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This Accessibility Statement explains how accessible our website currently is and provides an action plan explaining how we will ensure that new and existing content is made more accessible.

This accessibility statement applies to . This website is run by Î÷¹ÏÊÓƵ. 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 have also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

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

How accessible this website is

The majority of this website is fully accessible, and we run regular scans to identify any problems.

We know that some parts of the website are not fully accessible:

• We have a large number of old publication documents which are in PDF format, and haven't been designed for accessibility.
• Some content is embedded in our website, such as maps and videos, and you cannot easily scale these on screen (but you can open a full screen version).
• Live video streams do not have captions (for example, Graduation ceremony live streams).
• Some third-party embedded services, for example Unibuddy Chat, are not fully accessible.

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:

• email servicedesk@harper-adams.ac.uk
• call 01952 815050

We will consider your request and get back to you within 14 days.

If you cannot view the map on our How to get to Harper Adams page, call or email us for directions.

Reporting accessibility problems

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of our website.

If you find any problems which are not listed on this page, or think that we are not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, then please get in touch:

• email us at webmaster@harper-adams.ac.uk
• call us on 01952 815050
• complete the Report a Problem online form

Please provide as much detail as possible, including a link to the problem page (if applicable), and the browser or technology used to access the page.

Enforcement procedure

If you are a registered student at Î÷¹ÏÊÓƵ and wish to make a complaint about accessibility, please read the published Complaint procedures available on the University website. To raise a complaint please contact in the first instance studentcomplaints@harper-adams.ac.uk

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, .

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

We can receive calls via Relay UK for people who are D/deaf, hearing impaired or have a speech impediment. We also provide text chat via Unibuddy Chat.

We have audio induction loops in some spaces, or if you contact us before your visit we can arrange for a mobile audio induction loop or a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter.

Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website's accessibility

Î÷¹ÏÊÓƵ is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the .

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the 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

Issues with content

We are aware of the following issues with a small amount of content on our site:

• Some page headers are not contained by ARIA defined landmarks.
• A small number of older pages contain main content that is not contained by ARIA defined landmarks.
• A small number of pages contain content that do not contain particular child elements.
• A small number of pages contact content that is not contained by particular parents.

We plan to make adjustments to page templates to correct these issues by 31^st August 2022.

Issues with links

We are aware of the following issues within the links on our site:

• Some link text doesn't make sense when read on its own (for example 'click here') [WCAG 2.4.9 Link Purpose (Link Only)].
• Some links use the URL only [WCAG 2.4.9 Link Purpose (Link Only)].

All website content is being reviewed, and link text and broken links will be corrected where necessary by the 30^th September 2022. 

Issues with PDFs and other documents

PDFs are not able to comply with the requirements of the web accessibility standard. When we create new PDFs, we review them using accessibility checkers to make them as accessible as possible.

Our site contains a large number of PDFs, especially in our key information policy documents and publications scheme. We are currently reviewing how best to make this information available for future updates.

A small number of PDFs are scanned documents and are not accessible.

Some PDF documents, such as the undergraduate prospectus, are made available in accessible HTML formats when uploaded to the website.

Issues with images and video

We strive to make all of our content accessible. We are aware of the following issues with images and video on our site:

• Many images are decorative only, and do not add information to the content of the page.  These are not currently identified with an empty alt attribute.
• Some page header images contain text. This text is not important to the understanding of the page content.
• Some video content does not currently have audio description or subtitles. Please contact us for an alternative.
• Some video content uses automated closed captioning and transcripting, and this has varying degrees of accuracy.

Issues with Unibuddy Chat

A number of issues have been identified with the Unibuddy Chat box which appears on the homepage and other pages:

• The keyboard cannot be used to navigate within the chat box once it is open [WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard].
• At 200% and more, the chatbox is not accessible using the keyboard [WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard].
• The focus becomes lost after tabbing through all of the webpage content on pages containing the Unibuddy chat [WCAG 2.4.7 Focus Visible].
• Some Unibuddy chat buttons do not have a descriptive accessible name [WCAG 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value].

Unibuddy Chat is a third-party development, and made to look like our website. We have reported these issues to Unibuddy, and are working hard with Unibuddy to resolve them. We expect a resolution by the 30^th September 2022.

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

Issues with links

We are aware of the following issues within the links on our site:

• Some pages contain broken links which do not resolve. This mostly affects archive news articles and we do not intend to resolve these as they were correct at the time of publication.
• Many older PDF files contain broken links which do not resolve - we do not intend to resolve these as they are archive files which are no longer in active use.

PDFs and other documents

The accessibility regulations  if they’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we do not plan to fix Annual Reports and Financial Statements.

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

Live video

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is .

Issues with technology

The vast majority of our website works correctly on any web technology.

For security reasons, we only support TLS 1.2 and higher security protocols, and this means that some older browsers will not show the site.

How our site looks and work is based on HTML5, and we test for and support the following browsers:

• Google Chrome (versions in support)
• Mozilla Firefox (versions in support)

You may experience unexpected behaviour in other browsers, although we use fully validated code which should work on any browser.

What we are doing to improve

The university has set up a cross department accessibility working group to discuss and review accessibility issues, and to agree our approach to inclusive learning to ensure our compliance with the accessibility regulations.

The website development team and content developers are actively reviewing all content and technology used on the university website.

All new documents are checked using accessibility scanners, and any issues resolved, before uploading to the website. The website development team are investigating alternatives to PDF.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 9^th October 2019. It was last reviewed 16^th August 2022.

This website was last tested 16^th August 2022 by Î÷¹ÏÊÓƵ.

The university website uses a number of standard page templates that are shared across the whole site. A sampling of pages that use each template are tested on a quarterly cadence, using the Deque Axe tool, and are also manually reviewed to check issues such as keyboard, magnification and colour accessibility. Pages that are viewed most often (for example, homepage and course pages), and those changed since the last review, are prioritised. Accessibility reports are reviewed by the IS website development team, with any actions taken and prioritised into our future work.