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2020 Accessibility statements

Content

Using this website

This website is run by the University of Worcester Library Services. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website, and find, access and understand out content. For example, that means you should be able to

  • Zoom to 400% without text spilling off the screen
  • Use different devices and the website responsively fits your screen
  • Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • Skip to main content using tab on your keyboard
  • Convert documents, including our pdfs, into other formats
  • Read our pdfs aloud using Adobe Reader
  • Automatically scroll through our pdfs in Adobe Reader
  • Change the contrast and colour of our pdfs' background and text
  • Zoom our newer pdfs with reflow
  • Navigate our newer pdfs using bookmarks

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

We know some parts of our website are not fully accessible:

  • Some colour contrasts, such as the orange banners and blue selections in the menu are too low
  • Accordions are keyboard accessible, but if you go from keyboard to mouse you may lose your place
  • Content in the drop down status in the header may be missed when using a keyboard
  • The minimise button on chat is not visible, although you can click on the widget to close the window
  • Focus indicators in the header and footer are not very visible when using a keyboard
  • The placeholder text in the site search is low contrast

 

 

What to do if you can't access parts of this website

We've worked hard to make our content accessible. We also offer a self-service file converter, SensusAccess. It converts files into digital Braille, audio, ebook and images into text-based formats. For other formats, please see our Ask a Librarian service for contact options and response times.

 

 

Reporting accessibility problems

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, please contact Ask a Librarian.

 

 

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).

 

 

Visiting us in person

Please see our advice on support and facilities in The Hive, as well as how to get here and accessible routes into the building.

 

 

Technical information about this website's accessibility

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

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons. We are working on a timeline to address these issues.

 

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

We are working to fix these issues, and will provide a timeline soon.

  • The focus indicator for the homepage link in the header, and social media and Customer Service Excellence links in the footer fail the contrast ratio requirement
  • Placeholder text throughout fails the contrast ratio requirement
  • Colour alone is used to represent links within paragraphs
  • You may find it difficult to close or dismiss chat, as the close / minimise button, although operable with keyboard only, is not perceivable
  • Screen reader users may not perceive new content after activating the status button

 

 

Disproportionate burden

We purchase a number of eresources which we make available via Library Search. These eresources are accessed on publisher and aggregator platforms, such as EBSCO, VLeBooks, ProQuest Ebook Central, Elsevier ScienceDirect. Please see searchBOX to find accessibility statements for the majority of our suppliers. For suppliers without statements, it is a disproportionate burden for us to audit their content. However, we are requesting statements from each of our suppliers over the next twelve months as each licence becomes due for renewal. If you would like further accessibility information for a particular platform, please let us know and we will contact the supplier.

 

Content not within the scope of the accessibility regulation

Some of our older PDFs do not meet accessibility standards. For example, they don't zoom with reflow, or have navigable bookmarks.

Our interactive avoiding plagiarism presentation has no alternative text, and isn't accessible by keyboard or screen reader.

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.

 

 

How we tested

This website was last tested on 3 September 2020. The test was carried out by AbilityNet, who manually reviewed three pages from each site. The site was also built alongside the WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool. We tested:

We also tested key user journeys with users from our different stakeholder groups:

  • Undergraduate students
  • Teaching staff based at the University and partner organisations
  • Professional services staff, including from the Research School and TEL unit
  • Library Services staff

 

What we're doing to improve accessibility

We've rebuilt our website, including re-writing our content to improve accessibility. As part of this, our staff have been trained on the new guidelines and writing for the web. We're also asking our third-party suppliers to provide accessibility statements. This statement was prepared on 14 September 2020.

 

 

Other systems and services

Testing 123 tabs

We provide some digitised chapters and extracts in Resource Lists (Talis Aspire). View the Talis accessibility statement here.

For scanned digitisations, we apply optical character recognition (OCR). This creates readable and editable PDFs.

If you open a digitised PDF document in Adobe Reader, you should be able to:

  • Search, edit, copy and paste text
  • Read the document aloud using the built in Adobe Reader  
  • Read the document aloud using your own screen reading software. You can find out more about using Adobe PDF documents with a screen reader here  
  • Read the document on a smaller screen by pressing control 4 to enable text reflow  
  • Zoom with reflow
  • Change the contrast and colour of the document background and text
    •  Select Edit> Preferences>Accessibility>Replace document colours. Adobe Reader should remember your colour preferences for future documents

You may find some features in scanned PDFs unavailable. Regrettably we believe the cost of fixing these issues would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. If you experience barriers, use our file converter to change format e.g. Word, MP3 audio, EPUB. Please get in touch if you have any queries about this service or need further assistance accessing a PDF.

  • Images may not be tagged and navigation bookmarks may not be present 
  • Some older scans in lists may be image only. We are working to update these with OCR and improve quality where possible

Our digitisation service scans third party copyright content under the CLA licence. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, Section 31A (Disabled persons: copies of works for personal use) regulations only permit creation and supply of accessible copies of third party content where an individual presents an accessibility need requiring an alternative format.  

If you have an accessibility need, we may be able to provide alternative formats of books on your Resource Lists.

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