FAQs about accessibility
We simply don't have enough resource to do this for you, however, do see our guidance here https://warwick.ac.uk/sitebuilder/goodsites/accessibility and here https://warwick.ac.uk/digitalaccessibility/
However, we are available to offer advice and guidance on how to approach it. Please ask webaccessibility at warwick dot ac dot uk
Yes, captions need to be accurate, preferably as per JISC guidance (see below) after consultation with GDS:
As promised, we forwarded community-sourced questions about captioning to Government Digital Service for feedback. In their response, GDS was clear that this is not legal advice, but a current reading of the regulations and WCAG. A court (or your lawyers) may decide differently. What follows is a summary of key points. JISC and members of the Digital Accessibility Working Group are preparing some pragmatic responses, to mitigate risk and maintain good practice. We’ll let you know when this is online.
Accuracy
Most members who submitted questions were seeking clarity on expectations around accuracy levels. Whether automatically generated captions would be acceptable was key. GDS has communicated that it interprets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as defining captions as being checked/edited for accuracy and containing all the meaningful content from the audio.
GDS points to WCAG success criteria 1.2.2 which states "Captions are provided for all prerecorded audio content in synchronized media, except when the media is a media alternative for text and is clearly labelled as such." WCAG also states "It is acknowledged that at the present time there may be difficulty in creating captions for time-sensitive material and this may result in the author being faced with the choice of delaying the information until captions are available, or publishing time-sensitive content that is inaccessible to the deaf, at least for the interval until captions are available."
W3C say that "automatically-generated captions do not meet user needs or accessibility requirements, unless they are confirmed to be fully accurate. Usually, they need significant editing." There is a failure of success criteria 1.2.2 "If the "caption" does not include all of the dialogue (either verbatim or in essence) as well as all-important sounds then the 'Captions' are not real captions."
Guidance
We’ve heard from many members that this level of accuracy on all video is not something they will be able to achieve, particularly given the volume of video being produced right now. With input from members of the Digital Accessibility Working Group, we will produce online guidance on how to approach this, including updating your accessibility statement; mitigating risk; prioritising video, and a range of potential solutions to support students.
Responsibility
In the forthcoming guide we’ll cover more of the questions you asked. Another key question that many members asked was around who had responsibility for producing or editing captions. This was related to other questions about whether lecturers could be vulnerable to complaints if there were inaccuracies in captions. The GDS is clear that the responsibility under the Accessibility Regulations lies with the public sector body as a whole eg the Senior Responsible Officer or the executive team. If a captioning (or transcription) mistake leads to a student misunderstanding content, could this would probably not lead to complaints about the lecturer under these Regulations, but maybe under the Public Sector Equality Duty or internal discrimination policies.
According to the WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards, all audiovisual content must come with a text alternative. Captions and the video serve different audiences:
- Captions are part of the WCAG standard for pre-recorded video and are needed by those who cannot hear everything clearly
https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/captions-prerecorded.html
A transcript assists a blind user who cannot see the video and is necessary unless the material of your video is presented in some other way on another page but in this case it should be made clear where that is. - Live videos also need captions. Platforms such as YouTube support live captioning, though it can be a bit hit and miss.
- Captioning is a very good practice to maintain for those viewing presentations who can't have sound on for various reasons, so it's not just about being accessible, it's about being inclusive.
This guide explains how to add captions and transcripts.
Adjusting the contrast of colours can reduce eyestrain and make items easier for people to read with vision impairments as text with low contrast can be difficult. It is worth noting some websites offer colour and luminance contrasting options.
Computer Contrast settings
Depending on the operating system you are using, you can adjust the contrast by following these steps as outlined: Microsoft and Mac
Assistive Technology
Certain types of software allow you to apply colour filters over your screen to help reduce eye strain and help visual stress. This can improve users with Specific Leaning Difficulties: Dyslexia. ColorVeil and F.lux are programmes you can run to apply filters over your screen.
Please follow this simplified testing set (derived from information from GDS):
- Use an automatic testing tool called Axe, a free version of this tool is available in the Chrome Developer tools extension.
