Accessibility statement

Accessibility Statement for Creative Connect

This website is run by the University of Lincoln. We want everyone using our website to have as good an experience as possible.

We have therefore applied the following accessibility standards to ensure that all users —either directly from their browser or using a plugin or assistive technology — can navigate the site and access its content.

User controls

Viewing

You can change the colours and contrast levels using the default controls within your browser.

You can also change the font and magnify the page to a maximum of 500% without text or links spilling off the screen.

Navigating

The web page can be navigated using keyboard controls. The current link is also highlighted by a change in border colour. Use your keyboard to skip links.

Users of screen readers can also get a list of all links on a page and understand their purpose from the link text.

Listening

Use text to speech browser plugins or screen reader assistive technologies to listen to any content selected using the mouse or keyboard.

Screen readers can also help you to listen to the site content and navigate around it using menu items.

Devices

Advice on using different devices on websites is available on the My Way website.

How accessible is this website?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) define requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. The guidelines define three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below. Partially conformant means that some parts of the content do not fully conform to the accessibility standard.

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

Student submitted content

This site consists of content submitted by University of Lincoln students, including imagery. Any imagery submitted will be for personal profiles only and therefore decorative and do not restrict the use of the Creative Connect adverts. We also have a team of student moderators who check submissions to ensure that adverts are suitable for all audiences.

Any content linked to will be hosted on external platforms and we are dependent on the accessibility features within the embedding tools provided by these platforms for this kind of content. Students will have published this content on these platforms themselves and we therefore have no direct control over whether subtitles or other accessibility features have been provided by students.

Advert Listing – Redundant links

The advert listing page contains duplicate links for each advert which link to the same page – they are therefore classed as redundant links. Each advert tile links to the corresponding advert, however each time also has a ‘Find out more’ link that also links to the corresponding advert. This has been done to give users viewing the site easier access to student showcases.

Terms of use page

This page contains a link to a PDF which may have accessibility issues.

Submitting an Advert Form

1. Missing form labels – Labels are missing from ? elements at the base of the form, which means that screen readers may pick these up. The form has been set up in this way to store dynamic values that cannot be seen by the user, e.g. the “?” and “?” selected by the user from the drop-downs on the form.
2. Orphaned form labels – The Showcase creation form contains ? orphaned labels that are not directly associated with their corresponding field. These labels will be picked up by screen readers but can be skipped and their corresponding detail/action will immediately follow. This is a result of how the third party tool used to build the form constructs the visual layout of the form.
3. Uploading content: the form does not allow users to submit image or music content to the ‘drag and drop’ file upload when using a screen reader or keyboard rather than a mouse. We have raised this issue with the third party form developer and are awaiting an update that will fix the issue. In the meantime, please complete the Report form if you require assistance with this element of the form or if you have any issues with uploading content.
4. Empty links:

What to do if you have a problem

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you encounter specific accessibility problems or issues with any of the content published on this site, please use the site Report form to let us know and we will do everything we can to rectify it.

If you have any other feedback on the accessibility of the Creative Showcase, please contact us via the following methods:

• Phone: +44 (0)1522 88200
• E-mail: wordpress@lincoln.ac.uk
• Postal address: Digital Education & Student Life, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln LN6 7TS

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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The University of Lincoln is committed to making its websites accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

We aim to respond to feedback within 5 working days.

How we tested the site

This site was last tested in September 2019 by staff at the University of Lincoln using the Wave Web Accessibility tool and Lighthouse developer tool.