Digital accessibility

We are actively working to make our web services accessible to all users.

Accessibility statement for UWE Bristol

This accessibility statement applies to content published on the main UWE Bristol domain www.uwe.ac.uk. It does not apply to content accessed via another domain or subdomain. For other web addresses, you should refer to the accessibility statement for that domain or subdomain.  

This website is run by UWE Bristol. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able 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. AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability. 

How accessible is the UWE Bristol website

Over 15 staff at UWE Bristol have access to publish content on the website. We share accessibility reminders regularly with all staff, and offer an accessibility training module to all new and existing members of the staff. However, due to the sheer size of the whole website (over 3,627 pages) and the number of contributors, some of this content still may not be fully accessible, for example:

  • the text will not reflow in a single column when you change the size of the browser window
  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • many PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams do not have captions
  • some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
  • you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader
  • there’s a limit to how far you can magnify the map on our ‘contact 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 will consider your request and get back to you in 10 days.

If you cannot view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, please call or email us for directions.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

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, contact:

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

UWE Bristol 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 W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 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.
 
Our web pages are regularly reviewed to ensure they remain accessible and appropriate. The University’s public facing website was last audited in October 2020 by Nomensa, who performed an evaluation of a broad sample of pages against all level A and AA success criteria of the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.

The outcome of the audit indicated that the website was partially compliant. Remedial work was prioritised to address the accessibility issues raised, which included:

  • improving labels for page features
  • the focus order while tabbing through content
  • more accurate text descriptions for images
  • correcting the order of headings in content accordions. 

Some pages on the public facing website use embedded content from other platforms (YouTube, Soundcloud, X, Google maps, Revolution Viewing 360 tours) and while we have tried to implement this in the most accessible way achievable, there may be limitations to the experience supported by those providers.

Due to the large number of documents produced across the University, some PDFs available from the website may not be as accessible as they could be. We are working towards a consistent approach to ensuring the accessibility of these across all areas of the University.

Some of our older video content does not have captions or audio descriptions. We are actively working to add captions and audio descriptions to the most viewed of those videos.

Disproportionate burden

Third-party systems

Some digital services delivered by the University currently use third-party provided technologies. There may be cases where these systems cannot deliver the same level of accessibility compliance that the website offers and the University is not able to influence the code on those platforms. We are working to strengthen our expectation of suppliers during procurement or renegotiation of contracts to enhance compliance in these systems. Third-party systems used include:

  • Job vacancies
  • Microsoft 365
  • MYUWE student portal
  • welcome.uwe applicant portal
  • iTrent student vacancies platform
  • InfoHub student platform
  • Wordpress blog platform
  • Gecko Engage online forms
  • Gecko events management
  • Qualtrics survey forms
  • mycpd.uwe applicant portal
  • store.uwe online store.

Digital publications

The University’s key prospectuses are delivered in a digital format using the Foleon platform. These were last audited in March 2021 by Nomensa, who performed an evaluation against all level A and AA success criteria of the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. Moderate and minor accessibility issues were identified across the digital prospectuses. These impacted the link focus indicator, the main menu and the understanding of page structures. We are currently working with Foleon to resolve these issues.

Mobile apps

The University provides a number of mobile apps which it has developed via Google Play and Apple App Store to support student experiences.  We are committed to making our mobile app experiences as accessible as possible although some mobile app services delivered by the University currently use third-party provided technologies. There may be cases where these apps cannot deliver the same level of accessibility compliance that the website offers and the University is not able to influence the code on those products.

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

PDFs and other documents

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. The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

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

What we're doing to improve accessibility

We are working on the findings of our latest accessibility testing and are aiming to resolve all issues listed under Non-compliance section above, by the end of December 2023. Or to update our statement accordingly with outstanding issues by then.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared in October 2020. It was last reviewed in January 2023.

Our web pages are regularly reviewed to ensure they remain accessible and appropriate. The University’s public facing website was last audited in October 2020 by Nomensa, who performed an evaluation of a broad sample of pages against all level A and AA success criteria of the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.

As we have over 3,627 pages on our website, we had to select a limited number of pages to be tested. We wanted to include as many pages as possible within our budget in this audit, the criteria on choosing the pages to be tested was the level of traffic, or the pages that would have a potential to be visited by a wider audience.

A total of 16 pages have been tested against the current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standards.

URLs that were tested on our latest accessibility audit 

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