Accessibility statement

Accessibility statement

This statement applies to the website of The Art of Dying Well https://www.artofdyingwell.org/

This website is run by St Mary’s University, Twickenham. 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:

  • The contrast between some foreground and background colours may not be strong enough
  • Many of the site’s page have no landmark coded, which would denote the main content area of each page.
  • Some of the site’s links do not have distinguishable text descriptions and are only marked by icons.
  • Some of the site’s links do not have clear descriptive purpose.
  • Some of site’s content is mistakenly coded as a heading, when it doesn’t in fact serve as a heading.
  • The site’s search form doesn’t use correct accessible labelling.
  • The site’s search form: when a search returns no results, there’s no message to tell a user that clearly.
  • The site’s user forms aren’t clearly labelled.
  • There are areas marked up with duplicate IDs within tags, this potentially confusing screen-reading software
  • Problems with multimedia content: some video captions are incomplete, missing or obscured

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 10 days.

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 page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact the IT Service Desk:

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

We are committed to making our website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 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

The contrast between some foreground and background colours may not be strong enough. We are working with a developer to fix this problem.

Many of the site’s page have no landmark coded, which would denote the main content area of each page. We are working with a developer to fix this problem.

Some of the site’s links do not have distinguishable text descriptions and are only marked by icons. We are working with a developer to fix this problem.

Some of the site’s links do not have clear descriptive purpose. We are working with a developer to fix this problem.

Some of site’s content is mistakenly coded as a heading, when it doesn’t in fact serve as a heading. We are working with a developer to fix this problem.

The site’s search form doesn’t use correct accessible labelling. We are working with a developer to fix this problem.

The site’s search form: when a search returns no results, there’s no message to tell a user that clearly. We are working with a developer to fix this problem.

The site’s user forms aren’t clearly labelled. Labels must be added to help assistive software. We are working with a developer to fix this problem.

Some images have not been correctly identified as ‘meaningful’ or ‘decorative’. We plan to code all images as either meaningful or decorative. When we publish new content we’ll make sure our use of images meets accessibility standards.

Some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard. We are working with a developer to fix this problem.

We are working with a developer to fix this problem.

There are areas marked up with duplicate IDs within tags, this potentially confusing screen-reading software. We are working with a developer to fix this problem.

Problems with multimedia content: some video captions are incomplete, missing or obscured, including on the home page. Podcasts are have no text alternative. We are working with a developer to see if this can be corrected.

Navigation and accessing information

A user cannot skip past repeating content blocks to the main content when using a screen reader. We are working with a developer to fix this problem.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are working with a developer to fix the problems outlined above. We expect this project to be complete by Jan 31st 2021, but will post further updates when necessary.

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

Portable Document Format (PDF) and other documents

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23rd September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. We are currently working through all documents uploaded since 23rd September 2018 to ensure that they are fully accessible.

Pre-existing video content

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

Some of our older videos don’t have accurate edited captions or transcripts. This doesn’t meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.1 (audio-only and video-only pre-recorded), 1.2.2 (captions pre-recorded), 1.2.3 (audio description or media alternative pre-recorded) and 1.2.5 (audio description pre-recorded). The regulations do not apply to recorded videos published before 23rd September 2020

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 22nd Sep 2020. It was last reviewed on 22nd Sep 2020.

This website was last tested on 12 Aug 2020. The test was carried out by the Technology & Application Services department of St Mary’s University.

A sample of pages from the site were tested – the sample represents all the main templates controlling the different content types of the site.

The Art of Dying Well