Accessibility statement for liverpool.ac.uk

This website is run by the University of Liverpool. We want everyone to be able to use this website.

This statement applies to websites supported by the Digital Communications team, which is most pages published under www.liverpool.ac.uk, news.liverpool.ac.uk, vgm.liverpool.ac.uk and alumni.liv.ac.uk.

There are a mix of templates and systems being used on this site. On the majority of our site you should be able to:

  • Zoom in up to 300% without text spilling off the screen
  • Navigate the website using a keyboard
  • Listen to onscreen text using a screen reader
  • Change colours, contrast levels and fonts

We believe that when a website is accessible everyone benefits. We are also committed to making sure that all content on the website is easy to understand.

This statement describes what is accessible on our site and what isn’t accessible and how we plan to deal with this. It also describes what you can do if you have problems accessing our site.

This statement does not cover websites that are not controlled by the central Digital Communications team such as those run by:

  • IT Services
  • The university library
  • Sites run by individuals on departmental and personal file space
  • E-learning systems

We will link to statements for these sites as they are developed.

Accessibility help

We provide accessibility software and hardware to support students with a disability, see the IT Services Accessibility pages for more details.

We have the Recite Me toolbar enabled on most of our site (we are working on a solution for subdomains such as news.liverpool.ac.uk and vgm.liverpool.ac.uk). To enable it go to the IT Services Accessibility page and click on “Enable Accessibility Help”.

AbilityNet also has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible is this website?

Content on our site will have been created and uploaded by many users over a long period of time, so the standard of content will vary accordingly. Some parts of the site were created before current accessibility standards were in place.

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

  • Some of our videos do not have transcripts or captions.
  • Videos with auto-generated captions may not be completely accurate.
  • Some forms are not marked up with the correct code.
  • Some images have alt text that is missing or uninformative.
  • Not all PDF files on our site are accessible, and some need to be replaced with content in accessible formats.
  • Not all links have adequate text to explain their purpose.
  • Some 3rd party systems may not have been tested fully and may not meet accessibility standards.
  • Some text in our site does not have adequate colour contrast.

We are currently testing our website and will highlighting any more issues we come across.

Feedback and contact information

Please contact us if you have an accessibility query:

In your message, include:

  • the web address of the page
  • your name and contact details
  • the format you require information in.

If you cannot view our maps, call or email the university for directions.

Third Party content and systems

We have some third-party content on our website. Depending on our relationship with the third party we cannot always guarantee its accessibility. We endeavour to work with our suppliers to ensure the accessibility of this content.

You may be able to find accessibility information about a third party system on searchBOX which is an independent directory of third-party accessibility information. 

We use Google Maps in several parts of our site including our main maps site. Google Maps accessibility information. 

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 us to register your difficulty. This helps us improve our systems.

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 Liverpool 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

Please go to our Known accessibility issues page for full details of the problems we have identified and what we plan to do about them.

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

The list below is a broad guide to where we need to work on making our content accessible.

We are intending to fix these issues by July 2023, this date is subject to a monthly review. 

Links

Some links are not labelled clearly, or contain only image with no or poor ALT text. (WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose).

We will correct links as we review each page.

Images

Some images used for links or for other useful information don’t have ALT text set (WCAG1.1.1 Non-text Content).

We will correct links as we review each page and our site functionality (for example our search).

Page structure

Some pages use multiple H1 tags or have a structure that doesn’t follow a logical order (WCAG 2.4.6 Headings and Labels).

We will correct this as we review each page and also correct any errors in our site templates.

Colour contrast

Some of our pages use elements with insufficient colour contrast (WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)).

We are in the process of correcting this as part of a redesign of our website, and are rolling out fixes as we go. 

Tables

Some of our data tables need headers and captions set (WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships).

We will correct this as we review each page.

PDF files

The site contains PDF files that are not accessible in a number of ways including incorrect document structure and missing image descriptions.

We will correct this or provide accessible alternatives as we review each page of our site and also make content creators aware of the problems with PDF files.

Focus indication

Some elements of our site do not provide a visual indication of what they are when they are focused on by keyboard navigation (WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible).

We will correct this as part of a review of our templates and site functionality. 

Videos

Some legacy video content does not currently have captions or transcripts available. Where captions are generated automatically, the text may not be completely accurate.

More information

Full details of the problems we have identified can be found in our Known accessibility issues page.

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.

Live video

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

How we are testing this website

We use a mix of automated testing and manual testing of a representative sample of the site against the WCAG 2.1 AA standard.

We use Silktide to scan a representative sample of our pages for accessibility errors along with the WAVE toolbar and axe DevTools. We also test new templates and a representative sample of pages zoomed into 300%, using keyboard navigation, with NVDA on Windows desktop and Talkback on Android. 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

There are around 90,000 pages on this website which can be updated by over 500 members of staff. Making the website fully accessible will be a long process.

  • We are committed to undertake regular accessibility audits of the website and to fix issues identified. This is in addition to our other existing controls such as accessibility checks when new code goes live.
  • Our university’s publishing model is currently distributed. That is, hundreds of staff have the ability to publish on our website. We publish our digital standards which contain information on our accessibility responsibilities, and regularly review these to include the latest guidance.
  • We will ensure digital members of staff get accessibility training appropriate to their role.
  • We are developing new governance procedures, policies, and training to help ensure that we are doing our utmost to meet our responsibilities in terms of accessibility regulations.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 30 September 2019. It was last reviewed on 12 January 2023.