Website accessibility

Accessibility statement for 23 Things

Website accessibility statement inline with Public Sector Body (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. This website is run by the University of Edinburgh. 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 200% 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’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

Customising the website

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

AbilityNet – My computer my way With a few simple steps you can customise the appearance of our website to make it easier to read and navigate.

Addtional information on how to customise our website appearance

How accessible this website is

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

  • Some parts may not be fully compatible with screen readers:
    • Some imported content, namely syndicated blog posts, have featured images missing alternative text.
    • Some imported content, namely an embedded Twitter feed, has numerous empty links, redundant links and title text.
    • Not all embedded media will have a transcript or be subtitled.
  • You may not be able to access all content by using the keyboard alone:
    • The search box form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag.

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

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

email 23Things@ed.ac.uk

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.

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:

email 23Things@ed.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 complaint, please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) directly.

Contact details for the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS)

Contacting us by phone using British Sign Language

British Sign Language service

British Sign Language Scotland 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 from 8am to 12 midnight, 7 days a week.

British Sign Language Scotland service details

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The University of Edinburgh is committed to making its website 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 version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non accessible content

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

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations
  • Errors
    • Missing form label
      • Several WAVE errors for ‘missing form label’. Three custom webforms using ‘Contact Form 7’ plugin are not correctly displaying their form labels.
      • WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria:
        • 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A)
        • 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A)
        • 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (Level AA)
        • 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions (Level A)
      • TBD
  • Alerts
    • Skipped heading level
      • Occasional WAVE alerts for ‘skipped heading level’. On some pages there are H4 header tags used instead of the expected H3.
      • WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria:
        • 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A)
        • 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks (Level A)
        • 2.4.6 Headings and Labels (Level AA)
    • Redundant link
      • Multiple WAVE alerts for a ‘redundant link’ on the homepage template. Identical links to the same content effectively appear in multiple places and are therefore redundant, especially for users using screenreaders.
      • WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria:
        • 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (Level A)
    • Redundant title text
      • Several WAVE alerts for a ‘redundant title text’ within the social media share options. What this means is the title attribute text is the same as text or alternative text. This HTML is generated automnatically by the ‘AddToAny Share Buttons’ plugin.
      • WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria:
        • None.
Disproportionate burden
  • None.
Navigation and accessing information
  • See ‘Non compliance with the accessibility regulations’ section.
Interactive tools and transactions
  • See ‘Non compliance with the accessibility regulations’ section.

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

  • None.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested on 15th September 2020. The test was carried internally by the Interactive Content service within the Information Services Group. Our primary web accessibility evaluation tools were:

  • WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool) from WebAIM
  • Colour Contrast Analyser (CCA) from the Paciello Group.

The sample pages tested cover all published content types and design templates. We tested:

  • our main homepage
  • and a standard content/resource page (e.g. ‘Thing 1 & 2: Introduction and Blogging’).

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

This statement was prepared on 22nd May 2020. It was last updated on 15th September 2020.

Improvement log

15th September 2020
  • Disabled CSS that forced uppercase elements and reverted to sentence case throughout.
22nd May 2020
  • Very low contrast
    • Originally 21 WAVE errors for ‘very low contrast’, in particular with the light greys (#616a74) on the almost black (#242629) footer background.
    • However, after modifying these colours the contrast ratio has now been increased (from 2.8:1 to 5.2:1) and does now pass AA normal text (4.5:1 minimum).
    • WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria:
      • 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA)
  • Missing alternative text
    • Several WAVE errors for ‘missing alternative text’ now resolved as we’ve added alternative text to more images in the WordPress media library.
    • WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria:
      • 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A).
  • Empty link
    • Multiple WAVE errors for ’empty link’. 12 photos on landing page had no text within their A tag, the WordPress theme template was modified to rectify these errors.
    • WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria:
      • 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A)
      • 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) (Level A)
  • Added sitemap listing published pages, linked in footer.
17th October 2019
  • Missing form label
    • The Google reCAPTCHA (v3) tool used in conjunction with webforms to validate user submissions generated a “Missing form label” WAVE error.
    • Technical instructions on how to resolve this issue were published on our blog:
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