Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement covers this website https://acord-project.eu/ as the main website for the ACoRD project. We have several websites, each of which are being reviewed and have their own accessibility statement.

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, contrast levels 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 (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

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

AbilityNet https://mcmw.abilitynet.org.uk/ has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible is this website?

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

  • most older videos don’t have captions
  • some of our resources are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
  • some images don’t have full descriptions or captions
  • most older PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
  • most of our learning activities are not fully accessible
  • the colour contrast on some pages are insufficient to be easily discernible for all users
  • ARIA tags are improperly labelled in some cases

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

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

email hs-acord-eu@nottingham.ac.uk

We will consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, contact hs-acord-eu@nottingham.ac.uk.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing 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

The University of Nottingham is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Issues with technology

  • It is not always possible to skip to the main content when using a screen reader
  • It is not always possible for users to modify text spacing or line height
  • Many of our links don’t have title text
  • Many of our images don’t have alt text
  • The Aria menus on some pages are inadequate
  • Most of our learning activities are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
  • Some of our resources are not fully accessible via mobile devices

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing these issues and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when we next do a major redevelopment of the website, expected in 2022.

Issues with text

Some link text doesn’t make sense when read on its own (for example, “click here”)
We plan to fix these problems in the next website refresh. When we publish content we will make sure it meets accessibility standards.

Issues with PDFs and other documents

  • Many of our older PDFs and Word documents don’t meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be marked up so they’re accessible to a screen reader.
  • Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. By December 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Issues with images, video and audio

  • Some of our images do not have alternative text
  • Some videos and audio recordings do not have captions or an alternative format

We plan to add alt text to images on the home page by December 2020. We don’t plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. We plan to add captions to all video and audio recordings by December 2020.

Issues with interactive tools and transactions

Our content contains many interactive tools. Most of our learning activities have some accessibility issues, such as difficulty of navigation using a keyboard and lack of alternative formats.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing the issues with navigating using a keyboard and believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when the supplier contract is up for renewal, expected in 2022.

How we tested this website

Our website and web platforms are currently being audited for compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.1 level AA. Further actions will be driven by the outcome of this activity.

We have identified the following area as a priority for testing:

https://acord-project.eu/

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are actively reviewing and have introduced new working practices with a focus on user needs and providing inclusive content to our diverse audiences.

We have invested in accessibility training for our Learning technologists.

We are improving our existing media assets where required. For example, retrospectively adding captioning to video content.

This statement was prepared in August 2020. It was last updated on 17 September 2020.