Website accessibility
The REACH Programme at the School of Geography and the Environment (SoGE), University of Oxford, is committed to providing an accessible web presence that gives members of the public and members of the University community full access to our information, courses and activities offered publicly through the web. This accessibility statement applies to the REACH website: reachwater.org.uk
How accessible is this website?
In order to ensure that all of our visitors can use our website, these webpages aim to meet Level-AA standard of WCAG 2.1.
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- Our publications (under Resources) are currently in PDF format and are not fully accessible;
- The website is not fully keyboard navigable;
- In certain pages of the REACH website, contrast is below 4.5:1;
- Currently links are only distinguishable by colour, and are not underlined;
- Link text is not always meaningful, for example button links on the landing page (‘learn more’), and on each individual resource page (‘Download’).
- Videos and audio content made prior to September 23rd 2020 do not have transcripts;
Making changes to your device or system
AbilityNet has advice on making your devices easier to use if you have a disability. In addition, major operating systems produce the following guidance:
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 webpage or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, please contact the REACH Communications and Knowledge Exchange Manager at reach@water.ox.ac.uk.
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).
Other accessibility resources
If you’d like more information about accessibility and resources for students, staff and visitors in Oxford more generally, please visit the University’s Equality and Diversity webpages.
If you’re looking for information on building accessibility, please try the University’s Access Guide or the University’s interactive map.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
The REACH Programme at the University of Oxford is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. As part of this commitment, we are required to publish known issues with our website.
The REACH website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the known issues listed under ‘Non-accessible content’ below.
How we tested this website
This website was last tested during August and September 2020. An audit was carried out internally, using automated testing tools together with a manual check of a carefully chosen sample of webpages and content types.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We want our website to offer the best experience possible for all of our users. In addition to our plan to fix known issues, we continue to work on improving the website content and structure. We are working with our content providers and website developer to ensure that future content and versions of this website are accessible.
We will continue to review the website on a regular basis, perform an annual audit, and check all new content.
Related information
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Issues with documents and publications
Most of our publications, featuring under the Resources page, in particular PDFs, don’t meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be marked up so that they’re accessible to a screen reader (WCAG 2.1 4.1.2).
No official or authoritative information should be solely provided in these documents and alternative formats for documents provided on this website are available on request. The accessibility regulations don’t require us to fix documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.
We are working towards making REACH publications prepared in-house, published after 23rd September 2018, either accessible or making their content available on an accessible webpage. Every new REACH document prepared in-house we publish, will either be accessible, or we will provide a version via an accessible webpage.
We also upload as PDF publications that were prepared by our partners (reports, policy briefs), or journal articles published by external journals. These publications are third party content, and although we have no control over how they were prepared we will encourage our partners to make these documents accessible.
Issues with keyboard navigation
The website currently isn’t fully keyboard operable. For instance, there is currently an issue with accessing drop-down menus using the keyboard only. Separately, the focus indicator is not currently visible, making it difficult to identify where the focus is on the page. This is an issue with the internal code of the website, and we will work with our website developer to fix this issue.
If you are struggling to access any information on the website, please contact the REACH Communications and Knowledge Exchange Management: reach@water.ox.ac.uk.
Issues with text/background contrast on certain page
Certain sections on the REACH website do not meet the Level-AA standard of WCAG 2.1 for contrast at small resolutions. For example, the text in the menu bar is white on a turquoise background [contrast 2,75:1]; links currently appear turquoise on a white background [contrast 2,75:1]; and text on our link buttons either appear white on turquoise [contrast 2,75:1], or white on orange [1.9:1].
These colours were set as our branding colours in 2015. We will review the use of the brand colours when we redevelop the website in the future.
Issues with links
Links are currently only distinguishable by colour, and therefore do not meet the Level-AA standard of WCAG 2.1. We will work with our website developer to fix this issue, ensuring that links are distinguishable by an underline in addition to colour.
Separately, some link text is not currently meaningful. This includes links that feature as part of buttons, for example the ‘Learn more’ buttons on the landing page, or the ‘Download’ buttons as part of individual resources. Buttons on the REACH website are elements that require a specific code, and again we will work with our website developer to fix this.
Issues with video and audio
Not all video and audio contents have captions or text description (WCAG 2.1 1.2). Any new audio or video we embed will meet accessibility standards.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
Third party content
Our website may include third party content and functionality. We are not responsible for the accessibility of third party content or to other websites we link to.
Where we are legally required to feature third party content or functionality, we cannot reasonably accept responsibility for ensuring it meets accessibility standards. However, where it is within our control, we will make every reasonable effort to work towards meeting accessibility requirements.
Third party platforms
We may create content which is hosted on third party platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Flicker and other social media platforms, as well as content or data we supply to others).
We are responsible for ensuring the content we supply meets accessibility requirements; however, we are not responsible for the accessibility of the third-party platform itself.
This statement was prepared on 16 September 2020. It was last updated on 24 Sep 2020.
