Web Accessibility Statement

Accessibility of this website

At a basic level on this website you should be able to:

Change colours, contrast levels and font type, size, and colour
Zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
Listen to content using a screen reader
Access website content through a translator tool

Our goal for compliance is level AA, and so we are currently addressing any outstanding issues that fall in or below this category (WCAG A or AA).

Our last website accessibility compliance audit was: April 2024.

Known issues

Full compliance audit findings can be found on our .

We are working hard to action a fix to these issues, inline with our Issue Resolution guidelines.

The outstanding level A, high-occuring issues with our website compliance as found in the last audit are:

Duplicate ID (159 occurrences)
Presentation warning (53 occurrences)
Obselete markup (35 occurences)
Missing alt text (13 occurrences)

We are also aware there are existing issues with the accessibility of our online content, and we are working to resolve them. The known issues with our website and online content are listed below:

Some of our content is only available in PDF format. Furthermore some of our older PDF documents may not be fully accessible to screen reader software.
Although we meet the AA compliance standard for colour contrast, some of our webpages use colour that may make digestion of content difficult for some users.
Some of our older documents, such as our previous Impact Reports, are presented via digital publications on Issuu which contains information not accessible by a screen reader.
Some of our content may not use appropriately nested headers or descriptive hyperlinks.

What we’re doing to improve our website accessibility

How we monitor website accessibility

Auditing the website

We carry out a regular accessibility audit of the �۲ʿ�� website to identify any issues for resolving.

We use the to scan the website, which produces the below reports:

Compliance - provides information on the site’s level of compliance with WCAG. The report identifies compliance issues against all 3 levels: A, AA, and AAA.
Broken links - provides information on any broken links (a web page or document that can’t be found or accessed by a user).

Our audit process

Our current audit frequency and scope
Frequency	Scope	Auditing for	Action
Monthly	yusu.org main site (all webpages)	WCAG A and AA Broken links	Take action against any issues found inline with our issue resolution SLAs (see below)
Termly	External facing subsites on the yusu.org domain:	WCAG A and AA Broken links	Share findings with the owner of subsite (if this is a student group leader then ensure a relevant �۲ʿ�� link staff member is also informed)
Yearly	Internal facing subsites on the yusu.org domain:	WCAG A and AA Broken links	Share findings with the owner of subsite (�۲ʿ�� member of staff)
Termly, unless required sooner due to a platform development released on the affected page/s	(hosted by SUMS)	WCAG A and AA	Share findings with platform provider (SUMS) with a request to be resolved
Termly, unless required sooner due to a platform development released on the affected page/s	(hosted by SUMS)	WCAG A and AA	Share findings with platform provider (SUMS) with a request to be resolved

Issue resolution

We know there are currently a lot of issues on the �۲ʿ�� website, and so it’s important to have a prioritised approach to resolving issues found.

We assess priority by using information on:

If the issue is level A, AA or AAA.
If the issue is on a high traffic or important page (one which includes critical information or functionality).

With this prioritised approach to issue resolution we expect to achieve consistent progress over the next 12 months, eventually reaching our goal of WCAG AA full compliance.

Issue resolution SLAs for WCAG compliance issues

Our issue resolution times for compliance issues found on the yusu.org domain
Priority level	Issue Level (A/AA)	Page/s	SLA for action taken
1	A	Top 10 pages or website accessibility statement	4 weeks
2	A	Any page (not top 10)	4 weeks
3	AA	Top 10 pages or website accessibility statement	8 weeks
4	AA	Any page (not top 10)	12 weeks

How we test the website

We commit to testing any new web pages or features before going live to users, using our outlined testing process which addresses website accessibility. The testing we carry out when developing a web page or new feature is a mix of both manual and automated testing.

Our testing process

Manual testing

Our developers test that content is responsive through window resizing using browser developer tools.

Automated testing

Our developers use the automated scanner to identify any errors found against the WCAG guidelines.
We also use AccessLint, a GitHub application that monitors any code we upload to our GitHub repository. Although not all website code is stored in GitHub, it does contain some key components that are used across the �۲ʿ�� website and so this provides us with another layer of automated checking for accessibility issues.

�۲ʿ��’s digital accessibility mission and strategy

Accessibility plays a large role in our Digital Strategy - which outlines our mission to provide accessible and usable digital services.

There are 3 core elements to embedding a successful strategy to improve our digital accessibility. These are:

Compliance
Culture
Education

We are undergoing many pieces of work to improve our digital accessibility - including delivering a Digital Accessibility Framework for the organisation, improving our website usability, and working with �۲ʿ��’s new EDI strategy. More detailed information can be found in our Introduction to Digital Accessibility at �۲ʿ��.

How you can access content

There may be ways you can access website content in a way that is more preferable for you, by either contacting us or using one of the available tools listed below.

Request content in an alternative format

If you require content in an alternative format (for example a PDF as a plain text document file), please email us at helpdesk@yusu.org and we will do our best to help you.

Assistive tools

There are some assistive tools available to help customise online content into formats that are preferred:

ReachDeck accessibility toolbar

We provide an assistive toolbar on the website to allow users to reformat the content in a way that is best for you. You can launch this toolbar by selecting the ‘Accessibility Tools’ button in the website navigation bar (or top right of the page).

The ReachDeck toolbar features include:

Text-to-speech: Reads on-screen text out loud with read along highlighting
Translation: Allows words to be translated into multiple languages
Picture Dictionary: Displays word meaning through illustration
MP3 Maker: Converts online content into MP3 files for easy listening
Screen Mask: With reading pane reduces visual stress and improves focus
Text Magnifier: Magnifies text and reads it out loud. This increases accessibility of even the smallest web text
Webpage Simplifier: Creates a simplified view of a webpage and removes distracting content

Texthelp Read & Write

Texthelp Read&Write is available to students and staff at the University of York.

It is a toolbar that integrates with computer applications, such as web browsers or Microsoft and Google applications. Some of the things you can do with Texthelp Read&Write Gold are:

Text-to-speech
Scan: Convert inaccessible hard copy texts into accessible PDFs, Microsoft Word documents, EPUB and HTML formats.

Find out more and view the training video on the University’s .

Blackboard Ally File Transformer

You can use the tool to convert PDF, DOC, PPT or HTML files to alternative formats.

SensusAccess

SensusAccess is available to students and staff at the University of York. It allows you to convert files into an accessible format:

Convert PDFs, JPGs and other files into an e-book, text file, audio or braille
You can combine more than one JPG into a single file.

Find out more about SensusAccess through the University Library’s .

How you can contact us

You can get in touch with us at it@yusu.org if you wish to discuss online accessibility with a �۲ʿ�� staff member, or highlight any accessibility issues with the website.

If you are a student group committee member or officer in need of guidance and training on producing accessible documents or other digital content, please visit our (access with your @yusu.org email).

This statement was last updated on 15/05/2024.

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