Accessibility Statement: collaborate.bham.ac.uk

We know some parts of this website aren’t fully accessible. We are working on these parts of the site and are committed to producing an accessible site for all users. Those parts with accessibility problems are as follows:

• Most older PDF and Word documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
• Embedded YouTube videos aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
• Some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard and lack focus
• The colour contrast on some page elements is insufficient to be easily discernible for all users
• ARIA tags are improperly labelled in some cases
• Alternative text is not always applied consistently throughout the site
• The line height or spacing of text cannot be modified by the user
• Our videos and live video streams do not have captions
• Tables aren't always correctly marked up
• Lists aren't always correctly marked up
• Not all pages have headings
• It isn't always possible for users to skip to content

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please email the owner of the sub-site. If it's not clear who the owner of the site is, please contact the servicedesk via https://universityofbirmingham.service-now.com/itportal/.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 10 days.

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website and are continuing to audit our content. If you find something that you are unable to access, or we have failed to identify a barrier, please let us know.

If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please email accessibility@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

If you are unhappy with the response you have received from the University about your accessibility-related issue, you can make a complaint to the University by emailing accessibility@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

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).

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 website is not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. The ‘non-compliances and exemptions’ are listed below.

1. Some images don’t have a suitable text alternative, so the information in them isn’t available to people using a screen reader.
   This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 ‘A’ success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
   We plan to add text alternatives for all images by #####. When we publish new content, we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.
2. Some table headings have no scope.
   Some headings are represented by images.
   Some form controls are missing labels.
   Not all pages have headings.
   These don't meet WCAG 2.1 'A' criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
   We will be addressing this issue by ######.
3. In some instances, colour is the only means of identifying links.
   This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 'A' criterion 1.4.1 (Use of colour).
   We will be addressing this issue by ######.
4. Colour palette: Colour contrast is insufficient on some elements across the site and colour use on some elements (e.g. links) were inconsistent.
   This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 ‘AA’ success criterion 1.4.3 (contrast (minimum)).
   We will be addressing this issue by ######.
5. Some pages require zooming or scrolling on a small screen.
   This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 ‘AA’ success criterion 1.4.10 (Ensure pages don't require zooming and 2D scrolling on small screens).
   We will be addressing this issue by ######.
6. Users aren't always able to skip to content blocks.
   This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 ‘A’ success criterion 2.4.1 (Bypass Blocks).
   We will be addressing this issue by ######.
7. On some pages the link text takes the user to different destinations.
   This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 ‘A’ success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)).
   We will be addressing this issue by ######.
8. On same pages, elements have duplicate IDs.
   Some lists are not marked up correctly.
   These don't meet WCAG 2.1 ‘A’ success criterion 4.1.1 (Parsing).
   We will be addressing this issue by ######.
9. On some pages links cannot be used by screen readers.
   This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 ‘A’ success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).
   We will be addressing this issue by ######.
10. Some of our PDFs and Word documents published since September 2018 and older documents that are essential to providing our services, are not meeting the required accessibility standards. 
    By ######, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

The site also contains a range of third party content and functionality. This may direct you to a related service, or partner we work with, where we are not responsible for the accessibility of this content. 

PDF documents since 2018

Some of our content across the site is in PDF format where a durable format is needed. We will be reviewing all PDF documents that are essential for our services and converting these to accessible pages.

However, we have examined documents published after 23 September 2018 and we've assessed the cost of fixing these documents. We believe that doing so would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

 

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents published before 23 September 2018 do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2.

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. By September 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

The accessibility regulations don’t 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.

Live video

Live video streams don’t have captions. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live).
We don’t plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Online maps

We will try and ensure online maps are as accessible as possible, but online maps are currently exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. 

This website was last tested on 04/12/2020. The test was carried out on a sample of the main collaborate site (https://collaborate.bham.ac.uk) by staff at the University of Birmingham.

This site is based on an older version of the SharePoint software and has limited accessibility capabilities, so that while we will try and ensure that content is accassible, it may not always be possible.

To meet our accessibility goals and to improve the service, we are in the process of moving all the content on this site to a new SharePoint online service which will enable us to meet the required WCAG 2.1 AA standard.

More information on Microsoft SharePoint 2013 (this site) accessibility conformance is available on the Microsoft Conformance site: https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/industry-blog/government/2018/09/11/accessibility-conformance-reports/ 

This statement was prepared on 4th December 2020. It was last reviewed on 7th December 2020.