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Accessibility Statement

The University of Chester is committed to providing an online environment that is accessible to everyone.

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HomeAccessibility

Using this website

This accessibility statement covers the University of Chester corporate website hosted at chester.ac.uk. We have several websites and a mobile application each of which are being reviewed and have their own accessibility statement.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website.

 For example, that means you should be able to:

  • zoom in up to 400% 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 (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)
  • Navigate most of our online forms using just a keyboard

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 this website is

Our website is based on a complex centralised Content Management System (CMS) launched before 23 September 2018. As such, some parts of our website are more accessible than others.

We know that some parts of this website are not fully accessible, for example:

  • some links and images do not have text alternatives
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible
  • live video streams, and most older videos, don’t have captions
  • some elements do not have an adequate colour contrast

Feedback and contact information

Please get in touch with us if you need information on this website in a different format by emailing webteam@chester.ac.uk, specifying the format you would like to request.

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

If you are unable to view the maps provided on contact or course pages email enquiries@chester.ac.uk or call +44 (0)1244 511000 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 webteam@chester.ac.uk with the details on the issues you have found and link to the page this refers to.

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 Chester 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 and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Navigation and accessing information

It is not always possible to bypass repetitive content through our ‘skip to main content’ option. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1 (Bypass Blocks). We are reviewing the ‘skip to main content’ option and plan to correct this issue by 28th February 2023.

Information fields on our prospectus request form may not be parsed into a data structure correctly because of duplicate IDs in ARIA and labels. This fails WCAG success criterion 4.1.1 (Parsing). We plan to correct these issues by 28th February 2023.

The 'search for a course' box on the homepage does not currently use the correct ARIA attributes. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value). Work is in progress to resolve this issue by 28th February 2023.

Images, video and other multimedia

Not all our images have text alternatives, and some images are not coded as either meaningful or decorative. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). Not all pre-recorded video-only content is accompanied by an equivalent text or audio alternative. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.2.1 (Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded)). Not all our pre-recorded multimedia content has captions. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.2.2 (Captions (Prerecorded)). There is also multimedia content without audio descriptions or media alternatives. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.2.3/1.2.5 (Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded)/ Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded)). We are reviewing the images, video and other multimedia as an ongoing improvement and due to the size of the site, we plan to correct these by 31st December 2023. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

PDFs

Some PDFs that were published after 23 September 2018 are missing a title. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2 (Page titled). We are reviewing the PDFs available on the website as an ongoing improvement and due to the size of the site, we plan to correct these by 31st December 2023. When we publish new PDFs, we’ll make sure these meet accessibility standards.

Links

The purpose of a link is not always described by its link text alone, or by the link text together with the preceding page context. This fails WCAG success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)). Some links on our site are not discernible by a screen-reader and have duplicate labels. This fails WCAG success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value). We are reviewing the links as an ongoing improvement and due to the size of the site, we plan to correct these by 31st December 2023. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our use of links meets accessibility standards.

Contrast

Some elements within our site don’t have sufficient colour contrast. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)). We are reviewing the colour contrast issues of our pages and we plan to correct all outstanding colour contrast issues by 31st December 2023. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our use of colour meets accessibility standards.

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

PDFs and other documents

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. 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

There are over 10,000 pages on this website which have been updated by a significant number of staff members since its creation. Making the website fully accessible will be a long process, however, we are committed to providing an online experience that is accessible to everyone.

In order to achieve this:

  • The University has formed an Accessibility Project group to define and execute our approach to accessibility across the organisation.
  • An accessibility action plan has been created to address accessibility issues and improve the university's approach to web accessibility.
  • Web content editors will receive further training to ensure new content is fully accessible, and new pages will be vetted to ensure they meet accessibility guidelines.
  • We are looking at automated testing tools which include daily reports on accessibility performance changes so we can react quickly and address new or recurring issues.
  • Non- accessible content on priority pages (those with key university information, interactive elements and content that is currently in use) is being reviewed and addressed first to ensure that pages that are relevant to our visitors are accessible.
  • A new version of the website is being developed with accessibility at the forefront of its design and functionality. This is due to be launched in Spring 2023.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 1st March 2017. It was last reviewed on 1st August 2022. This website was last tested from 11th April - 16th May 2022. The test was carried out by the University of Chester Web Team using automated testing tools (Axe Dev Tools, WAVE WebAim) and manual checks including keyboard navigation, screen reader (VoiceOver) and viewing pages at different zoom settings.

In order to decide on a sample of pages to test, we evaluated which pages were most valuable to our visitors using a combination of analysing page views and identifying pages with key actions and/or information about the university including:

  • Course pages
  • Booking events (ie open days)
  • Information about contacting/finding the university

The website will be tested again in December 2022 to review the above improvements. Scheduled testing after this date will be performed on a new version of chester.ac.uk that is currently in development. The redeveloped website will also be tested during the design, prototype and build stages.