Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to the University of Exeter website (“the website”) hosted at these domains: www.exeter.ac.uk, arabislamicstudies.exeter.ac.uk, archaeology.exeter.ac.uk, arthistory.exeter.ac.uk, as.exeter.ac.uk, biosciences.exeter.ac.uk, business-school.exeter.ac.uk, cedar.exeter.ac.uk, cges.exeter.ac.uk, classics.exeter.ac.uk, communications.exeter.ac.uk, computerscience.exeter.ac.uk, csm.exeter.ac.uk, drama.exeter.ac.uk, ecologyconservation.exeter.ac.uk, emps.exeter.ac.uk, engineering.exeter.ac.uk, english.exeter.ac.uk, environmentalmathematics.exeter.ac.uk, film.exeter.ac.uk, geography.exeter.ac.uk, history.exeter.ac.uk, humanities.exeter.ac.uk, liberal-arts.exeter.ac.uk, lifesciences.exeter.ac.uk, mathematics.exeter.ac.uk, medical-imaging.exeter.ac.uk, medicine.exeter.ac.uk, modernlanguages.exeter.ac.uk, naturalsciences.exeter.ac.uk, nursing.exeter.ac.uk, physics-astronomy.exeter.ac.uk, politics.exeter.ac.uk and psychology.exeter.ac.uk.

It does not currently apply to project sites or blogs hosted at blogs.exeter.ac.uk, sites.exeter.ac.uk, or projects.exeter.ac.uk.

This website is run by the University of Exeter. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

change colours, contrast levels and fonts
zoom in up to 170% 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)

Help with navigating and changing the site’s appearance

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability. You can also use our library’s Sensus Access tool to convert documents or webpages into audio files, braille, accessible PDFs and ebooks.

How accessible this website is

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

The colour contrast on some page elements is not sufficient to be easily discernible for all users
You can't zoom in up to 400% without text disappearing off the screen
Some of our oldest pages are not responsive, so you can’t zoom in without text spilling off the screen
You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
Some of our pages and online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
Some cookie banners are not accessible using a keyboard
Some older pages you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader
Some pages, forms and search fields are difficult to access using a screen reader
Some links are missing alternative text
The purpose of some links cannot be determined from the link text or its context alone
Some pages are missing headings which makes them more difficult to navigate
Some subject websites, such as biosciences.exeter.ac.uk, don’t currently have site maps
Some video and audio content may not have captions, transcriptions, or audio descriptions
Some PDFs (Portable Document Formats) and other documents are not fully compatible with screen readers
WAI-ARIA tags are not used consistently throughout the site
On some pages, you can’t pause or hide animations

Feedback and contact information

If you:

experience problems whilst using assistive software to access our site,
need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF or Word document, audio recording or braille
have any other feedback

Please contact the digital team at digitalteam@exeter.ac.uk.

In your message, please include any of the following:

the web address (URL) of the content
your email address and name
the format you need.

Our Contact page lists other departments you can call for information.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re 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, contact the digital team - digitalteam@exeter.ac.uk.

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 accessibility-related issue, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

Find out how to contact us, visit us, or view access guides for key buildings.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

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

Compliance status

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

Non-accessible Content - non compliance with regulations

Navigating using a keyboard

Some elements of pages, such as our feedback form, banners, radio buttons and forms, cannot be accessed using a keyboard. Some pages have been fixed, however the visible focus is not clear. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1: Keyboard. We plan to resolve this by July 2023.

Navigation and finding information

On some pages, the same link text is used for multiple different destinations, which makes the links inaccessible to people using a screen reader. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4: Link Purpose (In Context). We plan to resolve this by July 2023.

The purpose of each link cannot always be determined from the link text alone or from the link text together with its programmatically determined link context. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4: Link Purpose (In Context). We plan to resolve this by July 2023.

Some microsite homepages and gateway pages are missing headings, which makes them difficult to read. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships. We have made progress on this issue in 2022 and plan to resolve the remaining occurrences by July 2023.

Some tables are missing clearly defined headers so are inaccessible to people using a screen reader. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships. We plan to resolve this by July 2023.

There are a few places in the site where HTML is used to format content, instead of CSS. This could lead to information about the hierarchy of information being obscured. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships. We plan to resolve this by July 2023.

Some of our pages and feedback forms contain duplicated ARIA IDs and labels which will be problematic for screen readers' interpretations. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.1: (Parsing). We plan to resolve this by July 2023.