- Check that you can navigate a page without using a mouse, using the keyboard to tab, page up, page down, etc. The whole page should be navigable, and you shouldn't get stuck anywhere.
- Magnify your page to 400% and check that the text reflows correctly and everything works as expected.
Other manual checks:
- Avoid using tables for formatting, except to present data.
- Heading levels increment or decrement by one: e.g., Heading 3 after Heading 2 and avoid skipping levels
- Image alt text makes sense and is only used where needed: meaningful images should have alt text, but decorative images should be marked up appropriately.
- Any multimedia used has captions and audio description (if created after 23 September 2020).
- Changes of language are marked up appropriately, e.g. lang="fr"
- link labels should:
- Make sense when read separately from the page. Avoid repeatedly using the same labels, like 'click here'.
- Be underlined in body text and web page footers.
- Not be separated by printable characters.
- Match the designation.
- Plain English is used, and the content is well-organised. Use lists, bullets and heading styles appropriately. Avoid ALL CAPS and long line lengths.
- Colour alone is not used to convey meaning. If necessary, use a symbol or text as well as colour.
- Errors are identified and messages suggest the corrections required.
- Form labels are clear, clickable targets easy to click and form instructions are associated with the relevant input area.
Using these testing methods is an excellent place to start. You could also go further and run manual testing with speech readers, etc., to ensure full compliance with the standard.
Please email webaccessibility at warwick dot ac dot uk with any technical queries around checking pages.
University guidance is here:
https://warwick.ac.uk/services/engagementgroup/marketing/digital/accessibility/
For reference:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/public-sector-website-and-mobile-application-accessibility-monitoring
Not from a compliance perspective, no. Under PSBAR regulations only online purchased software used by public sector organisations (including Universities) has to be compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA. However, if you know you have users with accessibility needs, you should not disadvantage them.
Microsoft have a comprehensive list of 'fixes' to make PowerPoint more accessible: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/make-your-powerpoint-presentations-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities-6f7772b2-2f33-4bd2-8ca7-dae3b2b3ef25
Heading levels are required to follow a logical order, which means they should only change by one level at a time. Headings are used as visual cues for readers to find the key parts of the content of the website. The levels also help users with visual impairments to use a screen reader to navigate the webpage effectively. As in an academic document, headings show the general structure of the content to readers, enabling them to find the information they need as fast as possible.
This also includes headings in other preset elements, such as Twitter and Instagram feeds, News feeds, and links that are part of a heading.
To change the headings used on your page, select the content you want to edit and choose the appropriate heading level from the editor.
All purchased software must be accessible. If there are any gaps in performance between it and the WCAG 2.1 AA standard, they must be noted and recorded online on our list of software.
If it's a Padlet site, please use the University Padlet.
Yes, any live event recordings left online have to be treated in the same way as pre-recorded videos after 14 days of being made available.
Images of text is not compliant with the EU directive on accessibility. For more information on Warwick and Accessibility, please see the general guidance http://warwick.ac.uk/accessibility and for specific guidance on images
https://www.boia.org/blog/why-is-it-important-for-accessibility-to-use-actual-text-instead-of-images-of-text
SiteBuilder's visual editor provides the ability to add an image with overlaid text.
There's an explanation in the email you received, please contact webaccessibility at warwick dot ac dot uk if you need more information.
Yes, text in logos is not considered an accessibility issue. However, you should provide appropriate alt text for your logo when you include it on a webpage.
Empty links are a problem for users who cannot use a mouse and for those using a screen reader to access the page. These users wouldn't know where the link is leading to. Use can use the <Tab> key on a keyboard to jump to each link on the page in sequence and find those that don't highlight any text. Then use the editor to remove the empty links. Empty headings should also be removed.
The responsibility under PSBAR lies with Warwick as a public sector body to caption videos, rather than individuals. In effect, this is the senior responsible officer or the executive team. This is why a cross-organisational approach is so important when implementing accessibility.