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The University of Nottingham Accessibility Statement

Using this website

At the University of Nottingham we have several different websites, mobile applications and platforms, all of which are being reviewed and updated to improve their accessibility.

This accessibility statement covers this website nottingham.ac.uk/helmopen as the main website for the Helm team in sharing Open Educational Resources, which we’ve designed to make accessible to as many people as possible. For example, this site will allow users 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.

The accessibility of this website

Wherever possible, best practices have been followed – but we know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible. For example:

  • it’s not always possible for users to modify text spacing or line height
  • some PDF documents may not be fully accessible to screen reader software, especially some older documents
  • you can’t skip to the main content when using a screen reader
  • images don’t have full descriptions or captions
  • many of our learning activities are not fully accessible

What to do if you can’t access parts of this website

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

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

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 the HELM Team.

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

  • “Skip to main content” option not yet available site-wide
  • It’s 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 or have alt text that lacks detail, however this is addressed on all new deployments
  • The colour contrast on some pages are insufficient to be easily discernible for all users
  • We use a flash player emulator to play some of our older resources, we know these resources are not fully accessible
  • ARIA tags are improperly labelled in some cases
  • Some of our resources are not fully accessible via mobile devices

We’ve reviewed 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, which is expected to happen in 2022.

Issues with text

  • Some link text doesn’t make sense when read on its own (for example, “click here”)
  • Some text is written in complex language when it’s not required

We plan to fix these problems in the next website refresh. When we publish new content we’ll 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. From September 2020 we are either updating or replacing 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
    • Many video and audio recordings do not have captions

    We plan to auto-caption video and audio recordings made prior to September 2020 as part of a project to repurpose our older flash based resources.

    Any new video or audio content we publish will meet accessibility standards.

    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:

    What we’re doing to improve accessibility

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

    The University of Nottingham has invested in a Digital Engagement initiative which will enable us to be inclusive by design with a major website redevelopment project.

    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 the 27th of October 2021.