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Accessibility statement for www.bradford.ac.uk

This accessibility statement applies to the website www.bradford.ac.uk run by The University of Bradford in the United Kingdom.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 10 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 23 March 2023. For a copy of our previous versions, please e-mail web-team@bradford.ac.uk or contact our Legal and Governance team.

This website was last tested on 18 March 2023 for this version of the statement but elements of testing occur weekly or other regular intervals. The test was carried out by our Web Team within our organisation. Our approach on testing in preparation for this statement is outlined further below.

Our accessibility ethos

Our users' experience is very important to us and ensuring website accessibility is a key priority. We’re committed to making our space on the web work for all.

As an institution, we embed a consideration of equality, diversity and inclusion in everything we do. As such, the University is working to ensure its website is accessible and adheres to the guidance from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the UK Central Digital & Data Office, and meets the expectations of our stakeholders.

You can find out more about these regulations by visiting the UK Central Digital & Data Office guidance on understanding new accessibility requirements for public sector bodies.

About the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018

As of 23 September 2018, all public sector websites are lawfully required to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard and publish an accompanying accessibility statement.

As an existing website (published before 23 September 2018) the deadline for the University of Bradford website to meet the latest regulations on accessibility standards and publish an accessibility statement was 23 September 2020.

How accessible this website is

We recognise that some parts of the website are not accessible:

  • Not all PDF and Word documents have been adapted for assistive technologies or may have issues with colour contrast
  • Not all images have alternative text, some may be used for decorative purposes
  • Not all link text is descriptive
  • Live video streams do not have captions
  • Not all pre-recorded videos have media alternatives
  • Not all headings are correctly ordered or labelled
  • Not all tables have headings or not all table cells contain content (empty cells)
  • Some content is difficult to navigate by keyboard
  • Some colours are used which do not provide sufficient colour contrast for users who may perceive colours differently or not at all
  • Users who may operate their keyboard to navigate certain webpages may find it difficult to see the focus indicator because it may not always be adequately visible
  • Our ‘live chat’ function may be difficult to use for users who rely on keyboard navigation
  • Not all embedded content has text alternative, such as embedded videos

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The University of Bradford 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

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.

Accessible content

Our website allows users to:

  • Adapt our website for mobile and tablet devices

Non-accessible content

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

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

The following content is non-accessible:

Increasing zoom and/or font-size

Through testing, we have examined our compliance against WCAG 1.4.4 Resize text and WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow and found that text in some tables and our navigation menu resulting in content becoming obscured.

Sections of the website with a navigation menu or those which feature a list of university employees in our faculties and schools are impacted.

We aim to resolve these issues by 15 September 2023.

Headings

We’ve detected that some content featured on our website on pages do not make use of correct heading structure, in that they do not follow logical sequential order. This impacts our website’s conformity with WCAG 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence.
At time of writing, there were 116 pages impacted by this issue. These include pages in the following sections of the website:

  • ‘Archaeomagnetism: Magnetic Moments in the Past’ Project
  • Activities for teachers and professionals (Teachers and professionals)
  • Alumni
  • Automotive Research Centre
  • Bradford Research
  • Career and Employability Services
  • Careers Service
  • Centre for Applied Dementia Studies
  • Centre for Pharmaceutical Engineering Science
  • Centre for Skin Sciences
  • Centre for Sustainable Environments
  • Centre for Visual Computing
  • Disability Service
  • Equality and diversity
  • Events
  • Faculty of Engineering & Informatics
  • Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences
  • Giving to Bradford
  • International students – Available Funding For United States Students - American and Canadian Student Funding
  • International students – China
  • News articles (specific articles from 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021)
  • School of Archaeological and Forensic Sciences
  • School of Chemistry and Biosciences
  • School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership
  • The Digital Health Enterprise Zone (DHEZ)
  • The John and Elnora Ferguson Centre for African Studies (JEFCAS)

Additionally, some pages do not contain a heading level 1 element but may then contain other heading levels affecting conformity with WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships.

