Accessibility statement for qmu.ac.uk
This accessibility statement applies to qmu.ac.uk.
This website is run by Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. 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 just a keyboard
- navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
- listen to most of the website using a screen reader
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 know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- some content is not accessible using a keyboard
- most components on our website do not highlight on focus
- some of our online forms are difficult to navigate and interact with using a screen reader
- some images do not have text alternatives
- most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
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 website@qmu.ac.uk. We’ll consider your request and get back to you as quick as we can, normally within five 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 our Web Team at website@qmu.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).
Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
Contacting us by phone
You can call us on 0131 474 0000. contactSCOTLAND-BSL runs a service for British Sign Language users and all of Scotland’s public bodies using video relay. This enables sign language users to contact public bodies and vice versa. The service operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Visiting us in person
Our campus has audio induction loops in some areas, and if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter. We also have accessible accommodation, toilets and parking.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Queen Margaret 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.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
The following items do not comply with the WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria, however we are working to fix these.
Non-text content
Some images (such as flag icons) do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. We are working to add text alternatives to all images, and when we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.
Some of our WAI-ARIA ‘aria-label’ attributes are not descriptive of the elements they are labelling. We are currently undertaking a review of these labels and are planning to fix them.
Information and relationships
HTML is used to format some content. We have identified these errors and are working to fix them.
On some of our forms, input fields have no description. This will make our forms harder to use for those using our site with assistive technologies. We are creating descriptions that can be explicitly associated with these fields, so our users know what each field is for.
On some of our forms, elements are not logically grouped.
Some pages have duplicate element IDs. We have identified these errors and are working to fix them.
Some of the select boxes in our drop-down menus have no description. We are creating descriptions for these to make our website easier to use for those with assistive technologies.
Some content on some of our pages are not included in HTML5 or WAI-ARIA landmarks. Some of our pages have duplicate landmark names, and some pages have two or more landmarks of the same type that have not been named. Users might not know the difference if it is somehow explained. We have identified these errors and are working to fix them.
Some of our tables do not have a description. We are identifying these tables and are working to provide these.
Keyboard accessible
Some of our content is inaccessible using a keyboard. We are working to improve this.
Navigable
On some pages, the same link text is used for multiple different destinations. We are currently undertaking a review of our links and are working to fix them where necessary.
Some of our content is not highlighted on focus. With keyboard navigation, it is important that the focused component can be visually identified so the user can know which component has focus. We are working to fix this.
Name, role, value
Some of our pages have iframes which are missing a title. We have identified these elements and plan to fix them.
In some of our forms, the control label is missing text.
Disproportionate burden
We do not currently believe that any of the accessibility issues listed above will be a disproportionate burden to fix.
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 about our courses, PDFs about our regulations, policies and procedures, and forms published as Word or PDF documents. 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. For example, we do not plan to fix our Court Minutes documents that are from before 2018.
Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 11 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 30 November 2020.
This website was last tested on 29 November 2020. The test was carried out by us, using third-party tool SiteImprove. The site is automatically tested at least every five days, with a manual review every 3-4 months.
All our pages are tested automatically, however we manually review a sample of pages. We select this sample by identifying popular pages of each page template type, using traffic figures from Google Analytics.
