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Accessibility
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
We are committed to making our website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed below.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
Several links across the website are not as descriptive as they could be such as our latest news sections and some links in news and events pages. This fails WCAG 2.4.4 Link Purpose (A). We are currently working through our templates and webpages to improve how the link descriptions are generated.
The apply via live chat for live chat popup is not accessible via keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard (A). The live chat feature is managed by a third-party named Zendesk. We have raised this issue with their support team.
In some places our links are not visually distinguished from surrounding text by means other than colour. This fails WCAG 1.4.1 Use of Colour (A). We are currently identifying these links and amending their styling.
Disproportionate burden
At this time, we have made no claims of disproportionate burden.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
Portable Document Format (PDF) and other documents
The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23rd September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. Some documents created and owned by organisations outside of St Mary’s University that have been published on our website after 23rd September 2018 may not be fully accessible. We are currently working through all documents uploaded since 23rd September 2018 to ensure that they are fully accessible.
Pre-existing video content
We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
Some of our older videos don’t have accurate edited captions or transcripts. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.1 (audio-only and video-only pre-recorded), 1.2.2 (captions pre-recorded), 1.2.3 (audio description or media alternative pre-recorded) and 1.2.5 (audio description pre-recorded). The regulations do not apply to recorded videos published before 23rd September 2020.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on Wednesday 22nd July 2020. It was last reviewed on 11th February 2021.
This website was last tested internally on 13th January 2021. A comprehensive sample of webpages were tested.
This website was last tested externally on 14th August 2020 and was carried out by All Able Ltd.
All pages of the website were tested along with a sample of the documents from each area of the website.