Technical Information about this website’s accessibility
Aberystwyth University 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
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.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
Some images don’t have a text alternative. This means that the information in them isn’t available to people using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 Non-Text Content. Some images that do not have a text alternative currently have captions that can be read with assistive technology, but these do not always fully describe the content of the image. We are working though the site to add appropriate alternative text to existing images and when we publish new content, we’ll make sure that all images have text alternatives (unless they are purely decorative).
Some embedded videos do not have captions or a text alternative. This means that the information in them may not be available to all website users, including people using assistive technology. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.2.2 Captions (Pre-recorded) and 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Pre-recorded). We are working though the site to add captions or text descriptions to existing videos and when we publish new content, we’ll make sure that all embedded videos have captions or text descriptions.
Some of the maps and charts in Storymaps and downloadable presentations on the website use colour to distinguish between data or categories. This means that the information in them may not be accessible to all website users, including people using assistive technologies. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1 Use of Colour. We are working through the site to modify or replace maps and charts that rely on colour to communicate information with more accessible alternatives where possible. As we publish new content we’ll avoid using colour to communicate information in this way.
Some captions, legends or keys for maps and charts in some of the Storymaps are presented as text in images that is not readable by assistive technologies. This means that the information they contain is not available to people using assistive technologies. This doesn’t meet WCAG2.1 success criterion 1.4.5 Images of Text. We are working through the site to replace these with more accessible alternatives.
In a few places the colour contrast between text and background is less than the required minimum ratio. This means that the text may be difficult to read for some website users and they information contained will not be fully available to them. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum). We have improved colour contrast where we can and are investigating ways of fixing remaining problems.
Disproportionate burden
The construction of the website and the creation of much of the content was funded by a grant from the European Research Council which finished in January 2019. These funds are no longer available to us to support modifications to the site.
Some content was created by staff members with specialist technical skill sets whose employment finished at the end of the grant. We do not currently have access to all of the skill sets required to make modifications to improve the accessibility to some of this content. We believe that obtaining the specialist assistance required to fix some of these issues (e.g. use of colour in some maps and charts, some instances of text in images) would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations at the present time. We will make another assessment should appropriate resources become available.
Some identified issues, such as colour contrast in a few places, are features of the website design that was sub-contracted to a professional provider. We have assessed the cost of contracting a website designer to fix these issues and we believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment should appropriate resources become available.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
Some of the maps in our Storymaps do not meet accessibility standards, for example because they include text that cannot be read by assistive technologies. Online maps are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations where they’re not intended for navigational use.
Some of the older PDFs, Word documents and Powerpoint documents that can be downloaded from the site, don’t meet accessibility standards. The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.
Some of the embedded videos in the site do not meet accessibility standards, for example because they do not have captions. We are adding captions where we can, however there may be some exceptions as time-based media (such as videos) created before 23 September 2020 are outside the scope of the accessibility regulations.
Content in the ‘News Archive’ section of the site published before 23 September 2019 is exempt from the accessibility regulations as an ‘archive’ within the definition of the regulations as material that is not needed for active administrative purposes and has not been updated or edited since 23 September 2019
We are not responsible for the accessibility status of external links to third party content that is neither funded by, nor has been developed by, nor under the control of Aberystwyth University.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We are working through the site to fix identified accessibility issues, such as the absence of alternative text for images, as we are able to, subject to the statements above on ‘disproportionate burden’ and the scope of the accessibility regulations.
As we add more content to the site we will make sure that new material meets the accessibility standards.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 22 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 22 September 2020.
This website was last tested on 12 September 2020 by Michael Woods, Aberystwyth University.