Accessibility

Accessibility statement for the University of Edinburgh Online Exhibitions

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

This accessibility statement applies to: https://exhibitions.ed.ac.uk/

This website is run by the University of Edinburgh Library on behalf of the University of Edinburgh.]. The website is intended to provide access to online exhibitions delivered by the Centre for Research Collections (CRC). The CRC offers a single point of access to collections for students, researchers and the public.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use our website. For example, this means you should be able to:

  • using your browser settings, change most colours, contrast levels and fonts;
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen;
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard;
  • navigate most of the website using speech recognition software;
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver);
  • experience no time limits when using the site.

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:

  • not all colour contrasts meet the recommended Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA standard;
  • alternative text are not present for all non-text content;
  • keyboard navigation could be clearer in indicating user’s location on a page;
  • there is page movement that cannot be independently controlled by the user while viewing exhibition items;
  • there is no ‘skip to main content’ option;
  • not all links have meaningful hypertext;
  • pop-ups occur without warning;
  • although most content is accessible, not all content is navigable by using the keyboard alone;
  • speech-to-text assistive technology is not necessarily able to reach all parts of the web page.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, including accessible PDF, large print, audio recording or braille:

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:

We will 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 Contact Scotland 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.

Contact Scotland 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 version 2.1

Non accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Noncompliance with the accessibility regulations

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

A complete solution or significant improvement will be in place by Sept 2023 where the issues are within our control. At this time we believe all elements of the site are 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

Maps

It is unlikely that the map is fully accessible with all assistive technologies. However, maps are currently not within the scope of the regulations as long as not required for navigational purposes where this in formation has not been provided in an alternative format. An example map/chart can be found here: Chart showing the composition of the ocean floor

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. These items are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. An example is Text of 'The Wolf and the Lamb'

Items to which the regulations do not apply

What we're doing to improve accessibility

We will continue to work with our in house developers to address these issues and deliver a solution or suitable workaround and correct issues directly.

We will continue to monitor accessibility and will carry out further accessibility testing if significant changes are made to the user interface or if a service user raises an issue or as part of our yearly monitoring. We plan to resolve the issues by September 2023. At this time we believe all items are within our control. Where we are unable to resolve an issue or where an issue is out with our control we will ensure reasonable adjustments are put in place to ensure no user is disadvantaged.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 20th Sept 2022. It was last reviewed on 22nd December 2022.

This website was first tested on 1st August 2019 and last tested on 8th July 2022. The first testing was carried out by The University Library and University Collections Digital Library Development team using the automated Wave WEBAIM and Little Forest testing tool. The testing in October 2022 included full manual as well as automated testing.

This website was last tested by the Library and University Collections Digital Library team, University of Edinburgh on the 4th July 2022 using automated and manual methods (following on from previous automated testing of the system the previous year.) This was primarily using the Google Chrome (100.0.4896.127), Mozilla Firefox (91.8.0esr), Internet Explorer (11.0) and Microsoft Edge (100.0.1185.39) browsers for comparative purposes.

Recent world-wide usage levels survey for different screen readers and browsers shows that Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge are increasing in popularity and Google Chrome is now the favoured browser for screen readers:

WebAIM: Screen Reader User Survey

The aforementioned three browsers have been used in certain questions for reasons of breadth and variety.

We ran automated testing using Wave WEBAIM and Little Forest then manual testing that included:

  • Spell check functionality;
  • Scaling using different resolutions and reflow;
  • Options to customise the interface (magnification, font, background colour, etc);
  • Keyboard navigation and keyboard traps;
  • Data validation;
  • Warning of links opening in a new tab or window;
  • Information conveyed in colour or sound only;
  • Flashing, moving or scrolling text;
  • Operability if JavaScript is disabled;
  • Use with screen reading software (for example, JAWS);
  • Assistive software (TextHelp Read and Write, Windows Magnifier, ZoomText, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, TalkBack and VoiceOver);
  • Tooltips and text alternatives for any non-text content;
  • Time limits;
  • Compatibility with mobile accessibility functionality (Android and iOS).

Change Log

Since our first evaluation and statement, which was based on automated testing, we have undertaken extensive manual testing. This includes utilising a range of assistive technology to ensure we have a clear picture of the accessibility issues and how best to resolve them.