that acts as a heading is not always marked up as such (1.3.1) which means content may seen unstructured or disorganized to assistive technology. We will work with our developers to fix inappropriate heading mark-ups.

Required fields not identified on our Student Profiles submission page (3.3.2) and having to use trial and error to fill the fields could put those with cognitive impairments at a disadvantage. Error messages are not helpful (3.3.3) when the form is incorrectly submitted as they do not identify which field contains the error. We will work with our developers to ensure required fields and errors are properly identified to users.

The University logo in the footer requires horizontal navigation (1.4.10) and at 400 per cent zoom, there is loss of content or functionality. We will work with our developers to remedy this.

Text overflows from containers on homepage when text spacing is increased (1.4.12) and the white text is then displayed on a pale grey background, making the content lost to users. We will work with our developers to address this.

There are parsing errors on the website (4.1.1) which could mean assistive technologies struggle to process semantics that deviate from the relevant specifications. We will work with our developers to address this.

Issues with navigation

The navigation menu cannot be dismissed without moving the mouse or keyboard focus (1.4.13) which may cause issues for users who experience difficulty operating the mouse or screen magnification users who may only be able to see a proportion of the menu at a time. We will work with our developers to provide an alternative method to dismiss the mega menu content.

Focus does not return to triggering element (2.4.3) when a user closes an image lightbox, instead keyboard focus is lost and defaults to the top of the page. We will work with our developers to address this issue.

Anchor tag does not have a label and href attribute (4.1.2) when video from the Twitter embed is opened. We will work with our developers to address this.

Issues with our webforms

We are aware of accessibility issues with our embedded webforms. On each page hosting a webform we have provided an alternative way for users to register for events by contacting college directly rather than filling out the form. However, we will explore ways to remedy these accessibility issues.

The full label is not associated with input field (1.3.1) for the ‘other’ option so instead of describing the purpose of the ‘other’ box, the label instead describes the character count. Error messages are not associated with their inputs (1.3.1). This all means content may seem unstructured or disorganized to assistive technology users.

Fields do not use autocomplete attribute (1.3.5) which allows browsers to auto-fill commonly requested information.

Required asterisk has insufficient colour contrast (1.4.3) which means users without accurate perception of colour or limited vision may struggle to perceive the content.

Input fields have insufficient contrast (1.4.11) which may cause issues for users who cannot perceive these elements.

Embedded form does not respond to text spacing settings. Users should be able to adjust the style of the author specified text to improve their reading experience without losing content or functionality.

Errors not announced to screen reader users when form is submitted (3.3.1)

Asterisk meaning not described (3.3.2) as it does not say asterisk means mandatory field.

Dynamically updating content not announced (4.1.3) which means the amount of characters left per field is not announced to screen reader users as they enter text, which could leave them unaware of when they are nearing their character limit.

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDF, Word and Excel documents

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services. We are, however, working towards replacing PDFs or other documents with accessible webpages where we can.

Issues with video and audio

Not all pre-recorded video and audio files on this website have an audio description (1.2). All pre-recorded audio and video media published before 23 September 2020 was exempt from the scope of the accessibility regulations. Any new pre-recorded video and audio files will aim to meet accessibility standards. We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Third party content

We often create content which is hosted on third party platforms. This includes:

• content we create for social media
• video and audio which we host through YouTube or Soundcloud
• forms created through Wufoo or Mailchimp

We are responsible for ensuring the content we supply meets accessibility standards, however we are not responsible for the accessibility of the platform itself.