Accessibility Statement

Queen's University Belfast is committed to making its website(s) accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This accessibility statement applies to content published by the University’s Web Content Management System (Web CMS) to https://www.qub.ac.uk. This statement does not apply to content on sub domains, for example, service.qub.ac.uk, or other systems or services that publish content to the www.qub.ac.uk subdomain.

Digital accessibility is a primary consideration in our web development practices as we want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

Zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen.
Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard.
Listen to most of the website using a screen reader.
Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver).

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

How accessible this website is

Parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:

You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text.
Some pages contain text which is not as simple as possible to understand.
Some pages contain link text that does not always make sense when removed from the context of the page e.g. "Read more".
Some tables used to present tabular data are not structured appropriately.
Headings do not appear in a logical order on some pages.
Some videos do not have captions and live video streams do not have captions.
Many older documents are in PDF format and are not accessible.
Some of our pages contain content from systems provided by an external supplier, such as our Virtual Tour. We are aware of this and are working with suppliers to improve the accessibility of their tools.

Compliance Status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

(a) Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Some of the links provided on our website do not have a text alternative. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context). We plan to fix this by February 2025.
Some of our pages contain two or more links that have the exact same link text. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context). We plan to fix this by February 2025.
Some of the images on our website do not have a text alternative. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content). We plan to fix this by February 2025.
Some of the content on our website may be partially cut off or be out of view when at 400% zoom and in mobile view. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.10 (Reflow). We plan to fix this by February 2025.
In some of our pages, sections and / or legacy sites, HTML is used to format content. This doesn't meet WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships). We plan to fix this by February 2025.
Some of our PDFs and other documents published after 23 September 2018 don't fully meet accessibility requirements. We are working through these documents and have asked owners to ensure their content will be accessible or that an accessible alternative is available.

(b) Disproportionate burden

Not applicable.

(c) The content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

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.

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.

Archived Websites

There is a small number of websites published via the CMS that are currently set to archive status. These websites are not used to provide any services and they are no longer updated.

Third-Party Content

The University has a varying number of pages which contain content that is externally embedded or integrated. This externally embedded content can include but is not limited to information from social media platforms, chatbots, online forms and peer platforms. This is third-party content that is neither funded nor developed by us, nor under our control.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 9 March 2020.

This website is tested via the Siteimprove Digital Governance Platform, which crawls our website every seven days, and checks our content against the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.

The websites, pages and content crawled and tested are as follows:

The statement was last reviewed on 4 July 2024.

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 email: digital@qub.ac.uk.

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, please email: cms@qub.ac.uk.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) 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 Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI).

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are continually reviewing the accessibility of our website using automated tools and other testing methods where necessary. This will provide us with the insights required to assess and improve aspects of our websites that do not conform to level AA of the WCAG 2.1.

An Accessibility section has been added to the Web CMS website and includes an Accessible Content Guidance resource for staff to refer to and follow when creating content within the Web CMS. We have updated our core 'content template' guidance, so that content creators and editors are more aware of how these Web CMS assets should be used in order to conform with accessibility requirements.

We introduced a registration process in October 2020, for website owners and content editors within the CMS, to access and use the Siteimprove digital governance platform. As part of this process, registrants received access to their dedicated website(s) and dashboard reports. These reports highlight any accessibility issues and has assisted Web CMS users with taking necessary remedial action. Registrants also receive scheduled accessibility reports for their website(s) via email on a fortnightly basis.

We have continued to improve integrations between both platforms (Web CMS & Siteimprove) to make the process of implementing accessibility fixes easier for website owners and content editors in the Web CMS. Our guidance continues to evolve with these changes.

We are also reviewing our website governance practices and will be implementing advisory and control protocols to ensure that University staff are aware of their obligations when creating content for the University’s website. This is also part of our work under the institutional Disability Action Plan and Equality Scheme Action Plan.

We are also moving our web content into newer templates which have accessibility features built into them from the start.