Accessibility statement

Using this website

This accessibility statement applies to the primary York St John University website (www.yorksj.ac.uk). We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means being able to:

• Change 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)

We have also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

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:

• Some content displayed using carousels cannot be accessed using a keyboard
• Most of our older PDF documents aren't fully accessible to screen reader software
• Some PDF documents may not have a descriptive title
• Live video streams do not have captions

Feedback and contact information

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

• Email website@yorksj.ac.uk
• Call 01904 624 624

We will consider your request and get back to you in 10 working days.

If you cannot view the map available from our site footer, call or email us for directions.

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 are not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: website@yorksj.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 are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

York St John University 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 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Issues with text alternatives (WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text content)

Within our embedded virtual campus tour, some image elements do not have alternate text. We are currently assessing how to fix this within the platform and plan to share our progress in this statement by the next review date (see below).

Issues with text resizing (WCAG 1.4.4 Resize text)

Within our embedded virtual campus tour, zooming is disabled for mobile devices. We are currently assessing how to fix this within the platform and plan to share our progress in this statement by the next review date (see below).

Issues with keyboard navigation (WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard)

Within our carousels, the radio buttons to change between items cannot be accessed using a keyboard. We are currently working on fixing such carousels and plan to share our progress in this statement by the next review date (see below).

Within our embedded virtual campus tour, the keyboard can be used to pan and move around the initially loaded scene, but menu elements within the tour cannot be accessed using a keyboard. We are currently assessing how to fix this within the platform and plan to share our progress in this statement by the next review date (see below).

Keeping focused items visible (WCAG 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum))

This success criterion is new to WCAG version 2.2 and has not yet been tested.

Ensuring the appropriate minimum size of targets (WCAG 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum))

This success criterion is new to WCAG version 2.2 and has not yet been tested.

Issues with name and role for some elements (WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value)

Some focusable elements within our carousels are hidden by setting the aria-hidden attribute to "true", which has an impact for some assistive technologies on being able to correctly view the content. We are currently working on fixing such carousels and plan to share our progress in this statement by the next review date (see below).

Issues with PDFs and other documents (WCAG 2.4.2 Page Titled)

Some of our older PDFs and Word documents may be missing correct titles. Our work to fix this issue for all PDFs and Word documents hosted on this website is currently underway in the following phases:

1. Identify and remove unused PDFs and Word documents from the website's CMS. This is the current phase of work.
2. Identify and remove live PDFs and Word documents that show few to zero views within the last 12 months. The effects of each removal on related pages and content will need to be manually reviewed.
3. Implement a programme of fixes for the remaining PDFs and Word documents.

If in the meantime you find you need accessibility adjustments to be made to a PDF or Word document, please contact us: website@yorksj.ac.uk.

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. For example, we don’t plan to fix historical documents relating to policies, reports or minutes.

Issues with PDFs and other documents (WCAG 4.1.1 Parsing) (Obsolete in WCAG version 2.2)

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents may not be correctly marked up to be accessible to a screen reader. Our work to fix this issue for all PDFs and Word documents hosted on this website is currently underway (please see above section for details).

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. For example, we don’t plan to fix historical documents relating to policies, reports or minutes.

Recently fixed issues

These issues have recently been removed from the above section, as we understand that these have now been fixed. If you find any problems which would indicate that these problems have not been fixed, please contact us: website@yorksj.ac.uk.

Issues with heading structure (WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships)

Some of our pages didn’t use the correct heading structure. This is considered fixed as of 24 August 2023.

Issues with interactive tools and transactions (WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum))

The colour contrast on some of our links was too low. We also had some issues with colour contrast on our old page layouts, which were addressed as part of our wider website redevelopment. This is considered fixed as of 24 August 2023.

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

PDFs and other documents

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. Where new PDFs or Word documents fail to meet accessibility standards, please report this as an accessibility problem using the contact details above.

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are committed to improving accessibility across our website.

• We use automated accessibility tools to guide iterative in house improvements to the accessibility of our pages and content.
• We have established owners of content to ensure timely removal of inaccessible content.
• We are working with third party suppliers to improve the accessibility of digital services surfaced on this website.
• We have worked with an external auditor to conduct a manual audit of the accessibility of our website. The audit tested 10 key pages, consisting of the broadest possible cross section of site content and design.

We are also continuing to review the training we offer our website editors with regards to accessibility.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 8 July 2019. It was last reviewed on 9 February 2024. The next review is scheduled to be published on or before 10 May 2024.

Our website is tested on a regular basis, with a new scan scheduled every 5 days using an automated accessibility tool. This tool tests a sample of web pages and provides a report on accessibility issues. Issues are then prioritised according to the severity of the impact it may cause, the number of people that may be impacted and the time involved in resolving the issue.