Website Accessibility Statement

The University of Oxford is committed to providing an accessible web presence that gives members of the public and members of the University community full access to University information, courses and activities offered publicly through the web.

This accessibility statement applies to Oxford University Museum of Natural History website – www.oumnh.ox.ac.uk.

Our Aims

This website is run by the Oxford University Museum of Natural History Digital Team. 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
navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
listen to most of the website using a screen reader

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 this website is

We are aware that some parts of our website are not fully accessible. These include:

Not all images have a meaningful text alternative
Some audio and video content is not accompanied by audio description or text alternative
Some video content does not have fully synchronised captions
Some video content that contains visual information is not accompanied by audio description or text alternative
Older PDF documents may not be fully accessible to screen reader software
Some pages do not have consistent headings
Interactives may not be accessible

We are working to address areas where our accessibility needs improvement. Please see our ‘Known issues’ page for more details.

Feedback and Contact Information

If you need information on this website in a different format, please contact the Oxford University Museum of Natural History communications and web team:

Email: communications@oum.ox.ac.uk

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

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

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, contact:

Email: communications@oum.ox.ac.uk

Other accessibility resources

If you’d like more information about accessibility and resources for students, staff and visitors in Oxford more generally, please visit our Equality and Diversity pages. 

If you’re looking for information on building accessibility, please try the Access Guide or the University’s interactive map.

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

Oxford University Museum of Natural History is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies accessibility regulations.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 standard, due to the non-compliance and exemptions listed on our ‘Known Issues page’.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We want to provide the best possible experience for all our website visitors. To achieve this we will:

Fix known issues
Report any issues with the Mosaic CMS (Content Management System)
Check all new content for accessibility
Train all content editors on accessibility
Carry out periodic accessibility checks

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 15 September 2020.

The test was carried out by the Oxford University Museum of Natural History Digital Team using a carefully chosen sample of pages and content types. The CMS has been audited for accessibility by the University of Oxford IT Services.

The pages were checked manually using a combination of the following methods:

Checked against the government’s basic accessibility check
Checked against the items in the Gov.uk’s WCAG 2.1 Primer Checklist 
Using the Wave accessibility and evaluation tool

Issue with navigation, structure, links and keyboard operability

Navigation:

Not all forms have labels indicating the purpose of the field that they relate to, which can result in people with reading difficulties having problems understanding the purpose of the content and users of screen readers being unable to easily navigate the form.

We are working with our developers to implement fixes for these navigation issues over the coming months.

Structure:

Not all headings are hierarchical, making the site more difficult for users of assistive technology such as screen readers to access. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1.
Heading have on occasion been used to highlight information rather than for headings, making the site more difficult for users of assistive technology to use. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.3.1 and 2.4.6.

We will implement fixes for these structural issues over the coming months.

Links:

Some links do not use text that is meaningful out of context, which can result in users of screen readers not being able to understand the link without reading the surrounding text and users of speech recognition software being less able to target links accurately using voice commands. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.4.

All links will be reviewed and fixed by September 2021.

Issues with contrast, use of colour and visual characteristics

Some elements have low contrast levels (e.g. current footer) which can result in text being difficult to read, especially for people with low vision, poor eyesight or colour blindness. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.4.3.

We will fix this issue over the coming months.

Issues with language and content

Where the language of all or part of a page isn’t English this isn’t defined in the html, which can result in screen readers being unable to correct read the text. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.1.1 and 3.1.2.

We are working with our developers to implement fixes for these structural issues over the coming months.

Issues with documents, including Word files, PowerPoints, PDFs

Many of the documents (Word and PDF) on this site do not meet accessibility standards, which could result in them not being fully accessible to users of screen readers.

Documents that are essential to the service we provide will be either converted to HTML pages or replaced with accessible versions by September 2021.

Disproportionate burden

We do not consider any of the accessibility issues to be a disproportionate burden and aim to make the site fully compliant by September 2021.

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

Third-party content

Our site includes third party content and functionality. This may direct you to a related service, link to another site or supporting documentation. We are not responsible for the accessibility of third-party content or to other sites we link to.

This includes:

YouTube videos
Sound Cloud audio files
Google maps

Third party platforms

We often create content which is hosted on third party platforms. This includes:

content we create for social media
video which we host on YouTube
audio which we host on SoundCloud
data we supply to national databases

We are responsible for ensuring the content we supply meets accessibility requirements; however, we are not responsible for the accessibility of the platform itself.

Documents (Word & PDF)

This site has a number of Word and PDF documents which were published before September 2018. These aren’t essential to the service we provide and won’t be replaced. If you experience any difficulties accessing these documents, please email communications@oum.ox.ac.uk.

Video and audio content

This site has pre-recorded audio and video content that was published before 23 September 2020, which is exempt from the accessibility regulations.

The Learning Zone – www.oum.ox.ac.uk/thezone

The Learning Zone is a microsite containing a range of educational resources for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 teachers and learners. It is a static site which was developed in 2006 to meet contemporary accessibility standards (http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/thezone/access.htm).

The site has been omitted from extensive audit here as a project is underway to rebuild the most popular elements of the site using the Mosaic platform developed by the University of Oxford IT Service department. The new site will be in place before September 2021 and will replace the current site.

