Accessibility Statement for Techne website

This statement is applicable to content published on the domain: techne.ac.uk.

This website is currently hosted by Royal Holloway University. The website aims to be as accessible as feasibly possible supporting a wide range of users. As a user, you should be able to:

Zoom in up to 200% without text spilling off the screen.
Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard.
Navigate most of the website using a screen reader.

In order to make our website easier to read and navigate, you can change display settings such as:

text size
colour and contrast
screen magnification

Please see the following links for more information on how to change the display settings in your browser:

How accessible is techne.ac.uk

Although we strive for a fully accessible website, we are aware of some parts of the website that are not fully accessible:

Some pages may have the order of headings that is not semantically correct (e.g., skipping levels).
Not all images used within the website may have relevant alt text/description.
Some videos may not have audio captions, text transcript or audio descriptions.
Some of the 3rd party plugins/tools used within our website may not be completely accessible e.g., Cookie-consent tool.
Sub menu links are not available within the navigation menu, while navigating using a screen reader or keyboard.

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, please contact us via email: techne@rhul.ac.uk.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 7 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

While we are always aiming to make the website more accessible, you may encounter issues/problems that do not meet the accessibility requirements. In such cases, you can contact us via email at techne@rhul.ac.uk.

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

We are currently only operating an online service, to contact us please use the following email address: techne@rhul.ac.uk.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Techne 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

The following items are currently not compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA criteria:

Some links do not have a discernible name (WCAG 2.1 (A), WCAG 2.0 (A): 2.4.4, 4.1.2).
Images on some pages do not always have suitable image descriptions. Users of assistive technologies may not have access to information conveyed in images. (WCAG 2.1: 1.1.1 - Non-text Content).
Some link elements are represented using colour alone (WCAG: 1.4.1).
Some heading elements are not in a sequentially descending order (WCAG: 1.3.1).
Some html elements are using ARIA attributes that are not allowed or applicable (WCAG 2.1 (A), WCAG 2.0 (A)).
Some elements do not meet minimum colour contrast ratio thresholds (WCAG 2.1 (AA): 1.4.3).
Audio-only content like podcasts may not have proper transcripts, synchronized captions or sign-language alternative (WCAG 2.0: 1.2)

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

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word 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.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We use tools like Lighthouse and axe-core DevTools regularly to test the website for any accessibility issues. We test the various types of pages so that we can cover all the different types of templates the website uses e.g., homepage, student profile page, event page etc.

The issues are worked on based on the severity of the issue.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 4 August 2023. It was last reviewed on 19 September 2023.