Accessibility Known Issues

Issues with video, audio and images

Video

Not all video only content has a transcript, making the content inaccessible to users who cannot see. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.1.

• We are working to develop transcripts for all video only content

Not all video with audio content has captions that are synchronised to the audio content of the video, making them inaccessible to people who cannot hear. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.2.

• We are working to ensure that captions for all video with audio content are synchronised

Not all video with audio content has an audio description that describes the visual content of the video, making this inaccessible to people who can't see. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.5.

• We are working to develop audio descriptions that describes the visual content for all video with audio content

Some video or animation content may contain content that flashes more than three times a second. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.3.1.

• We are working to ensure that all video and animation content containing content that flashes more than three times a second is removed or replaced with compliant content

Audio

Not all audio only files have a transcript, making the content inaccessible to website users who cannot hear. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.1.

• We are working to ensure that all audio only files have transcripts

Images

Some images do not have a meaningful text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1.

• We are working to ensure that all images have meaningful text alternative. Purely decorative images will have blank alt text and infographics and charts will have a link to a full description of the content

Some images include text as part of the image, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.5.

• We are working to ensure that all images containing text have a suitable text alternative

Issue with navigation, structure, links and keyboard operability

Navigation

Not all page titles are unique or indicate the page's topic or purpose, which can result in people with cognitive disabilities being unable to quickly orientate themselves within the site and identify the purpose of the page without interpreting its entire contents. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2.

• We are working to ensure that all page titles are unique, clear and descriptive

Some pages use tables without header rows to structure content, making them less accessible to people using assistive technology. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1.

• We are working to fix pages containing this issue

Structure

Not all headings are hierarchical, making the site more difficult for users of assistive technology such as screen readers to access. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1.

• We are working to fix pages containing this issue

Headings have on occasion been used to highlight information rather than for headings, making the site more difficult for users of assistive technology to use. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.3.1 and 2.4.6.

• We are working to fix pages containing this issue

The content of some pages is not in logical order if the styling is removed through use of assistive technologies. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.2.

• We are working to fix pages containing this issue

Heading have on occasion been used to highlight information rather than for headings, making the site more difficult for users of assistive technology to use. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.3.1 and 2.4.6.

• We are working to fix pages containing this issue

Links

Some links do not use text that is meaningful out of context, which can result in users of screen readers not being able to understand the link without reading the surrounding text and users of speech recognition software being less able to target links accurately using voice commands. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4.

• We are working to make links meaningful out of context

Some links to external sites open in a new browser window and some open in the same browser window making the site behaviour unpredictable, which can result in the site being less accessible for people with some cognitive disabilities and people who use screen readers. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.2.2.

• We are working to ensure all links to external websites open in the same browser window

Keyboard operability

Carousels do not have obvious controls for users to stop the auto-rotate, which can cause people with cognitive disability that affect focus and concentration to be distracted making the site less accessible. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.2.2.

• We are working with our developers to implement fixes for these keyboard operability issues

Issues with contrast, use of colour and visual characteristics

Contrast

Some elements have low contrast levels (e.g. image copyright), which can result in text being difficult to read, especially for people with low vision, poor eyesight or colour blindness. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.4.3.

• We are working with our developers to implement a fix for this issue

Colour

Some pages use colour as the sole way to convey important information, which means that users who cannot see colour are unable to perceive the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.1.

• We are working to fix pages containing this issue

Visual characteristics

Some pages use visual characteristics (shape, size, colour or location) to communicate instructions, which means that users who are unable to see or recognise information communicated using sensory characteristics are unable to perceive that information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.3.

• We are working to fix pages containing this issue

Issues with content, documents & content management system

Content

The line height, spacing between paragraphs and letter and word spacing cannot be changed without loss of content or functionality. This means that people with low vision, dyslexia or cognitive disabilities may struggle to read the text, or lose content or functionality. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.12.

When using mobile or tablet devices, it may not be possible to dismiss or interact with some extra content (i.e. pop-up images) without moving focus or it disappearing. This may cause problems for disabled or sight impaired users as pop-up content may be accidentally triggered or pop-up content may not stay on the screen. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.13.

• We are working with our developers to implement fixes for these issues

Documents

Many of the documents (including Word, PowerPoints and PDFs) on this site do not meet accessibility standards, which could result in them not being fully accessible to users of screen readers.

• Documents that are essential to the service we provide will be either converted to HTML pages or replaced with accessible versions

Issues with Content Management System (CMS)

The CMS code is being checked to ensure that it meets the robust accessibility criteria 4.1.1, 4.1.2 & 4.1.3.

• This will be done as part of an accessibility upgrade of the Haiku Content Management System

Disproportionate burden

We do not consider any of the accessibility issues to be a disproportionate burden.

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

Third-party content

Our site includes third party content and functionality. This may direct you to a related service, link to another site or supporting documentation. We are not responsible for the accessibility of third-party content or to other sites we link to.

This includes:

• YouTube videos
• Sound Cloud audio files
• Google maps

We will provide an accessible alternative to any third-party content that isn’t compliant.

Third party platforms

We often create content which is hosted on third party platforms. This includes:

• content we create for social media
• video which we host on YouTube, SoundCloud or Vimeo
• data we supply to national databases

We are responsible for ensuring the content we supply meets accessibility requirements; however, we are not responsible for the accessibility of the platform itself.

Documents

This site has a number of documents which were published before September 2018. These aren’t essential to the service we provide and won’t be replaced. If you experience any difficulties accessing these documents, please email communications@medsci.ox.ac.uk.

Video and audio content

This site has pre-recorded audio and video content that was published before 23 September 2020, which is exempt from the accessibility regulations as it does not contain instructional content.

Archived content

This site contains archived content, which is exempt from the accessibility regulations. The archived content is all internal announcements and external news stories published prior to 23 September 2018, but which have not since been updated.