Accessibility statement for Digital Services

This accessibility statement applies to the Digital Services, provided by the University of Wolverhampton.  The Digital Services webpages are an integral part of how students access a range of IT support at the University of Wolverhampton and therefore the content is designed to be easy for everyone to find, access and use.

Getting the best from your device

We want as many people as possible to be able to use and access information on Digital Services’ webpage.  For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change contrast levels
  • navigate most of Digital Services webpages using just a keyboard
  • navigate most of Digital Services webpages using speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the information on Digital Services webpages using a screen reader

It is important before accessing University of Wolverhampton Digital Services webpages that you are aware of the settings available for your hardware, such a laptop computer or mobile devices, including smart phones or tablets.  These devices have individual accessibility settings that will help you access content, including Digital Services content.  Depending upon your choice of internet browser of mobile smart device operating system, there are further settings to help you access our content.  Such settings may include the ability to change colours, contract and the size of text and images.

You can find useful advice on making your device more easy to use by visiting AbilityNet, which provides step-by-step guides to making individual adjustments to your laptop, tablet or smart phone.  The University also provides a number of assistive software products (e.g. Virtual Magnifying Glass, ssOverlay) as part of its Apps Anywhere software repository.

We know some parts of the Digital Services webpages are not fully accessible:

  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • some navigational headings do not convey a heading style
  • some images are missing a description or alternative text
  • zooming on this webpage may mean that not all of the content follows in sync
  • navigational elements maybe difficult to distinguish due to minimal contrast
  • structural elements of the webpage may impact upon accessing content when using a screen reader.

 

If you need information about this website or this accessibility statement in a different format, please:

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

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of the Digital Services webpages.  If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: itsupport@wlv.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 have contacted us about an accessibility issue relating to our online content and you are not happy with the outcome of your complaint, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

We consider digital accessibility a key part of our approach to being the University of Opportunity and we want you to be able to use our services in a way that supports a positive learning experience.

The University of Wolverhampton is committed to making its Digital Services webpages accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

 The Digital Services web pages are partially compliant with the  Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard; the non-compliances are listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Text alternatives: non-text content

 Some of the images used on the Digital Services webpages may not have fully descriptive explanations or alternative text; an example of where this can be found is in some of the header banners.  Not having descriptions or alternative text can impact upon the effectiveness of screen readers or other assistive devices.

Our website may hold images that are purely decorative, and these do not require descriptive or alternative text.

We will amend text alternatives as we find them.  Please contact itsupport@wlv.ac.uk if you find a content that does not have fully descriptive elements or alternative text.

Distinguishable: contrast (minimum)

Some of the Digital Services webpages contain contrast errors for both text and navigational elements as aligned to its background.  Low contrast means that some people with visual disabilities may find the text difficult to read, especially for people with colour vision deficiency or hyperopia (farsightedness).  Contrast errors in navigational elements of the website may impact upon the ease with which to navigate to other content.

We aim to fix this issue as part of a larger review of our digital offer.  Please contact itsupport@wlv.ac.uk if you find content that is hard to distinguish. 

Navigational elements

Our audit found contrast issues in relation to menu-based navigational elements; these issues may impact upon navigation around the page for people with visual impairments or disabilities.

We will amend navigational elements as we find them.  Please contact itsupport@wlv.ac.uk if you find navigational aspects that do not enable easy access to our content.

Animated content

Parts of the Digital Services webpages may contain a content block that has moving text that users cannot disable; such animated content that can be distracting for people with cognitive disabilities and can also be difficult for people with visual impairments to access.

We aim to fix this issue as part of a larger review of our digital offer.    Please contact itsupport@wlv.ac.uk if you find animated elements that do not enable easy access to our content.

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.  Some of the Digital Services webpages may contain such content.  If you are having problems accessing this information, please consider visiting AbilityNet where you can find useful advice on making your device more easy to use.  Please contact us if you are unable to access this information.

Third party content

The Digital Services webpages link to other resources that are third-party products, which may also contain third-party content that we are not able to control or develop and therefore have no responsibility for.  If you find any of our Digital Services content hard to access, then please contact the Digital Services team directly for help.

Examples of third-party content that may be found within the Digital Services pages include, but are not limited to:

  • links to external sites not owned, managed or maintained by the University

  • other software or apps such as Microsoft Teams, The Apple App Store, the Google Play Store or the Microsoft Office suite.

For any of the third party products that you may issues with accessing, you may be able to find accessibility statements in searchBOX.  This is a free, comprehensive directory created by textBox to support accessible content.  The University is not affiliated with searchBOX and is not responsible for its content.

This statement was prepared on 16 September 2020.  It was last reviewed on 11 September 2020.

The Digital Services webpages were last tested on 15th August 2020.  The test was carried out by members of staff within Digital Services at the University of Wolverhampton within one the 21st August 2020.  We audited a range of Digital Services webpages that reflect the breadth of access that students and staff will normally make at the University of Wolverhampton.