On some pages, content intended as headings is not correctly marked up also impacting conformity with WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships and 2.4.6 Headings and Labels:.

We strive to resolve the above issues relating to headings by 01 June 2023.

Navigation and keyboard navigation

Our navigation menu on most pages doesn’t always allow users to tab through individual link items listed or doesn’t always allow keyboard users to easily focus on links. This impacts conformity against WCAG  1.4.13 Content on Hover or Focus,  2.4.3 Focus Order, 2.4.7 Focus Visible and  2.1.1 Keyboard.

We are seeking to redevelop our navigation menu and hope to implement a new version by 30 July 2023.
Not all links have unique or descriptive names. Users may not be able to determine the purpose of each link from the link text (affecting conformity with WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context)).

While we have worked to address these issues, the page International Womens’ Day - https://www.bradford.ac.uk/events/international-womens-day/ - remains affected.

Our Web Team aim to resolve these issues by 30 July 2023 through technical improvements to our code, improved training and requesting content editing from content authors.

Navigation through hyperlinks

Some course pages contain hyperlinks which are not styled correctly and use colours which do not provide sufficient contrast against the background, impacting conformity with 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum).

Pages impacted by this issue include some course pages and our A-Z list of countries in our international students section.
Our Web Team aim to correct the styles used by these hyperlinks by 1 April 2023.

Some news articles from 2021 and a staff profile page contain anchor links with no text content. Screen readers may detect this link but because there is no text alternative, users will find it difficult to understand. This impacts conformity with WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context).

Our Women’s History Month and some staff profile pages contain vague or generic link text, which can be problematic for assistive technologies such as screen readers. This impacts conformity with WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context).
Our Web Team will seek to remove any unnecessary links or by requesting text content be added to them by 1 April 2023.

Image galleries

The following pages feature an image gallery implementation:

 The following issues have been detected with the image gallery on these pages:

  • Images in the gallery and carousel do not have appropriate alt text, affecting conformity with WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content
  • Various interactive parts of the gallery and carousel do not convey their interactivity clearly, affecting conformity with WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
  • Images in the gallery do not show a hovered state when the user’s cursor hovers over, affecting conformity with WCAG 1.4.13 Content on Hover or Focus
  • The navigation buttons cannot be reached using the keyboard, affecting conformity with WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard
  • The carousel does not receive and capture focus, allowing the user to tab outside the carousel, affecting conformity with 2.4.3 Focus Order
  • The carousel slides, when focused, do not have visible focus, affecting conformity with WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible

Our Web Team will seek to redevelop this functionality by 1 May 2023.

PDF and Word documents

Some PDFs and Word documents on the University website have not been created with accessibility in mind. Assistive technologies may have difficulty in understanding them.

This impacts conformity with WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content, 1.3.1 Info and Relationships 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence, 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum), 1.4.5 Images of Text.

We aim to resolve these issues by 15 September 2023, in accordance with a previous version of this statement published on 15 September 2022. Our Web Team is working with various departments to ensure new documents do not have these conformity issues.

Pre-recorded video and audio

Pre-recorded videos on the website may not have appropriate media alternative, including captions, transcripts, or audio description.

This impacts conformity with WCAG 1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Pre-recorded), 1.2.2 Captions (Pre-recorded), 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Pre-recorded), 1.2.4 Captions (Live), 1.2.5 Audio Description (Pre-recorded).

Our Web Team is working with various Marketing teams and website authors to ensure new videos conform with the above WCAG criteria. Our website CMS has been configured to better inform our users about visual and audio information on each piece of video and/or audio content featured on our website. We aim to resolve these issues by 15 September 2023, in accordance with the last version of this statement published on 15 September 2022.

Live video and audio

We do not plan to add captions to live video or audio streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Disproportionate burden

Documents

Due to the number of PDFs and Word documents on the website, and present resource available at the University, we are unable to make all documents which are featured online fully accessible at this time and doing so would place a disproportionate burden based on the accessibility regulations.

