Skip to content

Conversation

liamjberrisford
Copy link
Collaborator

First draft of the accessibility statement for the CfRR central website.

Copy link

github-actions bot commented Jul 31, 2025

🚦 Pa11y Accessibility Report

Running Pa11y on 1 URLs:

file:///__w/CfRR_Courses/CfRR_Courses/_build/html/cfrr_program_details/accessibility.html - 0 errors

✔ 1/1 URLs passed

⚠️ Any errors likely originate from the source file (e.g., filename.md, filename.ipynb).

_toc.yml Outdated
Copy link

@JeremyPike JeremyPike Aug 4, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

@liamjberrisford what was the starting point/template for the statement? It seems to differ from the model template I just found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/model-accessibility-statement

Copy link
Collaborator Author

@liamjberrisford liamjberrisford Aug 4, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Because WCAG 2.2 is the official W3C standard, I based our accessibility statement on their documentation (https://www.w3.org/WAI/planning/statements/), and so there was no copy and paste start like the link you provided. They do have their own accessibility statement generation tool, though. The thinking was that since we are following the W3C’s WCAG 2.2 guidance, it makes sense also to use their guidance for the statement. From a quick Google search, it appears that gov.uk uses WCAG 2.2 as its baseline, with additional requirements for accessibility beyond WCAG 2.2? As a part of the university should we be using the Gov.UK template statement?

Copy link
Collaborator Author

@liamjberrisford liamjberrisford Aug 4, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

It does seem that the University would class a public organisation however, and so maybe we should be moving to complying with Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 etc aswell as just WCAG 2.2?

Copy link

@JeremyPike JeremyPike Aug 5, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Because WCAG 2.2 is the official W3C standard, I based our accessibility statement on their documentation (https://www.w3.org/WAI/planning/statements/), and so there was no copy and paste start like the link you provided. They do have their own accessibility statement generation tool, though. The thinking was that since we are following the W3C’s WCAG 2.2 guidance, it makes sense also to use their guidance for the statement. From a quick Google search, it appears that gov.uk uses WCAG 2.2 as its baseline, with additional requirements for accessibility beyond WCAG 2.2? As a part of the university should we be using the Gov.UK template statement?

Interesting thanks - either is probably fine - I suggested the Gov.uk template as it was linked to from the UoE guidance: https://www.exeter.ac.uk/staff/web/web-accessibility-training/legislation/accessibility-statements-for-websites/ - Ill try to do a bit more digging

Copy link

@JeremyPike JeremyPike Aug 5, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

It does seem that the University would class a public organisation however, and so maybe we should be moving to complying with Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 etc aswell as just WCAG 2.2?

This page may help:

https://www.exeter.ac.uk/staff/web/web-accessibility-training/legislation/introduction/

I think WCAG are used as PSBAR assessment criteria

Copy link
Collaborator Author

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Ah, perfect, that’s exactly what I needed. I got lost in the student-facing accessibility materials and never stumbled on that material.

Copy link
Collaborator Author

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I have updated the statement to follow the gov.uk guidance. I am not 100% sure what to put for the "Feedback and contact information" and the "Non-accessible content" sections and so have left them out for now until we get some advice. I'm also not 100% sure if feedback, etc, should come directly back to the CfRR team or if that is dealt with at the university level?

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Ok thats great thanks - I think they would contact our team directly.

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Perhaps look at the main UoE site statement to get a feel for what each section should contain:

https://www.exeter.ac.uk/about/oursite/accessibility/compliance/

I think the "Non-accessible content" sections should have what you previously had in "Known Accessibility Issues"?\

@liamjberrisford agree that now is a good time to reach out and get some advice. Ill try to arrange this but there may be a delay!

Copy link

@JeremyPike JeremyPike left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Thank you so much for this Liam - I've read it though and it looks great. I think there are a couple things we could discuss (see comments) and perhaps get advice on before merging - what do you think?

Comment on lines 46 to 50
"## Known Accessibility Issues\n",
"\n",
"### 1. Tables Generated from R\n",
"\n",
"Some tables created within our R-based teaching materials use multiple header rows or columns but do not include `headers` attributes in `<td>` elements. This affects screen reader usability, particularly for complex tables. These are autogenerated from R output and are presented as-is to reflect authentic results and maintain consistency with the source language’s conventions. We believe altering these outputs post-generation would compromise the educational integrity of the material, and have decided to leave them as they are originally. \n",

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Ok - I think we could potentially do with some advice on if these types of exceptions are acceptable. The arguments you make seem sound to me though

Copy link
Collaborator Author

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Absolutely, I completely agree. My concern is that it does a disservice pedagogically to spend three hours teaching learners an accessible version of a tool that we have forced via post-processing with a .js snippet, only for them to encounter an inaccessible version in the real world once they leave the CfRR website. The documentation does state that:
“Any content created by a third party and uploaded or embedded to your website is exempt only if that content was not funded, developed or under the control of the University.”
Source
However, the same page also advises adding an accessible alternative whenever possible. I can certainly provide a parallel accessible format, though it will significantly increase the site’s footprint.

@liamjberrisford liamjberrisford changed the title Accessibility statement first draft [RfR] Accessibility statement first draft Aug 26, 2025
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment
Labels
None yet
Projects
None yet
Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

2 participants