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Accessibility statement for University of London

The University of London is committed to providing an accessible web presence.

We want everyone who visits the University of London website to feel welcome and find the experience rewarding.

This statement applies only to content hosted on the sub-domain www.london.ac.uk.

This website is run by University of London. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • Zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • Adjust line height and word spacing using browser plugins like ReaderView for FireFox or ReaderView for Chrome
  • Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • Navigate efficiently through the site using breadcrumb trails, consistent menus or the search features
  • Navigate long pages by headings/subheadings using assistive technology tools or plugins
  • 'Skip to main content' using tab on your keyboard
  • Listen to most of the website using assistive technologies – for example text to speech tools and plugins, screen readers, and inbuilt phone and/or tablet functionality
  • Navigate most of our online forms using just a keyboard

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability. AbilityNet is a UK charity that exists to change the lives of disabled people by helping them to use digital technology at work, at home or in education.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website aren't fully accessible:

  • Some of our older embedded videos do not have captions or audio description
  • A small number of older PDFs may not fully meet accessibility standards
  • Embedded third-party widgets do not meet accessibility standards – where possible, we remove these or replace them.
    • For example, Disqus commenting, Google maps, YouTube

What to do if you can’t access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF or large print etc:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5-7 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: web.accessibility@london.ac.uk

When contacting us, please provide: 

  • Page URL (web page address)
  • Issue encountered (and if on mobile or desktop)
  • Any particular software or assistive technology being used (for example browser, screen reader)

We will aim to respond as quickly as possible and, if applicable, add a fix to our website bug fix schedule.

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

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

Compliance Status

This website is partially compliant with the AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below. 

The items below were identified in the most recent testing (6 November 2023). They have been fixed as of 14 November 2023 and awaiting retesting by AbilityNet.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Accessibility items are being regularly reviewed and addressed through the use of automated testing tools and website improvements through our development deployment processes.

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

PDFs and other documents

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. We are continually working on fixing these essential documents or replacing them with accessible html web pages or fully accessible PDFs. 

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.

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

Live video

Live video streams during graduation 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.

Exceptions

Discover Uni widget

University of London is aware of accessibility issues with the Discover Uni widget, but is required to embed it in certain undergraduate course pages.

How we tested this website

Our website was tested in October 2023. 

We tested a sample of pages on our main website at www.london.ac.uk :

  • Homepage
    • Including main navigation and footer navigation
    • All components therein
  • Site search page
  • Course finder/search page
    • All components therein
  • Course page
    • All components therein
  • Intercollegiate Halls page
    • All components therein
  • Blog article page
    • All components therein
  • A page containing all of the available in-page components 

We have worked with a specialist accessibility agency, AbilityNet, to conduct a thorough accessibility review and implement any necessary changes to content, website design and structure.

The team incorporate the WCAG 2.1 AA standard into every stage of development when designing and building new pages.

Our website is tested weekly using an automated accessibility tool provided by Silk Tide. This tool tests our whole website (under the primary domain of https://www.london.ac.uk/) and it provides a report on accessibility issues. We work with our internal and external resources to address any accessibility issues as soon as is realistically possible.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We want our website to offer the best experience possible for all of our users.

  • We have redesigned and redeveloped our website in 2023.
  • We developed and launched a series of e-learning modules for all University of London staff, around accessibility.
  • We are upskilling website editors and content contributors before website editing privileges are given.
  • We are establishing a new website publishing model to check the accessibility of content before it is published to the live website.
  • We have recently updated our content guidelines to include accessibility.
  • We will be encouraging our content editors to reduce the high volume of web pages so that auditing activities can be more easily managed.
  • We have improved our procurement processes and work with third party suppliers to improve the accessibility of other digital platforms and services. Standard accessibility statements have been added to our procurement documentation when dealing with new service providers.

Preparation of the statement

This statement was originally prepared on 20 September 2019. It was last updated on Monday 13 November 2023.