De Montfort University Accessibility Statement

Updated April 2020

Contents

  1. Using DMU websites
  2. Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
  3. Technical information about this website’s accessibility
  4. Non-accessible content
  5. How we tested our websites

This accessibility statement applies to the dmu.ac.uk website, sub-domains, and other websites we manage.

1. Using DMU websites

This website is run by De Montfort University (DMU). We want as many people as possible to be able to use DMU websites. This means you should be 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)
  • Our main website dmu.ac.uk can be displayed as text only

We have also made the text on our web pages as easy as possible to understand.

2. Contacting DMU

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording, or braille; or if you find any problems that are not listed on this page; or you think we’re not meeting the accessibility requirements, please contact:

We will consider your request and get back to you in 2 working days.

DMU staff and students are able to manage their own conversions to and from a range of format types using the ‘make it accessible’ tool available through the library website.

3. Technical information about DMU websites’ accessibility

De Montfort University is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. 

We will work to meet WCAG AA standards routinely, and will strive to meet as many of the WCAG AAA guidelines for websites and mobile applications as possible – particularly for those areas that have the highest impact on our stakeholders.

DMU has in excess of 27,000 webpages – that are being checked against accessibility criteria and corrections made where required. 

We are currently assessing all of De Montfort University’s websites, focusing on usage, target audience and importance to the users of the website. We have been looking at how automated tools are utilised to test website accessibility.

Prioritised websites are being tested for accessibility by a 3rd party supplier. Additional manual tests to the WCAG2.1 AA standard are being performed in-house.

The principle strategy being to test the website templates first and resolve any issues identified before moving on to test the sub-pages. We will undertake work throughout 2020 to address accessibility issues relating to our web templates.  

We will also be introducing guidelines pertaining to the production and publishing of accessible PDF and Word documents on DMU websites. This will impact on the 100+ active web editors across the university and academic staff using the virtual learning environment.

The main DMU website, dmu.ac.uk, is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below:

  • <frame> or <iframe> elements do not have a title
  • Form elements do not have associated labels
  • Links do not have a discernible name
  • Buttons do not have an accessible name
  • Empty container role
  • ARIA role without required context
  • Required ARIA state or property is missing
  • Empty HTML headings
  • Same ID used for multiple page elements

Testing information relating to other DMU websites.

4. Non-accessible content

DMU has not yet undertaken an accessibility assessment of the following:

  • Research project websites
  • Portal web applications for staff and students
  • Staff and student self-generated websites

These will be assessed in line with the workplan in Section 6.

Disproportionate burden 

Our aim is to review and address accessibility on all pages. We will take a proportional approach and prioritise reviewing and addressing any issues found on our most commonly used webpages, or those which have the highest impact on our intended audiences. All of our websites have been ranked to facilitate this. This approach recognises that it would be a disproportionate use of resources to identify and address all issues that may exist on our web pages.

Interactive tools and transactions

Some of our interactive forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag.

A small number of our forms are built and hosted through third party software and designed to look like our website. These fail WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (information and relationships).

We have assessed the resources required to fix the issues with navigation and accessing information, and with interactive tools and transactions. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. This will be re-assessed when supplier contracts are renewed. 

Recorded staff led teaching

DMU has a policy to provide, on request and with review, students with hearing loss access to closed captions for learning resources made available via the virtual learning environment (vle).   However, it would be a disproportionate burden to include these for all recorded events available on the vle.

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

DMU undertake no liability for:

  • Links from DMU Website to other 3rd party websites e.g. UCAS
  • Blackboard content from 3rd parties e.g. BBC video links
  • Student blogs 
  • Research project websites hosted by other institutions

It is likely that additional websites will be identified that need to be considered.

These will be assessed and any accessibility issues addressed as they are encountered. 

PDFs and other documents

Some of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be   fully accessible to a screen reader. 

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. These will be adapted or replace with accessible HTML pages by September 2020.

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.

Existing teaching content created before 23 September 2018 will not be assessed for accessibility as we will ensure that a reasonable alternative will always be provided. 

Any new PDFs or Word documents that we publish will meet accessibility standards.

Live video

Live video streams do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions - live).

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

5. How we tested DMU websites

DMU has been collating a list of all DMU websites. These will be tested for accessibility in accordance with the priority and importance of the websites, which is determined by specified functionality and target userbase. This has allowed us to differentiate the priority and importance of different services.  The websites are being tested in accordance with this prioritisation.  The tests involve using a website content testing tool to test to WCAG 2.0 with further manual tests to assess to WCAG 2.1 AA.

We are testing all active websites under the DMU domain.

DMU has collated a list of active websites under the DMU domain. These have been prioritised as follows:

DMU has collated a list of active websites under the DMU domain. These have been prioritised as follows:

WebsitesNumberStatus
Critical priority websites39Testing work started
High priority websites54Testing work started
Medium priority websites52Not started
Low priority websites77Not started

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 27 May 2020. It was last reviewed on 11 June 2020.

In preparing this statement we conducted both automated and manual testing. The website undergoes regular automated tests.
 

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