ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT

Scope and ownership

Birmingham City University is committed to making its website’s accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. This accessibility statement covers the pages that sit on the BCU Advantage website (bcuadvantage.co.uk).

Using the website

We strive to create a website that can be used by as many people as possible. We understand the importance of creating content with accessibility in mind.

This means you should be able to do the following:

• Access most of the website via most popular screen readers, speech recognition software or operating system speech applications.
• Using screen magnifiers, or other similar applications, adjust the font size and zoom in up to 300% across most of the website.
• Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard, and when tabbing through content your current location will be indicated by a clear visual change.
• Use ‘skip’ links in most pages to skip over some sections of the page or other repetitive information.
• Across most of the website, benefit from applications that make use of ARIA attributes and use operating system or browser plugins that aid accessibility – for example to change colours, contrast levels or fonts and so on.

How accessible is our website?

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

• Some content may not be fully compatible with screen readers and you may not be able to access all content by using the keyboard alone.
• Some content does not follow correct semantic content hierarchy and may use incorrect heading structure.
• Some content may display text or links within images that are not accessible by screen readers.
• Older PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.

What to do if you can’t access parts of the website

If you are unable to access content on our website, we will try to provide alternative formats to mitigate this. We are unable to provide content in every available format but we will aim to try and make our content as accessible as possible based on your needs. We review our available formats on an annual basis and our next review will take place in September 2021.

Requesting an alternative format

If you require information in an alternative format, please contact our web team at ithelp@bcu.ac.uk, providing the following details:

• The content required
• The issues you are experiencing and what changes you require to the format

Your email will be acknowledged within three working days and we will provide a timescale for resolution.

Alternative formats available:

• Written content provided as a word document

Please note, we are currently unable to provide content in the following formats:

• Braille

Reporting accessibility problems

While we review and audit our pages frequently there may be issues that we are not aware of. If you find pages that contain accessibility issues that we have not listed above, please let us know and we will look into this.

If you find a page that isn’t accessible, please contact us via ithelp@bcu.ac.uk, providing the following details:

• The URL of the page
• The issues you are experiencing

Your email will be acknowledged within three working days and a resolution timescale will be provided if we can resolve your issue.

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@bcu.ac.uk providing the following details:   

• Website address
• Details of initial contact with the university including who you contacted and the information you provided
• Reason for escalation

Your email will be acknowledged within 1 week and we will provide details of the next steps and how the complaint will be dealt within 3 weeks.

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

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 – AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non accessible content

The content listed below is currently not fully accessible, we are actively working on these outstanding elements but have provide comprehensive details below.

Colour contrast

There may be some content that does not meet the guidelines for colour contrast between it and its surrounding content. We are working to update our presentation styling, provide software enhancements for content authors and provide training to avoid or mitigate this issue with new content.

Dynamic Content

Some areas such as carousels or other dynamic content may not meet accessibility standards. We are working to identify, review and improve their accessibility and/or provide alternative content where necessary.

Downloadable Content

The site makes use of downloadable content in the form of PDF documents. Such content is not always as accessible as it can be. We are working to make these documents as accessible as possible. Where we can’t make a document accessible we aim to provide an alternative format.

Screen readers and forms

The site uses forms to assist users in submitting requests or providing information to the university through our online channels. We have identified improvements for ease of use, clarity, accessibility and visual appearance of some forms and we are working hard to improve in these areas.

Non-compliance with accessibility regulations

Birmingham City University have a commitment to provide accessible web content. To ensure that we are making our existing content accessible and that all new content works for as many users as possible we have a roadmap in place that will allow us to continually improve our accessibility. Some of the key milestones are provided below.

By September 2021

For new and existing content we aim to have resolved the following issues:

• Colour contrast across all key areas
• Keyboard accessibility issues
• Reflow and magnification
• Clearer and less ambiguous hyperlink text minimising /avoiding repetition
• Initial and ongoing improvements to support website authors in creating accessible content

How we tested

We have used a number of tools and methodologies to test the website:

• WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool
• Google Lighthouse
• Manual testing including keyboard functions

Reviews

Monthly web checks will take place to monitor the accessibility of our webpages. This accessibility statement will be reviewed and updated as appropriate but as a minimum there will be an annual review of this document.