course pages accessibility

[mb324-unikent]

Hi Angela, Ok it's great to get that kind of feedback as this is something we need to focus on a lot more and make a key part of everything we do.

It's not immediately clear to me exactly what his concerns are, because there is a link to the course list, and there is an A-Z list. Maybe those links aren't easy to find?

We actually know a blind student who has agreed to help us test our systems, so it might be worth us contacting him about this for his feedback?

Anyway feel free to contact Alan and let him know that we are taking steps to sort this out with the help of testers at the uni.

I'll add this to a github issue so we know to look at this next time we have a chance. Probably in a couple of weeks as part of our next bug fixing day. Our Clearing work has to take priority before then.

cheers Matthew

On 15 Nov 2013, at 14:44, "Angela Watson" A.Watson@kent.ac.uk wrote:

Thanks Clare,

Web dev – we’ve received this email about the accessibility of our course pages below. I’m not sure I full understand the issues raised by Brian but just thought I should forward this in case we can improve accessibility?

Thanks

Angela

From: Clare Saunders Sent: 15 November 2013 14:41 To: Angela Watson Subject: Website accessibility query

I couldn't open it from that either so went in to my deleted items!

Here's the email – have highlighted the concern. Not sure if this is something we can fix or whether web support/development can help.

Sent: 11/10/2013 11:47:14 From: Alan.Sleat@shaw-trust.org.uk Subject: Web Site Accessibility Number of attachments: 0 Number of attached messages: 0

Dear Sir, or Madam,

My name is Alan Sleat and I am contacting you regarding some issues disabled people face using your website. To let you know a bit about me, I am disabled and registered blind.

As someone who is blind, it makes it really difficult to use certain websites. To access them I use a Screen Reader called JAWS, (Job Access With Speech). This enables me to navigate using specific Keyboard strokes, to bring up lists of links, headings, etc on a webpage; or read the full content displayed.

After having the opportunity to look at your site I have encountered some difficulties. The internet is a vital tool to a disabled person; so much so that in 2010, 58% of disabled people had internet in their homes (ref ODI). With a growing aging population and an increase in diabetes that can lead to a visual impairment, more people rely on software to enable access. Likewise, the internet is a vital communication portal for your University and potential students, especially disabled students.

The percentage of people of a working age with a disability, in the UK is: 13.4% (ref: Ons, statistics.gov and efds) whereas the percentage of students in university who may need assistive technology in 2012 was: 6.6% Ref, UCAS 03-04-2013. A more Accessible site may encourage a greater percentage of disabled people to seek university education.

When browsing your site for a course, I found that there is insufficient labelling to the links on the 'Course' page, and on the 'Undergraduate' page; there isn’t any Heading leading to a 'Course list'. On the 'Search Courses' page, there isn’t an Alphabetical Index. I have to read through the whole page to find what I want.

Having an Accessible website has many benefits, including complying with legislation (Equality Act 2010); giving all users access to goods, services and information; and also promoting independence and digital inclusion.

I am employed by the Shaw Trust Accessibility Services which offers assistance to companies to review and improve their websites. If this is something that you may be interested in, we would love to hear from you.

If this Email has reached the incorrect department, would you be so kind to either: Forward the Email on to the correct person with us to be copied in, or reply to us with the correct person’s details and their Email address. This will prevent any further correspondence incorrectly being sent to you.

Kind Regards

Alan Sleat Accessibility Tester Shaw Trust Accessibility Services Tel: 01792 325330 Email: alan.sleat@shaw-trust.org.uk

www.accessforall.org.uk Follow us on Twitter. @ShawTrusta11y

Clare Saunders Data and Publications Co-ordinator Enrolment Management Services The Registry University of Kent Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NZ

Tel No: 01227 823159 Fax No: 01227 827077

Save our trees! Please don't print out this e-mail unless absolutely necessary.

[mb324-unikent]

marking this as a story. We should be able to look generally at accessibility in a BAU sprint in December.

[edelarose]

This has been completed as part of sprint 5 - we have tested with an accessible student user and implemented some aria tags that screenreaders can use to navigate. We have done this on both course pages and XCRI snippets and will demo this tomorrow 26/03.