Website accessibility statement inline with Public Sector Body (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018
This accessibility statement applies to www.software.ac.uk.
This website is run by the University of Edinburgh as the lead partner for the Software Sustainability Institute. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this application. For example, that means you should be able to:
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts, using your browser’s settings
- 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
- access our A to Z glossary of common abbreviations and acronyms used across our website, although these are always explained when first mentioned.
We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand. However, some of our content is technical, and we use technical terms where there is no easier wording we could use without changing what the text means.
Customising the website
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability. This is an external site with suggestions to make your computer more accessible:
AbilityNet - My Computer My Way
With a few simple steps you can customise the appearance of our website using your browser settings to make it easier to read and navigate:
Additional information on how to customise our website appearance
How accessible is this website?
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- most older PDF documents aren’t fully accessible to screen reader software
- some videos don’t have captions
- accessing all content may not be possible by using the keyboard alone, where online forms can be difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
- some of the contrast on this website is too low
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format, including accessible PDF, large print, audio recording or braille, please contact the SSI Communications team by:
- email info@software.ac.uk
- telephone +44 (0)131 650 5345
- British Sign Language (BSL) users can contact us via contactSCOTLAND-BSL, the on-line BSL interpreting service.
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We are 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, please contact the SSI Communications team by:
- email info@software.ac.uk
- telephone +44 (0)131 650 5345
- British Sign Language (BSL) users can contact us via contactSCOTLAND-BSL, the on-line BSL interpreting service.
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.
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 please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) directly:
Contact details for the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS)
The government has produced information on how to report accessibility issues:
Reporting an accessibility problem on a public sector website
Contacting us by phone using British Sign Language
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.
contactSCOTLAND-BSL service details
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
The University of Edinburgh (as the lead partner of the Software Sustainability Institute) is committed to making its websites and applications 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) 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
The full guidelines are available at:
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard
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:
- Not all non-text content presented to users has alternative text
- Captions are not provided for all pre-recorded audio content in synchronized media, except when the media is a media alternative for text and is clearly labelled as such.
1.2.2 - Captions (Prerecorded)
- Audio description is not provided for all prerecorded video content in synchronized media.
1.2.5 - Audio Description (Prerecorded)
- The way the content is presented affects its meaning, and a correct reading sequence is not programmatically determined.
- There may not be sufficient colour contrast between font and background colours, especially where the text size is very small
- Information is conveyed as an image of text rather than as text itself, making it not compatible with screen readers and other assistive technology
- Visual information to identify user interface components, such as keyboard focus, do not always have a sufficient contrast ratio
- Tooltips are not present for all icons and images
1.4.13 - Content on Hover or Focus
- There are some redundant links across the website and we do not provide a warning when a link goes to an external website.
2.4.4 Link Purpose (in context)
- Some headings and labels are repeated in certain listed items.
- It is not always clear to tell where you have navigated to when you are using a keyboard
- Not all interactive elements have instructions, examples, properly positioned form labels, and/or fieldsets/legends.
3.3.2 - Labels or instructions
- Help information is not displayed
This is a list of the errors retrieved by Little Forrest's accessibility report.
| Standard | Level | Guideline | Name | Little Forest |
| WCAG 2.1 | A | 1.1.1 | Non-text context | No |
| WCAG 2.1 | A | 4.1.1 | Parsing | No |
| WCAG 2.1 | A | 1.3.1 | Info and relationships | No |
| WCAG 2.1 | AA | 3.2.1 | Language of parts | No |
| WCAG 2.1 | AA | 1.4.3 | Contrast | No |
| WCAG 2.1 | A | 2.4.1 | Bypass blocks | No |
| WCAG 2.1 | A | 4.1.2 | Name, Role, Value | No |
Unless specified otherwise, a complete solution, or significant improvement, will be in place for those items within our control by March 2022.
Disproportionate burden
We are not currently claiming that any accessibility problems would be a disproportionate burden to fix.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
PDFs
Many of our older PDFs are not fully accessible and they may not be easy to view using a screen reader. For example:
Help! My developer is running away, although we host an alternative version on the website.
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 we publish will meet accessibility standards.
Other websites hosting our resources
Some of our resources are published on external platforms such as Zenodo, Github, and ReadTheDocs. We use Eventbrite to manage our events, though all events information can be found on this website. Finally, we use Spreadshirt for the sale of our branded t-shirts.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We will continue to address the accessibility issues highlighted, alongside working to deliver a solution or suitable workaround. Unless specified otherwise, a complete solution or significant improvement will be in place for those items within our control by March 2022 .
While we are in the process of resolving these accessibility issues, or where we are unable, we will ensure reasonable adjustments are in place to make sure no user is disadvantaged. As changes are made, we will continue to review accessibility and retest the accessibility of this website.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 5th July 2019. It was last reviewed on 2nd September 2020.
This website was partially tested by the Software Sustainability Institute in September 2020, primarily using the Chrome browser alongside Mozilla Firefox and Safari for comparative purposes. Automated testing, using WAVE WebAim and Little Forest were also undertaken to supplement the findings.
We tested:
- Scaling using different resolutions
- Options to customise the interface (magnification, font, background colour etcetera)
- Warning of links opening in a new tab or window
- Information conveyed in colour or sound only
- Flashing or scrolling text
- Operability if JavaScript is disabled
- Tooltips and text alternatives for any non-text content
- Time limits
Version 2.0 of the Software Sustainability Institute website accessibility statement