You can review our analysis we undertook for our disproportionate claim.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

Decorative images

Images that don’t add information to content are considered decorative and will not contain alternative text, in line with guidance by the W3C on decorative images.

This means some software may detect images that have no alternative text, but this does not mean these images are non-compliant.

Third party content

Third party content such as FindaPhD and Unibuddy are exempt from meeting accessibility regulations, though we aim to work with the providers of these services to make them as accessibility compliant as possible.

Please note this list serves as examples and is not comprehensive.

Some code, which is hosted-by third-parties and used for specific operational requirements such as digital advertising or for live chat functionality, also does not fall within the University's scope. However, we remain conscientious of how this code may affect our users' experience on our website.

Pre-recorded video captions

Not all videos published on the website before 23 September 2020 have synchronised captions or a video transcript. Though this it outside the scope of the accessibility regulations, we aim to provide these at a later time.

Live video captions

Live streams of on-campus events, such as graduation, may not have synchronised video captions as they fall outside of the regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

To ensure full accessibility of our website, we will be undertaking another comprehensive review of accessibility on the University of Bradford website. We are also making investments on improving understanding about our website users’ needs through training and guidance for our employees who have the ability to edit our website.

All our website authors are required to ensure that any content they produce and make available is compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA within the scope of the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

We are developing a roadmap plan to ensure we achieve full WCAG 2.1 AA compliance.

Meanwhile:

  • We are working to resolve all non-compliant accessibility issues
  • We continue to inform best practice with the users of our website content management system
  • We continue to train all users of our content management system to be accessibility minded when editing the website
  • We’re setting an expectation that University Web Team events on improving our website users’ experience with accessibility in mind are mandatory for CMS users to attend and/or confirm they have reviewed related information

We recognise the importance of accessibility as a teachable moment for our organisation and continue to help embed key accessibility principles across the University.

How we test this website

We employ several tactics to help ensure our website is compliant for accessibility while not hindering our users' experience on the website:

  • All new webpages on the website are tested for accessibility before going live (see below for further details on how we do this)
  • We employ workflows at both a system and procedural level for webpages we work on
  • We proactively assess technologies and learn from our users' experience to improve our code and content

In addition to the above, we use the following tools and platforms to help us determine how we perform against website accessibility according to the W3C WCAG. We use these tools in combination with our expertise and understanding of WCAG and never in isolation.

Siteimprove

We subscribe to Siteimprove which offers a website quality assurance and auditing tool.

At time of publishing, Siteimprove gives our website a score of 89.9 out of 100 based on how well we meet WCAG 2 guidelines. It is important to note that this score is not fixed and adjusts as we improve and add to our website.

Lighthouse

Lighthouse is an open-source webpage quality and performance audit tool. When auditing a webpage for accessibility, it focuses on the technical aspects concerning code and structure of webpages.

As an indicator, Lighthouse scores us 100/100 for accessibility for our website homepage on desktop devices, and we aim to mirror this score across all pages on the website.

Reporting accessibility problems or feedback

We recognise that every change, no matter how small, can make a difference to some users.

If we can make our website more accessible to you, or you would like to raise an accessibility issue on behalf of others, you can contact us by emailing web-team@bradford.ac.uk. You can also email us for feedback on our accessibility statement or ethos.

We will acknowledge your email as soon as possible during the University’s office hours. Though we may not be able to respond to your feedback straight away, we endeavour to keep you updated of any progress made.

Requesting information as an alternative format

If you require information from this website as an accessible PDF, Word document or other format, please email marketing@bradford.ac.uk or web-team@bradford.ac.uk.

You can expect to receive a response from us within approximately 7-10 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’).

Contacting the Equality Advisory and Support Service

If you feel our response to your email is inadequate, or the issue is unresolved, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) for assistance.

Printing our accessibility statement

If you are viewing this webpage as a printed version or a document that has been previously saved to your personal device, you may not be viewing the latest version. Visit www.bradford.ac.uk/web-accessibility to ensure an up-to-date version of our accessibility statement.