This accessibility statement applies to the UK Data Service Data Impact blog.

This website is run by Jisc (a partner in the UK Data Service). 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’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

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

How accessible is this website

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • on blog posts before 2020, there are some images with no description as well as images including text which is not otherwise displayed
  • videos before 2020 do not have subtitles or audio description, although all videos can be opened externally on YouTube to make use of their live subtitles facility
  • some older posts link to PDFs which may not be fully accessible
  • screenreaders may have problems understanding the structure of some of our older posts
  • many older posts have hyperlinks which are not clearly described, displaying only the URL; some hyperlinks also open in a new tab or window without warning the user first
  • once a user submits a comment, there is no way to check or edit it

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:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you within seven working days.
If you cannot get through on the above phone number, please leave a voicemail – we check our voicemail regularly.

If you can’t view the map on our ‘contact us’ page, call or email us for directions.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website 

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact our Marketing and Communications Manager on 01206 872001 or by email: comms@ukdataservice.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).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The UK Data Service 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

Videos in posts before 2020 do not have audio descriptions or subtitles. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.2.3 (Audio Description or Media Alternative).

Older videos can be opened on YouTube, which offers the ability to computer-generate subtitles. When we publish new content, we will ensure there are options for subtitles and audio descriptions, as well as a transcript.

Disproportionate burden

Accessing information

Images in many older blog posts contain text which cannot be accessed in other ways. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion (1.4.5 Images of Text).

Many posts before 2020 have incorrectly nested heading tags, which may cause problems for screenreaders in organising the text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).

Navigation

In older blog posts, some of the links are not labelled clearly. This means that links do not make sense when taken out of context, and for some links, it is not possible to know what the purpose of the link is. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose (In Context)).

Comment form

There is no check/acceptance phase between inputting comments and final submissions. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.4 (Error Prevention (Legal, Financial, Data)).

Our comment form is a standard WordPress comment form, which we have no control over.

 

We have assessed the cost of fixing the issues with accessing information, navigation and with our comment form. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations. We will make another assessment in September 2022.

Content that is not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

Some of our older blog posts link to PDFs which may not be fully accessible.

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 are doing to improve accessibility

The blog had a new theme installed in August 2021 which incorporated fixes to some previous accessibility issues. We will keep under review what else we have resources to do to manage meeting other WCAG 2.1 success criteria we currently do not meet.

We will ensure that all new blog posts conform to accessibility standards.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 9 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 7th August 2023 and will be reviewed again in 12 months.

This website was last tested on 8 November 2021. The test was carried out by staff from the UK Data Service.

Content modified from the GOV.UK accessibility statement - used through the Open Government Licence v3.0.