Accessibility statement for ExamSys

This accessibility statement applies to the ExamSys website, version 7.6.0.

This website is maintained by the Learning Technology team within The University of Nottingham.

The University of Nottingham and My Computer My Way have advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are currently not fully accessible:

• Users cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
• The ExamSys video player doesn’t have a built-in feature to add captions, so users should add captions themselves before uploading media
• Many screens are missing content skips, and those with content skips are mostly not clear when using a screen reader
• Users can only zoom up to 175% before text starts to overlap
• Some pages are not currently keyboard accessible

Feedback and contact information

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements in another regard, please let us know by getting in touch with the Learning Technologies team directly.

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’). 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 websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Videos and audio

The website does not provide a feature for adding captions to videos with audio. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.2. However, if videos are usually uploaded on questions with text content, they will not need captions.

The website does not provide a feature for audio descriptions or text transcripts. This fails criteria 1.2.3 & 1.2.5.

Text

Users cannot zoom up to 200% without text overlapping on many pages, typically only up to 175% before the text starts to overlap. This fails criterion 1.4.4.

Colour contrast

Staff members currently do not have the ability to customise various interface elements within their profiles, though this functionality is available to students.

Keyboard accessibility

Keyboard navigation, including the ability to tab easily through content on some web pages, is not logical, intuitive or complete. Some content structures cannot be reached by keyboard navigation. These issues collectively fail criterion 2.1.1 unless otherwise stated.

Menus

Submenus, the hamburger menu, the Help & Support toolbar and section tabs across the website are not currently keyboard accessible. This affects areas such as paper set up, class totals reports, the homepage, invigilation and student profiles.

Colour customisation

Students have the option to customise the colours of various interface elements, including the paper background, main text, question marks, question headings, question labels, highlights, headers, and footers. However, these settings cannot currently be adjusted using the keyboard; students must use a mouse to make these changes.

Exam papers/questions and setup

Keyboard navigation isn’t supported when editing a paper or browsing the paper properties and question bank. Calculator and pencil icons, and the exam rubric overlay are also not keyboard accessible. 

Some questions can’t be selected, edited, deleted, or filtered using the keyboard yet. Hotspot and Labelling questions cannot be setup by a teacher or answered by a student using keyboard. There are also keyboard traps on Labelling and Area questions which fail criterion 2.1.2.

Other key areas such as the Modules page, Personal Keywords and Standards Setting are not keyboard accessible.

Unclear focus indicators

Keyboard focus on the login screen fields (username & password) is not clear and does not match the black outline which is shown on fields and buttons across the rest of the website. This fails criterion 2.4.7.

Content blocks/skip links

There aren’t any skip links on large lists such as modules, courses, internal/external reviewers. This means a user would need to spend considerable time tabbing through numerous module or course names before moving on to the next section. This fails criterion 2.4.1.

Use of screen readers

Some elements are not fully compatible with screen readers which fails criterion 1.3.1. Dropdown menus are not announced, help pages may repeat page titles, folder names may not be read out correctly and setup fields are missing clear labels. In addition, exam questions are not announced by the screen reader when students navigate through an exam, which fails success criterion 1.3.1 and 4.1.2. Focus is also unclear when using a screen reader on pages that use table layouts including various reports and features of exam papers such as questions laid out using tables. 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We acknowledge that ExamSys currently contains several accessibility barriers that may affect users with disabilities. We take these issues seriously and recognise that the current version of the platform does not yet meet desired accessibility standards. 

Our development team and the Learning Technology team will be working together to address these problems. Due to the scale of the changes required, improvements will take time to implement. However, we are committed to delivering regular updates to make ExamSys more inclusive and compliant with WCAG 2.2 AA. Our current focus is on improving keyboard accessibility across our website. The next scheduled update to Examsys is in February. 

As part of this commitment, each release will be assessed against WCAG 2.2 AA standards and this document will be updated accordingly. This ongoing review process ensures that accessibility remains an integral part of future development and updates to ExamSys.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on Thursday 22 January 2026. It was last reviewed on Thursday 22 January 2026.

This website (v7.6.0) was last tested in March 2025 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

Testing of each section of the website was undertaken manually by the Learning Technology testing team and the issues outlined above are being investigated by developers working towards improving accessibility across the website in the future.