Website accessibility

Technical information about this website's accessibility

Kingston 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

We are developing a new University website with planned completion by July 2024. The new website will be fully compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 AA standard and will resolve these issues.

• Screen readers – Some content will not be easy for screen readers to process correctly. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). When we publish new content we'll make sure that this meets accessibility standards. Some of our main image menus do not have adequate discernible names which may make it more difficult for people using a screen reader. This fails WCAG: 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (link purpose) and WCAG: 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role, value). This issue will be resolved with the new website.
• Descriptive alt text – Some older images are not consistently labelled with descriptive alt text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). When we publish new images we'll make sure these all meet accessibility standards. Feature/Banner images on our old style webpages do not have descriptive alt text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).
  This issue will be resolved with the new website.
• Audio description – Some older videos do not have audio description. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Pre-recorded). When we publish new content we'll make sure all our videos meet accessibility standards.
• Documents – Older documents may not be compliant with accessibility standards. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). When we publish new documents we'll make sure these all meet accessibility standards, or create these documents as HTML pages.
• PDFs – Older documents may not be compliant with accessibility standards. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content). When we publish new documents we'll make sure these all meet accessibility standards or create these documents as HTML pages.
• Minimum contrast – Colour contrast may not be sufficient on some webpages which could make these pages difficult to read for some users with visual impairments. This fails WCAG: 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 (minimum contrast). This issue will be resolved with the new website.
• Keyboard – Our accordion menus are not accessible using a keyboard so people using a screen reader may find navigating some pages on our website difficult. This fails WCAG: 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 (keyboard). This issue will be resolved with the new website.
  When webpages are viewed at 200%, 400% and in mobile view, the hamburger menu is not accessible using the keyboard. This fails WCAG: 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1 (keyboard). There is an alternative accessible menu at the bottom of the page. This issue will be resolved with the new website.

Disproportionate burden

We are not at this time making a disproportionate burden claim for any of our website content.

Navigation and accessing information

There's no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content' option).

Interactive tools and transactions

• Some of our forms are built and hosted through third party software and ‘skinned' to look like our website.
• Some third-party software integrations such as Twitter for Websites contains elements with incorrect ARIA attributes which can interfere with the accessibility of the web page.

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

• PDFs and other documents – 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 documents published before 23 September 2018 where an updated accessible version has also been published.
• Live video – We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.We do not plan to add captions to video content that has been published before 23 September 2018 but we will ensure that all new video content that is published on the website includes captions.