Some iframes are missing ‘title’ attributes and some of our scrolling image galleries are missing ‘role’ attributes. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2: Name, Role, Value. We have made progress on this issue in 2022 and plan to resolve the remaining occurrences by July 2023.

Some of our PDFs and Word documents published since 2018, and older documents that are essential to providing our services, do not meet the required accessibility standards. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterions 2.4.2: Page Titled and 1.1.1: Non-text Content. We plan to resolve this by February 2023.

Forms and searches

In forms and search functionality, some input fields are missing descriptions or unique IDs, so are inaccessible to people using a screen reader. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships. We plan to resolve this by July 2023.

Some of our in-house forms contain checkboxes with empty <label> tags, or <label> tags that aren’t connected to an element. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2: Name, Role, Value. We plan to resolve this by July 2023.

Where in-house forms contain a set of radio buttons for users to select from, these buttons are not grouped. This makes them inaccessible to people using a screen reader. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships. We plan to resolve this by March 2023.

Some of our interactive elements don't have the required WIA-ARIA descriptive tags and labels. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2: Name, Role, Value. We plan to resolve this by July 2023.

Visual presentation and images

The colour contrast on some page elements is insufficient to be easily discernible for all users. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum). We have made progress on this issue in 2022 and plan to resolve the remaining occurrences by July 2023.

Link text in some parts of the site is identified only by colour, so may not be discernible for users with vision or cognitive disabilities. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1 Use of Colour. We have made progress on this issue in 2022 and plan to resolve the remaining occurrences by July 2023.

On some of our pages, users can't zoom in more than 170% without loss of content or functionality. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.4 Resize text and 1.4.10 Reflow. We plan to resolve this by July 2023.

Some of our oldest pages are not responsive, so users can’t zoom in without text disappearing off the screen, and column widths don’t adapt to fit the screen size. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.10 Reflow. We plan to resolve this by July 2023.

On our homepages and other webpages there is a 'Carousel' template with images and key messages about the University and other departments. There is no way to pause, stop or hide this animated content. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide. We plan to resolve this by July 2023.

Time-based media (video and audio)

Not all videos have an audio, text, captions or closed caption description of information that is only presented visually. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterions 1.2.1 Audio-only and Video-only (Pre-recorded), 1.2.2 Captions (Pre-recorded), 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Pre-recorded) and 1.2.5 Audio Description (Pre-recorded). We plan to resolve this by July 2023.

Disproportionate burden

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

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

Archived websites

Our archived websites are those that are no longer being updated and do not contain information that is essential for accessing our services. These have not been included in our accessibility plans because they are exempt.

Intranets

We do not plan to update content on our intranet server published before 23 September 2019 because this is exempt from meeting the regulations. If we make any major revisions to this content we will ensure these are accessible in line with our plans described in the Non-compliance section of this statement.

Live video

We do not 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.

PDFs and other documents

We understand that 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.

However, if you need information in an alternative format, please contact us on: digitalteam@exeter.ac.uk

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Acting upon insights from SiteImprove

We use SiteImprove and Axe browser extension to monitor our website content and address issues as they arise. We are urgently working to fix any content which fails to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. We will update this page when issues are fixed.

Creating training and resources

We are developing training for university staff who edit the website on how to meet accessibility requirements. We have also created a new digital resource website to support staff, students and third parties with creating accessible digital content.

Scrutinising publication of PDFs

We do not publish without scrutiny any PDF published on the website. Instead, we consider first whether the content proposed in the PDF could be published as an HTML webpage, making it inherently more accessible.

If that is not possible, we ensure that the PDF is fully accessible. We have published information on our support site about creating accessible PDFs.

Third-party content

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. We are reviewing all such functionality and intend to work with suppliers to make that fully accessible or look for alternative solutions.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 11 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 21 December 2022.

This website was last tested on 30 June 2022. The test was carried out using the SiteImprove web accessibility tool and the Axe browser extension. All pages at www.exeter.ac.uk were included in the test.

All non-archived pages were included in the previous test on 19 August 2021.

Update: December 2022

We have made progress on most of the issues above since the last test in June 2022. Due to a requirement to migrate the website to a new content management system, we have had to change the projected completion dates for fully resolving some of the issues. We will continue to monitor progress and update this statement regularly in 2023.