Accessibility Statement

Accessibility Statement for The Gatehouse at Robert Gordon University

This accessibility statement applies to thegatehouseagency.co.uk.

This website is run by Robert Gordon University. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • 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
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • you cannot modify the line height or spacing of text
  • older PDF and Word documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • live video streams do not have captions
  • some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard

Feedback and Contact Information

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website and welcome your feedback.

Contact: design_studio@rgu.ac.uk if you:

  • Need information on this website in a different format
  • Find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 10 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, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

Accessible Contact

BSL users can contact staff at the university via contactSCOTLAND-BSL, the online British Sign Language interpreting video relay service. Find out more on the contactSCOTLAND website. Our offices have audio induction loops, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to contact us

University Student Services

The Service has an Enabling Technology Adviser, who provides training in the use of enabling technologies such as digital recording equipment and TextHELP Read and Write Gold software. If you require specific software to support your studies, please contact the Enabling Technology Adviser on +44 (0) 1224 262103 or email inclusion@rgu.ac.uk

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Robert Gordon 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. There are some issues that we either need to fix, cannot fix, or do not need to fix right now.

The issues are:

  • Non-accessible Content – we will work on fixing these
  • Disproportionate Burden – we can’t fix these
  • Content which is outwith the scope of the regulations – we don’t need to fix these

If you find something that does not work, contact us.

Non-accessible content

The content listed is non-accessible for the following reasons:

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Older documents downloadable from the website are not fully compliant. [see Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations]
  • Some PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services, for example, PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents.

Many of these have more complex design requirements which come with a cost. Along with this we are developing knowledge and understanding of producing accessible documents and we cannot yet assure all documents will be accessible.

We will either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages as pages and documents are reviewed. We also plan to raise awareness of document accessibility issues across the university with all staff and regularly review new documents that are being uploaded.

  • Some images do not have a text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (non-text content).

We plan to add text alternatives for all images as we review each page. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

  • We link to Application Forms and Enquiry Forms which are currently not fully accessible.

We are in the process of fixing these and they will be ready for the end October 2020.

Disproportionate burden

Interactive tools and transactions

  • Some of our interactive forms may be difficult to navigate using a keyboard.
    For example, if form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag.
  • Our forms are built and hosted through third party software and ‘skinned’ to look like our website. Occasionally elements may fail WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (information and relationships).
  • Some of our interactive tools and transactions are the responsibility of a third party contractor. We are reliant on the supplier providing a product that is compliant. It would be a huge undertaking to audit everything web-enabled that the university uses. The cost of auditing all such suppliers used by the university at this time would therefore be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

We will undertake to specifically review for accessibility compliance when supplier contracts are up for renewal.

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

PDFs and other documents

  • Problems with documents which were produced prior to September 2018 falls outwith the scope of the accessibility standards.
  • Many of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).
  • 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 or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards, subject to resource burden to monitor.

Third Party Sites

  • Some forms and other interactive elements that we link to are the responsibility of third party sites.
    We are not responsible for the accessibility of these or any other websites which we do not manage or have a contractual relationship with the supplier and therefore they are outwith the scope of the regulations. For those third parties where we have a contractual relationship, we will undertake to specifically review for accessibility compliance when supplier contracts are up for renewal.

For those third parties where we have a contractual relationship, we will undertake to specifically review for accessibility compliance when supplier contracts are up for renewal.

Live video

  • Live video streams do not have captions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.4 (captions – live).

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.

Maps

  • Our website displays some maps. Where there is a map, the information being displayed is provided in an alternative format on the same web page. For example, on our transport and parking page we have a map to help visitors to navigate the campus.

If you cannot read the map, we also have our address listed and full contact information if you need help finding us. We have also provided public transport and satnav information for visitors so that they don’t need to use a map.

How we tested this website

We test the entire website regularly using a third party tool, Siteimprove. This tool allows us to identify non-compliant content and provides details on how to fix. Wherever possible, we fix the issues encountered within 2 months of running the test.

We also test new areas of the website with this tool to ensure that our content is compliant on publication.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23rd September 2020. It was last updated on 23rd September 2020.