Birmingham City University is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. This accessibility statement covers the pages that sit on the following URLs:
We strive to create a website that can be used by as many people as possible. We understand the importance of creating content with accessibility in mind.
This means you should be able to do the following:
We know that some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
If you are unable to access content on our website, we will try to provide alternative formats to mitigate this. We are unable to provide content in every available format but we will aim to try and make our content as accessible as possible based on your needs. We review our available formats on an annual basis and our next review will take place in September 2022.
If you require information in an alternative format, please contact the Library Web Team at lcmsrequest@bcu.ac.uk providing the following details:
Your email will be acknowledged within three working days and we will provide a timescale for resolution.
Alternative formats available:
Please note, we are currently unable to provide content in the following formats:
While we review and audit our pages frequently there may be issues that we are not aware of. If you find a page that contain accessibility issues that we have not listed above, please let us know and we will look into this.
If you find a page that isn’t accessible, please contact the Library Web Team by emailing lcmsrequest@bcu.ac.uk, providing the following details:
Your email will be acknowledged within three working days and a resolution timescale will be provided if we can resolve your issue.
If you are unhappy with the response you have received from the university about your accessibility-related issue, you can make a complaint to the university by emailing accessibility@bcu.ac.uk providing the following details:
Your email will be acknowledged within 1 week and we will provide details of the next steps and how the complaint will be dealt within 3 weeks.
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, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).
This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 - AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
The content listed below is currently not fully accessible, we are actively working on these outstanding elements but have provide comprehensive details below.
On some pages structural use of headings are incorrectly authored possibly leading to some confusion over the structure and outline of the content. We are implementing software improvements and training to support content authors to avoid or mitigate this issue for new content.
In some content the use of non-descriptive and repetitive text in closely related links can lead to confusion. We are training our content authors to avoid or mitigate this issue in new content and are working through all instances of this to resolve this issue.
Alternative text for images is not always contextually suitable for the use of the image and on occasion has been used on presentational images. We are implementing software improvements and training to support content authors to avoid or mitigate this issue.
There may be some content that does not reach guidelines for colour contrast between it and its surrounding content. We are working up update our presentation styling, provide software enhancements for content authors and provide training to avoid or mitigate this issue with new content.
All new content templates are designed to reflow content across various devices and viewports to make the most use of screen real estate without requiring the user to scroll both horizontally and vertically to view content. However, some legacy content and old page templates will not be able to provide the same.
Some content such as carousels or other dynamic content may not meet accessibility standards. We are working to identify, review and improve their accessibility and/or provide alternative content where necessary.
The site makes use of downloadable content in the form of PDF’s in several key areas. All new PDF content will be reviewed for accessibility issues but some legacy content is not accessible. Where we are unable to provide an accessible PDF we aim to provide an alternative format upon request.
All new videos on the website will be uploaded with a transcript available on the webpage on which is sits however older videos do not currently have transcripts available. All videos are embedded using a YouTube player or Microsoft Stream and have the option of turning automated captions on during the playback. We are currently unable to provided scene description for videos but will keep this under review.
There are some areas of the website that we are currently unable to resolve without significant changes to the overall platform and infrastructure that we have in place. This includes the following:
Birmingham City University has tested its Springshare content using the following tool:
Our developers use WAVE to evaluate a page and focus on accessibility issues that impact end users when working on new functionality and content.
Monthly web checks will take place to monitor the accessibility of our webpages. This accessibility statement will be reviewed and updated as appropriate but as a minimum there will be an annual review of this document.
Birmingham City University main accessibility statement.
Published 22nd September 2020.
Revised version published 4th October 2021.
