As outlined in our Accessibility Statement, Queen's University Belfast is committed to making the websites published by the Web Content Management System (Web CMS) accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.  Our aim is to ensure that these websites are compliant to Level AA standard of the latest approved version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Designing and Developing for Accessibility

The Web Support Team (WST) have been using the accessibility module of the Siteimprove web governance platform to implement and improve development practices for both current and new solutions within the Web CMS.  Significant changes to Page Layouts, Content Types, Components, Plugins and other assets have been made so that they conform technically to the WCAG.  Some of these changes may never be visible to content creators or website visitors but we will continue to use the power of the Web CMS to make these wholesale improvements where identified, to help us comply with accessibility regulations.

We have in place a streamlined and integrated digital design and development environment and we work closely with our colleagues in the Digital Team in the Queen's Global directorate on a range of website projects and initiatives.  Our project practices ensure that we adhere to accessibility regulations for both new and redesigned websites as well as functional components and plugins.

The design and functionality of our latest websites have gone through the necessary University governance and approval processes. Therefore, content creators should not add HTML markup, dynamic code such as JavaScript or any visual styling to content, unless it has been submitted and approved by the Digital Operations Group as a change request.  

Further Reading and Resources

• Accessibility Statement applied to content published by the University's Content Management System on the www.qub.ac.uk domain.
• Understanding accessibility requirements for public sector bodies.
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Version 2.1.