Manage your preferences

The Leeds Beckett website is designed to enable you to manage your own privacy preferences. By clicking on 'Cookies' below you can manage what data the site collects about your browsing. This will only maintain if you are on your own device or using a synched version of your chosen browser. If you are using a shared or public machine without synching your browser then there is no need to change the preferences.

Our site is built with accessibility in mind and we seek to adhere to the WACG AA levels of compliance for digital accessibility. To support that we have provided instructions on managing animations below.

Cookies

Necessary Cookies
Necessary cookies enable you to use all the different parts of leedsbeckett.ac.uk. Without them services that you have asked for cannot be provided. Necessary cookies can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.
Analytical Cookies
Analytical cookies help us understand how people are using our websites, so we can improve them and provide a better user experience. We also sometimes get our approved partner companies to analyse how people are using Leeds Beckett Websites and they may set their own analytical cookies in order to do this.
Marketing Cookies
Marketing cookies allow us to provide you with online adverts that are the most relevant and useful for you.
For more information please view our Privacy Policy

Animations & Interaction

The Leeds Beckett University website occasionally uses animations to page elements and animated gifs to add impact to pages. If you wish to stop them from playing for accessibility purposes or for personal preference then please see the guidance below. Please note that browsers sometimes change how they operate, so please refer to your browser help files to find their latest information.
How do I turn off animations?

Chrome

Chrome users will need to use browser extensions. Animation Policy from Google will help you set your own preferences.

Microsoft Edge

There is currently no way to disable animations within Microsoft Edge. Users of Edge (Chromium) browser can install the Chrome extensions above and use them.

Internet Explorer

To stop animations on a single page you can just press the 'Esc' key. This will stop the animation on that page. If you wish to restart the animations you need to refresh the page. To permanently disable the playing of animated GIF images, open Internet Options > Advanced tab. Under the Multimedia section, uncheck the Play animations in webpage check-box, click Apply and Exit and then restart your computer.

Firefox

Type about:config in Firefox address bar and hit Enter to open Settings. Search for the image.animation_mode flag and change its value from Normal to None. Once you restart Firefox this will disable animations.

Library & Student Services

Reflecting on our digital accessibility journey 5 years on

At Leeds Beckett University Library, accessibility has always been a high priority; it helps to ensure all our students and staff can access and make the most of our services. We reflect below on five years of our journey to digitial accessibility:

Written By

Library and Student Services

Published on 19 Sep 2023

Regulations introduced in 2018 make it a legal requirement for our online systems and content to be accessible, in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 to level AA. Since then we have been busy working on the accessibility of our online systems.

We published an overarching accessibility statement on the Library website which lists our platforms and links to relevant accessibility information provided by system suppliers. It summarises key accessibility strengths and areas for improvement, sets out our accessibility roadmap and updates on our progress.

We produced detailed accessibility guidance for colleagues involved in auditing our systems, which we used to audit the accessibility of our Library website system and a sample of content including FAQs, uploaded documents, images and videos against the WCAG criteria using a range of tools. We also looked at the accessibility of our student meeting room booking system and a tool called LibWizard which we use for creating interactive online tutorials, as well as our Skills for Learning and Archive and Special Collections websites. We found some accessibility issues which we fixed at the time, and we continued to work on the remaining issues, which are now largely resolved. We published accessibility statements covering these systems, which we regularly review and update, and we have recently added an accessibility statement for our Academic Skills modules.

We updated staff guides to include comprehensive guidance on digital accessibility, and we introduced processes to help ensure that new content we create is accessible, including staff training and carrying out regular sample checking.

Colleagues took a sector lead in liaising with suppliers and other organisations to obtain accessibility statements from the providers of most of our electronic information resources. Each eBook platform also has its own accessibility FAQ and these are linked to from the eBook Collections and the Database A-Z page.

Colleagues also introduced Anthology Ally in MyBeckett, which enables academic staff to check the accessibility of the material they upload to our Virtual Learning Environment and for students to convert material into accessible formats.

We continue to work with system providers on known accessibility issues. We also attend regular sector updates on accessibility and follow work being undertaken in other institutions so we can keep on top of developments and share good practice. We are preparing for WCAG version 2.2 which is due to be published shortly, when we will update our accessibility guidance and make sure that our systems and content meet the new requirements.

To support you in using our systems and websites, the Library’s software page provides information on assistive software and accessibility tools. There is information on Library Disability Support, and AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability. If you need information on the content of our systems and websites in a different format (for example accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille) please email libraryaltformats@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of our systems and websites and we welcome accessibility feedback. If you find any problems or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please email h.loughran@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.