Accessibility

This accessibility statement applies to the Staffordshire University website at www.staffs.ac.uk. Websites on other domains and subdomains have their own accessibility statement available directly from those sites. 

This website is run by Staffordshire University. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that 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 speech recognition software 

• listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver) 

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.

How accessible this website is 

We are currently in the process of rolling out a new design for our website and know some parts of the legacy design are not fully accessible: 

• Some pages may have minor accessibility issues, although the critical content of the page should still be accessible. Please contact us if you find a specific issue that means you cannot access a piece of information. 

We are also aware there are some remaining issues with the website on the new platform: 

• The whole page is contained in a form. This is a limitation of our Content Management System, but forms in the page content can be navigated to via landmarks.

Feedback and contact information 

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille: 

• email marketing@staffs.ac.uk 

• call +44 (0)1782 294000 

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

Reporting accessibility problems with this website 

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact the Web Team in Marketing and Communications via marketing@staffs.ac.uk 

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 

Staffordshire University 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 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 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.

• On our legacy web pages where we have a large image at the top of the page with the page heading in white text overlaid on the top of the image, sometimes there is not sufficient contrast between the text and the image which has been used. In the new web design which is currently being rolled out, the page heading on the image is placed on a strong background colour to prevent this issue and provide sufficient colour contrast to ensure readability. We plan to switch all pages to use the new design by 2024.
• When the legacy global menu is zoomed in at 200%, the tab goes through the list in the hamburger menu even when the menu is not open and selected. This menu will be replaced by the new design menu which does not have this zoom issue by 2024.
• Some of our legacy button colours (maroon and pink) do not provide sufficient colour contrast when in focus using a keyboard, so it it is difficult to see which button is currently selected. These buttons are gradually being phased out with a new design and we aim to have replaced all buttons with the new ones by 2024.
• Our legacy course/subject finder has an issue when zoomed in at 400% when using keyboard control only. It is not possible to select the 'Read more' link with the keyboard so the full list of subjects cannot be navigated using this method. This issue will be fixed with a new version of this component which will be rolled out across the site by September 2023.
• When using the site search with a screenreader, the options that are read out may not make logical sense. We plan to fix this issue by 2024. 

Disproportionate burden 

Interactive tools and transactions 

• Some forms are built and hosted through third party software, but we try to minimise this for essential services. These forms may not meet certain Level AA accessibility criteria. 
• We utilise code provided by YouTube to embed videos into our site. When using a keyboard, the focus is not very clear due to colour contrast. We are unable to change this as it is part of the styling provided by YouTube. Also, video titles can sometimes not have sufficient colour contrast with the background image which YouTube chooses for the video.

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 containing information on university policies and academic regulations. By September 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages. 

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 

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

What we’re doing to improve accessibility 

We periodically review the accessibility of our website using auditing tools such as Siteimprove. As the content on the university website is devolved to numerous web authors throughout the institution, we also train and advise those staff on best practice for creating accessible content. 

Preparation of this accessibility statement 

This statement was prepared on 11 May 2020. It was last reviewed on 12 September 2023. 

This website was last tested in May 2021. The test was carried out by the Web Team in Marketing and Communications. 

We tested a sample of pages across the site which are representative of all the types of content we have on the site. The page sample included: 

• Home page
• Course pages
• Landing pages
• Generic content pages
• News and event pages
• Forms
• Search