Accessibility Statement for Library Blogs

Website accessibility statement in line with Public Sector Body (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018

Library Blogs (https://libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk/) is a website hosted by Library and University Collections on behalf of the University of Edinburgh. It holds blog entries from the Library and University collections and is a front-facing public website.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use Library Blogs. For example, that means you should be able to:

• Change colours, contrast levels and fonts
• Zoom in up to 200% without the text spilling off the screen
• Users will not be timed out of the system
• Use the site using assistive software such as TextHelp Read and Write and Zoomtext.
• Listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of Job Access with Speech (JAWS), NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) and VoiceOver)

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

Customising the website

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability. This is an external site with suggestions to make your computer more accessible:

AbilityNet – My Computer My Way

With a few simple steps you can customise the appearance of our website using your browser settings to make it easier to read and navigate:

Additional information on how to customise our website appearance

If you are a member of University staff or a student, you can use the free SensusAccess accessible document conversion service:

Information on SensusAccess

How accessible this website is

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

• Users may not be able to access all content by using the keyboard alone
• It can be difficult to see where you have reached via the tab key
• Styles and layouts differ among different blogs, leading to inconsistency
• Colour contrasts may not meet sufficient levels
• Not all images have alternative text
• Tooltips are not enabled for all icons
• There is use of italics and continuous capitals
• Videos may not have subtitles
• Users may not receive an alert when entering information in an incorrect format on the comments forms
• There are pop-ups that appear without warning

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, including accessible PDF, large print, audio recording or braille please contact the Information Services Helpline:

• Online contact form: Information Services Contact Form
• Email: is.helpline@ed.ac.uk
• telephone +44 (0)131 651 5151
• British Sign Language (BSL) users can contact us via contactSCOTLAND-BSL, the on-line BSL interpreting service.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We are 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:

• Online contact form: Information Services Contact Form
• Email: is.helpline@ed.ac.uk
• telephone +44 (0)131 651 5151
• British Sign Language (BSL) users can contact us via contactSCOTLAND-BSL, the on-line BSL interpreting service.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 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 please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) directly:

Contact details for the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS)

The government has produced information on how to report accessibility issues:

Reporting an accessibility problem on a public sector website

Contacting us by phone using British Sign Language

British Sign Language service

contactSCOTLAND-BSL runs a service for British Sign Language users and all of Scotland’s public bodies using video relay. This enables sign language users to contact public bodies and vice versa. The service operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

contactSCOTLAND-BSL service details

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The University of Edinburgh is committed to making its websites and applications 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 (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

The full guidelines are available at:

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard

Non accessible content

Noncompliance with the accessibility regulations

The following items to not comply with the WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria:

• Not all non-text content that is presented to the user has a text alternative
  • 1.1.1 – Non-text Content
• Not all prerecorded audio-only or video-only media will have alternative media that presents equivalent information e.g. audio track with description of the action in a video with no sound
  • 1.2.1 – Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded)
• Not all video will have subtitles or subtitles that identify all speakers as well as noting other significant sounds e.g. laughter
  • 1.2.2 – Captions (Prerecorded)
• There may not be sufficient colour contrast between font and background colours, especially where the text size is very small
  • 1.4.3 – Contrast (Minimum)
• Information is conveyed as an image of text rather than as text itself, making it incompatible with screen readers and other assistive technology
  • 1.4.5 – Images of text
• When magnified to a certain level, content can be presented with a loss of information or functionality, requiring scrolling in two dimensions
  • 1.4.10 – Reflow
• Visual information to identify user interface components, such as keyboard focus, do not always have a sufficient contrast ratio
  • 1.4.11 – Non-text contrast
• Most tooltips disappear as soon as the cursor moves. Also, tooltips are not present for all icons and images
  • 1.4.13 – Content on Hover or Focus
• It is not possible to use a keyboard to access all the content
  • 2.1 – Keyboard accessible
  • 2.1.2 – No Keyboard Trap
• It is not always clear to tell where you have navigated to when you are using a keyboard
  • 2.4.7 Focus Visible
• There are pop-ups that appear without warning
  • 3.2.2 – On Input
  • 3.2.5 – Change on Request
• Error messages not always clear
  • 3.3 – Input assistance
  • 3.3.1 – Error identification
  • 3.3.3 – Error suggestion
• There is no specific help function section, including accessibility information
  • 3.3.5 – Help

Unless specified otherwise a complete solution or significant improvement will be in place by June 2021 for the issues within our control.

Disproportionate burden

We are not currently claiming that any accessibility problems would be a disproportionate burden to fix.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs

Many of our older PDFs are not fully accessible, for example, an article on the myth of Robert Burns, and they may not be easy to view using a 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.

Reproduction of Heritage Collections

Our site includes reproductions of items in heritage collections that cannot be made fully accessible, because doing so would either damage the item or it is not possible to extract the text from the manuscripts. For example, an article on the reproduction of heritage collections itself would be exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We will continue to work to address these issues and deliver a solution or suitable workaround. Where issues are under our control we will work to rectify to correct issues. We plan to resolve the issues that are within our control by June 2021.

We will carry out further accessibility testing if significant changes are made to the user interface or if a service user raises an issue.

While we are in the process of resolving these accessibility issues, or where we are unable to, we will ensure reasonable adjustments are in place to make sure no user is disadvantaged.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 25^th May 2020. It was last reviewed on 9^th September 2020

This website was tested by the University of Edinburgh’s Disability Information Officer on a PC using Internet Explorer (11.0.9600.19236) browser and also using the automated Webaim WAVE tool. Internet Explorer was chosen as the browser due to it being the most commonly used browser by disabled people as shown in the government survey: Government Assistive Technology Browser Survey. We tested the home page and a selection of pages throughout the site to ensure all the main features of the website were tested.

We tested:

• Spellcheck functionality
• Scaling using different resolutions
• Options to customise the interface (magnification, font, background colour et. cetera)
• Keyboard navigation
• Data validation
• Warning of links opening in a new tab or window
• Information conveyed in colour or sound only
• Flashing or scrolling text
• Operability if JavaScript is disabled
• Use with screen reading software (eg. JAWS)
• Assistive Software (TextHelp Read and Write, ZoomText)
• Tooltips and text alternatives for any non-text content
• Time limits