Museum blog – More than a Dodo (morethanadodo.com)

The Museum’s blog is hosted on Wordpress.com and built using a third-party Wordpress Theme that was available when the blog was established in 2013.

Known issues with the Wordpress blog:

Most images do not have a meaningful text alternative, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information.

Images will be added with descriptive alt text from September 2020.

Screen readers may not be able to read/navigate all elements of the Theme’s layout and content.

An alternative, newer Wordpress Theme will be found which meets WCAG 2.1 standards and applied to the site by September 2021.

Not all video content has a transcript, making the content inaccessible to users who cannot see.

All video content created after 23 September 2020 will have a transcript by September 2021.

Not all video content has captions that are synchronised to the audio content of the video, making them inaccessible to people who cannot hear.

All video and audio content created after 23 September 2020 will have captions by September 2021.

We are aware that some parts of the Collections Online site are not fully accessible. These include:

Some pages do not have consistent headings
The image viewer is not accessible
On some pages is the page element in focus is not highlighted when navigating using a keyboard
Some pages do not function correctly when the style sheets are disabled
Pages within the site do not have individual titles
Some text does not have sufficient contrast
Some pages are not navigable when the text is zoomed in
Images with text including scanned manuscripts and object labels are not transcribed
Not all images have a meaningful text alternative

We are working to address areas where our accessibility needs improvement. Please see our ‘Known issues’ section for more details.

The Corsi Collection of Decorative Stones

http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/corsi/

We are aware that some parts of the Corsi Collection of Decorative Stones site are not fully accessible. These include:

Some pages do not have consistent headings
Some pages are not navigable when the text is zoomed in
There is no way for keyboard users to move focus directly to the start of the main content area of the page
On some pages is the page element in focus is not highlighted when navigating using a keyboard

We will work with our developers to implement fixes for these issues over the coming months.

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

Issues with navigation, structure, links and keyboard operability

Navigation:

None of the page titles are unique and indicate the page’s topic or purpose, which can result in people with cognitive disabilities being unable to quickly orientate themselves within the site and identify the purpose of the page without interpreting its entire contents. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.2.
On some pages is the page element in focus is not highlighted when navigating using a keyboard (e.g. Featured Collections links) which can result in keyboard users being unable to orient themselves within the page. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.7.
Controls to switch between the different advanced searches forms for each collection (e.g. Archive, Entomology) cannot be accessed by when the style sheets are disabled.

We will work with our developers to implement fixes for these issues over the coming months.

Structure:

Not all headings are hierarchical, making the site more difficult for users of assistive technology such as screen readers to access. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1.

We will implement a fix for this issue over the coming months.

Keyboard operability:

The image viewer widget is not navigable using a keyboard. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.1.1.

We will work with our developers to implement a fix for this issue over the coming months.

Issues with contrast and reflow

Contrast

Some elements have low contrast levels (e.g. search help popup) which can result in text being difficult to read, especially for people with low vision, poor eyesight or colour blindness. This fails the WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.4.3.

We will fix this issue by March 2021.

Reflow

Functionality of the image viewer is lost when text is enlarged, which can resulted in people who are sight impaired and use screen navigation to resize page content to be unable to use the page. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criteria 1.4.10.

We will work with our developers to implement a fix for this issue over the coming months.

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

Heritage Collections

The collections online site hosts a heritage collection which is which is exempt from the accessibility regulations. This exemption applies to the following content:

Images with text such as scanned manuscripts and object labels are not transcribed and are not accessible by screen readers
Scanned manuscripts published as PDF documents are not transcribed and are not accessible by screen readers
Images of collections objects do not always have a descriptive text alternative and are not accessible by screen readers

Creating accessible descriptions and transcriptions for this entire heritage collection is a disproportionate burden and beyond the resources of the museum. When transcriptions and descriptive text alternatives are created as a result of targeted projects they will be published on this site.

Oxford Mosaic Support for Accessibility

To help ensure that Oxford Mosaic websites are as accessible as possible, the platform has been implemented in accordance with the guidelines outlined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. These aim to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities and user friendly for everyone. The guidelines have three levels of accessibility (A, AA and AAA). We are committed to meeting AA guidelines and also aim to meet AAA standards wherever possible.

Oxford Mosaic is built in Drupal using a Bootstrap-based theme. Both Drupal and Bootstrap are developed with accessibility in mind:

The accessibility of a website relies to a significant extent on good practice when creating content. Oxford Mosaic includes several features to encourage the creation of accessible content, including mandatory ‘alt’ attributes on images and contrast checking on all colour schemes (sub-AAA values generates a warning and sub-AA values are not permitted).

Find out more about Mosaic in this post Accessibility: Making Mosaic websites work for everyone.

Read the Platform Accessibility Statement.

Improving your experience

While Oxford Mosaic has been created to be highly usable as given, you may attain the most accessible experience by customising your computer to suit your individual needs – for example: to get a site spoken to you, to change its colour-scheme, or to increase the size of its fonts.

The BBC provides guidance on a number of techniques:

Further assistance

We welcome your feedback. Any queries or concerns about the accessibility of the Oxford Mosaic platform may be sent by email to oxfordmosaic@it.ox.ac.uk. 