Website accessibility statement

At the University of Birmingham, we want to ensure that as many people as possible can use our website, and we are working to improve our digital services.

This accessibility statement covers winterbourne.org.uk. We aim to achieve the recommended government standard for web accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA). We also test with users of varied needs and on different assistive devices.

As a user with accessible needs, you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in up to 200% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • 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 also aim to make 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 know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. We are working on these parts of the site and are committed to producing an accessible site for all users. Those parts with accessibility problems are as follows:

  • some elements don’t highlight on focus
  • some images are missing alt text
  • the colour contrast on some page elements is insufficient to be easily discernible for all users
  • some links do not have a discernible name
  • some links are only identified by colour
  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software

What to do if you cannot access parts of this website

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please email [email protected].

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website and are continuing to audit our content. If you find something that you are unable to access, or we have failed to identify a barrier, please let us know.

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please email [email protected].

Enforcement procedure

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 [email protected].

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

Winterbourne House and Garden is committed to making its 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 version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Some elements do not highlight on focus, so it’s not always clear for people using a keyboard to navigate to identify which component has focus. This fails WCAG 2.1 ‘AA’ success criterion 2.4.7 (Focus Visible).
    • We plan to add focus highlighting to all components by September 2020.
  • Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 ‘A’ success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
    • We plan to add text alternatives for all images by September 2020. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.
  • Colour contrast is insufficient on some elements across the site, so some people may find it difficult to distinguish between these elements and the background. This fails WCAG 2.1 ‘AA’ success criterion 1.4.3 (contrast (minimum)).
    • We plan to make all colours meet the contrast ratio of least 4.5:1 by September 2020.
  • Some links do not have discernible names, so people using assistive technology (such as a screen reader) may not be able to distinguish between links. This fails WCAG 2.1 ‘A’ 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)).
    • We plan to make sure all links are distinguishable by September 2020.
  • Some links are only identifiable by colour. This fails WCAG ‘A’ 1.4.1 (Use of Colour).
    • We will make sure that links will have other visual indicators besides colour, such as an underline, by September 2020.

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

PDFs and other documents

Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).

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.

How we tested this website

This website was last tested on 30 September 2019. The test was carried out by University staff using a selection of automated tools, which include:

as well as manual checks.

We tested the following pages as they contain the main features across the site and cover the different page templates used.

This statement was prepared on 30 September 2019. It was last updated on 01 October 2019.