Accessibility statement for the University of Oxford – UAS websites on the Oxford Mosaic platform

The University of Oxford is committed to providing an accessible web presence that gives members of the public and members of the University community full access to University information, courses and activities offered publicly through the web

Our Equality Policy outlines our commitment to a culture which ‘maintains a working, learning and social environment in which the rights and dignity of all its staff and students are respected’.

Our aims

In order to ensure that all of our visitors can use our website, these pages aim to meet Level-AA standard of WCAG 2.1. This includes elements such as:

  • alt text for all images and providing non-visual alternatives where appropriate
  • all essential audiovisual information is captioned, described as necessary or provided in alternative formats
  • content can be navigated with just a keyboard or speech recognition tools
  • the website can be used with a screen reader
  • content is structured, ordered and labelled appropriately

Guidance is available for editors and moderators of this site to help them maintain accessibility standards.

How accessible our websites are

We are aware that some parts of our website are not fully accessible. These include:

  • some older PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
  • some multimedia content doesn’t yet have audio or text description
  • some images and tables lack meaningful text alternatives and descriptions
  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • some content is not written in plain English

We are working to address areas where our accessibility needs improvement. Please see Technical information for more details.

Making changes to your device or system

AbilityNet has advice on making your devices easier to use if you have a disability. In addition, major operating systems produce the following guidance:

Information in alternative formats

The Accessible Resources Acquisition and Creation Unit (ARACU), which are part of the Bodleian Libraries, offer alternative formats for pages on this website. They produce materials in electronic text (RTF document fully structured and with XML tags for navigation) and DAISY 2.02 human voice audio. Both products can be sent out physically (DVD) or via file transfer. They can also produce Braille documents. Please contact aracu@bodleian.ox.ac.uk to discuss your requirements.

Students and staff of the University may make use of the free SensusAccess tool on the Bodleian website to convert certain types of files into a more accessible format, such as accessible text, audio, e-book or digital braille. Content editors may also make use of this tool on behalf of website users.

If you need further information or wish to discuss the provision of an alternative format, please contact the editor of the site you are viewing at the contact information given or email uas.communications@admin.ox.ac.uk.

Reporting issues with website accessibility

If you have any other questions or concerns about this statement or the accessibility of any of our web pages, please contact the webmaster at uas.communications@admin.ox.ac.uk.

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).

Other accessibility resources

If you’d like more information about accessibility and resources for students, staff and visitors in Oxford more generally, please visit our Equality and Diversity pages.

If you’re looking for information on building accessibility, please try the Access Guide or the University’s interactive map.

Technical information about our websites’ accessibility

The University of Oxford is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. As part of this commitment, we are required to publish known issues with our website.

The websites we cover (see ‘How we tested our websites’) are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed on our non-compliant content page.

Our websites' platform

Our websites are hosted on Oxford Mosaic, the University of Oxford’s Web Platform. Further information on how the platform meets accessibility requirements is available in the Oxford Mosaic Accessibility Statement.

How we tested our websites

Our websites were last tested over a number of months leading up to 16 September 2019. The test was carried out internally, using a quality assurance tool across all pages as well as a manual check of a substantial and carefully chosen sample of pages and content types. Individual site owners are required to review their sites on a monthly basis.

The following sites are included:

Other sites within the University’s domain

This statement does not cover the University of Oxford’s main website www.ox.ac.uk. Please refer to the accessibility statement for ox.ac.uk if your query concerns that site.

The University’s web estate consists of many related sub-sites with the ox.ac.uk domain, including various divisions and departments, museums and libraries and more. Accessibility statements for such sub-sites will be found locally on each site.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We want our website to offer the best experience possible for all of our users. In addition to our plan to fix known issues, we continue to work on website content and structure. We are working with our suppliers to fix issues and think about future developments. We are also updating the ways in which we provide training and best practice to those working on our website.

This statement was prepared on 18 September 2019. It was last updated on 17th February 2020.

Contact us

uas.communications@admin.ox.ac.uk