Accessibility statement for University of Birmingham

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

This accessibility statement applies to www.birmingham.ac.uk.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website, which means that you should be able to:

Change colours, contrast levels and fonts.
Zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen.
Navigate the website using just a keyboard.
Navigate the website using speech recognition software.
Listen to most of the website using a screen reader.

There are several customisation options for your browser and device that could help you use this website and other websites more effectively. 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 this website are not fully accessible. You can see a full list of issues we currently know about in the non-accessible content section of this statement.

Some elements are not keyboard accessible.
Some elements do not receive focus visibility.
There is not always a skip to content function.
Some video and audio content may not have captions, transcriptions, or audio descriptions.
Some images do not have meaningful alternative text.
Some pages do not have sufficient colour contrast.
Some elements do not have accessible names.
PDFs (Portable Document Formats) and other documents are not fully compatible with screen readers.
Moving content does not always have controls to pause, stop or hide it.
Links are not always clearly described.

Feedback and contact information

Please use the submit your feedback about digital accessibility form if you have an accessibility query including:

If you’re experiencing issues with accessing information or using the service.
If you find an accessibility problem not listed on this statement.
If you have positive feedback on the accessibility considerations made or suggestions for improvement.

Feedback collected through the submit your feedback about digital accessibility form are sent to the appropriate contact person. If you would like a response or follow-up to your inquiry, please be sure to include your contact information.

Responses to your feedback will be provided within [5 to 7] business days after the form is received.

Your contact information is not mandatory to provide feedback. Anonymous feedback is welcome.

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF (Portable Document Format), large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please let us know using the submit your feedback about digital accessibility form.

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

Compliance status

The University of Birmingham is rebranding our websites and web content. As part of this process, we are ensuring our websites and web content are fully compliant with WCAG 2.2. Level AA.

Rebranded sites are fully compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.

The full re-brand will be completed by 01 March 2025.

Sites that have not yet been re-branded are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliance(s) and/or the exemptions listed below:

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reason(s):

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

This section covers issues on our old templates that we need to fix and are working to do so as we edit and move the content to newer, more accessible templates as part of the rebranding process. We aim to complete this by the end of 2025.

There are several instances where PDFs are not machine readable. This fails WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content (A).
Images inside links require alternative text. This fails WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content (A).
There are instances of redundant alternative text. This is alternative text that is the same as adjacent text or adjacent links with the same destination. This fails WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content (A).
There are several known instances where an image may not have an appropriate alternative text. This fails WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content (A).
There are a few places where prerecorded audio and video may not have a text alternative, captions, or description. This fails WCAG 1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded) (A), WCAG 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded) (A) and/or WCAG 1.2.5 Audio Description (Prerecorded) (AA).
There are several instances where content fails WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (A). These include, missing ARIA description IDs, labels pointing to valid IDs, labelled form controls, proper headings, logical reading order, and tagged PDFs.
Across the site PDF content needs to be checked to ensure it has a meaningful sequence. This fails WCAG 1.3.2Meaningful Sequence (A).
There are instances where links are distinguished by just colour alone. This fails WCAG 1.4.1Use of Colour (A).
There are some instances on the website and in PDFs where text does not have proper contrast. It is important to note that text over images or gradients may not have sufficient contrast. This fails WCAG 1.4.3Contrast (Minimum) (AA).
Not all content is operable through a keyboard interface. This fails WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard (A).
There are instances where a mechanism is needed to allow users to quickly skip to content but this is either not available, requires a title for frames or linking to anchors properly. This fails WCAG 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (A).
Not all pages have a title that describes the topic or purpose of the web page or PDF document. This fails WCAG 2.4.2 Page Titled (A).
There is 1 instance where the custom tabbing order doesn’t make sense. This fails WCAG 2.4.3 Focus Order (A).
There are instances where the purpose of each link cannot be determined from the link text alone or from the link text together with its programmatically determined link context. This fails WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (A).
Some PDFs don’t specify a default language or use bookmarks to aid navigation. This fails WCAG 3.1.1 Language of Page (A) and WCAG 2.4.5 Multiple Ways (AA).
There are some instances where screen readers fail to acknowledge links. This fails WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (A).
Controls should change appearance when they are selected. This fails WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible (AA).
The purpose of each input field collecting information about the user should be programmatically determined. This fails WCAG 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose (AA).Content should be presented without loss of information or functionality. Some pages require zooming and 2D scrolling or scrolling in two dimensions on small screens. This fails WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow (AA).
There are instances when the visual presentation of form controls don’t contrast sufficiently with their surroundings. This fails WCAG 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (AA).

Disproportionate burden

At this time, we have not made any disproportionate burden claims.

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

The following items found on our websites may not be accessible and are out of scope of the accessibility regulations:

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. We are currently working on fixing these essential documents or replacing them with accessible html web pages. 

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.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Video content

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. We also have some existing pre-recorded video content that was published before the 23rd of September 2020. This content is also exempt from the regulations. All new video content we produce will have appropriate captions, audio descriptions and transcripts, as necessary.

Online maps

Our service includes the use of online maps to show certain geographical information. These are not used for navigational purposes and are exempt under the regulations. If you require the information presented in an online map in a different format, please contact us to discuss reasonable adjustments.

Third-party content

Our websites contain third-party content. We do not have control over and are not responsible for the accessibility of this content, but we make best endeavours to work with the third-party to improve its accessibility. This may include:

Links to non-University of Birmingham websites.
Content/functionality on our website.
Content hosted on other websites, such as social media sites.
Documents which are sent to us and uploaded, or comments left on pages by members of the public.

Our testing processes

Our newly branded site has been tested extensively through the development process and have only been released for use once we are sure that the feature meets the required accessibility standard. This includes using automated/assisted tools like Silktide, Axe Devtools and Wave. Once content is launched using these new components we are continously monitoring these to address any problems as they arise.

Our old sites – we selected a prioritised sample of old UoB websites based on their usage, criticality to the student experience and how representative they were of other pages using similar templates or covering related processes. The University of Birmingham has conducted a self-assessment of our websites using a variety of automated and manual testing tools, including but not limited to Silktide, axe Dev Tools, Accessibility Insights for the Web, WAVE, TPGi CCA, screen readers (NVDA, and VoiceOver), magnification tools, keyboard navigation, etc.

The most viewed pages were tested using automated testing tools by our website team. A further audit of the website was carried out to the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are undergoing a significant migration project where we are moving content from old templates to newer, more accessible, templates. During this process we are editing this content to improve it or remove it where necessary. We aim to complete this by the end of 2025.

The University of Birmingham is rebranding our websites and web content. As part of this process, we are ensuring our websites and web content are fully compliant with WCAG 2.2. Level AA.

Rebranded sites are fully compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.

The full re-brand will be completed by 01 March 2025.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 10 October 2024.

The statement was last reviewed on 10 October 2024.