Accessibility Statement

At Aston University we want to ensure that as many people as possible use our website, and we are working to improve the digital capabilities

Accessibility statement for www.aston.ac.uk

This accessibility statement applies to this website [www.aston.ac.uk] as the main website of Aston University.

This website is run by Aston University. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means that as a user you should be able to:

  • zoom in up to 200% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader
  • view the site on desktop, mobile, and tablet devices

We also aim to make the website text as simple as possible to understand.

If you have a disability, AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use.

How accessible this website is

We are committed to, and working towards, making this website accessible. However, we know some parts of this website are currently not fully accessible.

  • There are a small number of active elements which will not highlight focus when navigating the website using a keyboard.
  • The line-height or spacing of text cannot be modified by the user.
  • There are arrow buttons on the website that currently lack accessible text or defined purpose.
  • Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
  • Live video streams may not have captions.
  • Video iframes on the website may be missing accessible text.
  • When zoomed in to 400%, some elements within the header of the website are not accessible via keyboard.
  • There’s a limit to how far you can magnify the map on our ‘visit us’ page.

Feedback and contact information

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

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 10 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website and are continuing to audit our content. If you find something that you are unable to access, or we have failed to identify a barrier, please let us know.

If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, please email webaccessibility@aston.ac.uk.

Enforcement procedure

If you are unhappy with the response you have received from the University about your accessibility-related issue, you can make a complaint by emailing webaccessibility@aston.ac.uk.

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

Aston University 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 listed below.

Non accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some of our PDFs and Word documents published since 2018, and older documents, do not meet the required accessibility standards. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterions 1.3.1 (info and relationships), 1.3.2 (meaningful sequence), 1.4.3 (contrast minimum), 2.4.2 (page titled) and 3.1.1 (error identification).

We are working to resolve this through both user training and transformation of documents into webpages in priority order.

There are a small number of active elements which will not highlight focus when navigating the website using a keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion WCAG 2.4.7 (focus visible).

We are working towards resolving this by March 2023.

When zoomed in to 400%, some elements within the header of the website are not accessible via keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion WCAG 2.1.1 (Keyboard).

We are working towards a solution to this by March 2023.

Video iframes on the website may be missing accessible text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion WCAG 2.4.1 (Bypass Blocks) and WCAG 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).

We are working towards a solution for this by February 2023.

There are a small number of arrow buttons on the website that do not make entirely clear their purpose or attached text / accessible text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion WCAG 2.4.4 (Link Purpose - In Context) and WCAG 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).

We are working towards resolving this by March 2023.

Third-party content

This website also contains elements of third-party content and functionality. We are reviewing these third-party provider’s accessibility standards and will work with them to make these fully accessible or consider alternative solutions.

The Discover Uni (Unistats) widget which appears on all course pages (a regulatory requirement) has insufficient contrast ratio and animation that cannot be paused. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterions 2.2.2 (pause, stop, hide) and 1.4.3 (contrast, minimum).

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

PDFs and other documents published before 23 September 2018

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents published before 23 September 2018 do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2.

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. We are working towards ensuring that these, and any new documents we publish, will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

Live video streams don’t have captions. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live). We don’t plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Online maps

We try and ensure our or third-party online maps are as accessible as possible, but online maps are currently exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We’re developing an accessibility roadmap which will show how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website. It will be published here once complete.

We will:

  • Implement a centralised mechanism to report areas of concern regarding accessibility within the University and assign resource appropriately to address reported issues
  • Continue to support all staff who publish or edit website content with accessibility training and support
  • Identify and expand the use of tools used by staff who publish or edit website content to help them fix any accessibility issues
  • Conduct full website accessibility testing in cycles of six months by internal teams and yearly by external testing providers

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 5 August 2019. It was last reviewed on 8 December 2022.

This website was last fully tested on 08 September 2019. The test was carried out by our digital marketing department using third-party analytical software.

We plan to complete the next full test of the website by March 2023 and review this statement again in April 2023.