University of Oxford Development Office – Known Accessibility Issues

Last updated 10th September 2020

 

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible at Level-AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 for the following reasons.

 

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

 

Names and labelling

  • We are aware of some forms are not properly labelling form content, such as labelling fields. Where this is happening in forms provided by the system, we are working with our software providers on fixing these. Where this is happening in forms built in-house, we are working on updating or replacing these forms with improved accessibility.
    • This issue relates to guidelines 1.1.1 (Non-text Content), 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)), and 2.4.9 (Link Purpose (Link Only)).

 

Colour

  • Some website sections provide text over a background image, but text may not be legible if the image fails to load. We are working to update layouts to ensure that these sections have a background colour that sufficiently contrasts the overlaid text.
    • This issue relates to guideline 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)).
  • Some website sections provide text over a background image, but the image’s colours may not provide sufficient contrast against the overlaid text. We are working with website editors to ensure that images selected for such sections provide sufficient contrast, or ensure that text would still be suitably contrasted (e.g. providing an opaque background between the text and image).
    • This issue relates to guidelines 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)) and 1.4.11 (Non-text Contrast).

 

Images and photographs

  • Alternative text is used on many photograph images to provide credit to the photographer, but should be used to provide a description of the photograph. We are looking into alternative ways for website editors to conveniently present photographer credits and suitable alternative text.
    • This issue relates to guideline 1.1.1 (Non-text Content).
  • Some images have alt-text that includes HTML code. We are working on finding and removing these.
    • This issue relates to guideline 1.1.1 (Non-text Content).
  • A number of icons (both fonts and images) are missing text descriptions or labels. We are looking into improving the way these are presented, so that text descriptions can be included.
    • This issue relates to guideline 1.1.1 (Non-text Content), 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)) and 2.4.9 (Link Purpose (Link Only)).

 

Links and navigation

  • Some links are designed in a way that does not make it clear that they are links, and are missing changes of appearance when hovered with a mouse or given focus with a keyboard. We are working on updating the design to ensure that links can be clearly identified.
    • This issue relates to guideline 1.4.1 (Use of Colour), 2.4.7 (Focus Visible), and 2.4.8 (Location).
  • We are working on providing skip-links that allow screen readers and keyboard-only users to navigate directly to page content on all pages.
    • This issue relates to guideline 2.4.1 (Bypass Blocks).
  • We are reviewing page names to confirm that these are relevant to the page’s content, and clearly indicate they are part of the University of Oxford’s Development Office website.
    • This issue relates to guideline 2.4.2 (Page Titled).
  • The mobile navigation requires improvements to help screen reader users identify and use it.
    • This issue relates to guideline 1.1.1 (Non-text Content) and 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)).
  • Links that open in new windows need to clearly indicate that they will do so. We are looking into ways to automatically present this information.
    • This issue relates to guideline 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)).

 

Videos

  • Many of our videos do not include accessibility features, or rely on these being provided by the video client (e.g. YouTube’s automatically generated subtitles). Improvements are needed to ensure that our videos include subtitles (and that these correctly provide words and terms that are unusual or may be misheard), captions and descriptions, and audio descriptions are provided for non-audio content.
    • This issue relates to guidelines 1.2.2 (Captions (Pre-recorded)), 1.2.3 (Audio Description or Media Alternative (Pre-recorded), and 1.2.5 (Audio Description (Pre-recorded)).

 

Responsive and mobile design

  • Some pages and forms are built using non-responsive designs, which can make them difficult to use on small screens. Where users need to zoom in to make content readable and forms usable, users may need to use both horizontal and vertical scrolling. We are working on updating or replacing the design of these pages to make them suitably responsive without breaking form functionality.
    • This issue relates to guideline 1.4.10 (Reflow).

 

General content

  • Not all pages follow a clear heading structure (e.g. a page has a level 3 heading outside of a level 2 heading). We are working with web editors and developers to ensure that the correct headings are used, and that these are suitably presented within the page structure for both visual users and screen readers.
    • This issue relates to guideline 4.1.1 (Parsing).
  • As our website covers the development and fundraising for the University of Oxford, terms and phrases related to these areas are used and these may be unfamiliar to some website users. We are working with website editors to ensure that idioms and jargon are avoided, and where necessary definitions are provided for unfamiliar terms (including acronyms). We are also looking into ways we can provide a glossary for unfamiliar terms and phrases.
    • This issue relates to guideline 3.1.3 (Unusual Words) and 3.1.4 (Abbreviations).

 

Disproportionate burden

Some elements of our website’s system, provided by third party software, are partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below. We have assessed these issues and found that they cannot be fixed ourselves, and need to be resolved by our software’s provider or replaced by a different provider. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment when the supplier contract is up for renewal.

  • Page content is generated within a “form” element, which may affect how screen readers interpret a page’s content
    • This issue relates to guidelines 1.3.1 and 4.1.1 (Parsing)
  • Some forms are provided using layout table elements, which may be difficult for screen readers to interpret
    • This issue relates to guideline 4.1.1 (Parsing)
  • Some form fields are not properly labelled
    • This issue relates to guidelines 1.3.5 (Identify Input Purpose), 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels), and 3.2.4 (Consistent Identification)
  • Some forms have inline styling that prevent accessibility tools from changing their appearance
    • This issue relates to guidelines 1.4.1 (Use of Colour), 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), and 1.4.12 (Text Spacing)

 

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

 

PDFs and other documents

 

Return to Accessibility Statement