Accessibility

Page last updated:
23 Feb 2023

Overview

This statement was prepared on 3 September 2022. It was last reviewed on 27 September 2022.

This website and the rest of the digital estate are run by Leeds Beckett University. We constantly monitor and improve our site’s accessibility with the aim of ensuring AA compliance across our site, and AAA compliance where possible.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use our digital estate. Our plan of work to improve accessibility means, ultimately, you should be able to:

  • Navigate the digital estate using just a keyboard.
  • Navigate the digital estate using speech recognition software.
  • Listen to most of the digital estate using a screen reader, including the most recent versions of JAWS (Job Access With Speech), NVDA (Nonvisual Desktop Access) and VoiceOver.

We are also working to make the text across our digital estate as simple as possible to understand.

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

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

This accessibility statement applies to our public facing website(s) that sit under leedsbeckett.ac.uk. This statement does not cover sites or platforms used for student communications and learning, third-party transactional sites, mobile applications or the staff intranet.

How accessible is our website?

These website(s) are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliance(s)] listed below. For instance:

  • Some older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • Some audio files do not have relevant transcripts
  • Some content is displayed in frames with no title attribute
  • Some of our older videos do not have text descriptions
  • Some legacy articles contain images without suitable ALT-tags and non-identifiable link text

The above elements fall under the guidelines however there is a disproportionate burden upon the resource available to undertake a full retrospective refresh of all legacy content. We do undertake a rolling programme of refreshing and updating content and fixing historic accessibility issues on retained older content when identified, and would aim to remove or update legacy content within the next 24 months.

Feedback and reporting issues

If you encounter issues with our website and / or content not listed as known issues above you can report those problems to us at digital@leedsbeckett.ac.uk. Please include an explanation of the issue you have encountered and a url of a relevant page containing that issue. Our team will respond to your concerns within seven working days.

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).

How we test our website

We use a monitoring platform called SiteImprove to audit the site against accessibility requirements, the results of which is a full site audit every fortnight. This is augmented by regular manual reviews of content areas to identify hidden accessibility issues that can not be identified by an automated platform.

What we are doing to improve accessibility

As well as running regular accessibility audits, we are working with staff members to raise awareness around good accessibility practice.