Accessibility

Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to the Study Higher website found at the following URL address: https://www.studyhigher.ac.uk/. 

As per the government guidelines WCAG 2.0-2.2 – the accessibility sample is taken from the home page and is representative of the entire site.

We are committed to making our website as accessible as possible for all our website visitors, including those with disabilities.

We try to adhere to the most stringent standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium, which is an international group responsible for setting standards for web technologies.  The Consortium has set up a specialist task group, the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), to define standards on web accessibility for disabled users.

The WAI produces varying levels of standards and grades them in order of importance.  Organisations can use these grades to decide what level of accessibility to aim for.  Oxford Brookes University aims to stick to all of the WAI’s standards.
The standards are designed to ensure that all users can access the content on our website, including:

  • blind users
  • partially sighted and colour-blind users
  • deaf users
  • hearing-impaired users
  • users with limited mobility
  • users with cognitive disabilities or learning difficulties
  • users with photo-sensitive epilepsy.

How this benefits visitors

To illustrate how compliancy has made this site accessible, we have listed representative disabilities below and explained how this site meets the users’ needs.

Visual (impaired)

Those with visual impairments (e.g. myopia) can:

  • Scale on all pages on the site to suit their own requirement. All text on pages is scaled, including all menu items.
  • Change colours, contrast levels and fonts (CMS – requested).
  • Zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen.

Hearing

There is no content on this site that cannot be accessed by deaf or hard of hearing people. To put this into context:

  • If we were to include audio clips we would also provide a text version of the soundtrack.
  • If we were to include movie clips or video streaming we would also provide time-indexed subtitles.
  • You can navigate most of the website using speech recognition software.
  • You can listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver).

Physical

For those that have difficulty using a mouse, keyboard access is supported by using standard shortcut techniques. This site can be fully navigated without the use of a mouse.

Cognitive

  • The layout of this site is uniform on all pages.
  • The main (horizontal) menu is structured identically on all pages (i.e. any page can be accessed from anywhere in the site).
  • Additionally, section or page navigation is always included in the panel to the top of each page.
  • You can navigate most of the website using just a keyboard

Neurological

There are no animated images or flashing text on this site which could – in extreme cases – cause difficulty for people who have particular neurological disorders.

Additional information:

  • an alternative for non-text images provided
  • content is structured as logically possible 
  • images contain little to no text, in-element. 
  • links and images have alt-text for screen reader accessibility. 
  • input fields have placeholder text and Aria-Labels.
  • high contrast colours for an easy visual representation of individual elements. 
  • line-height and text can be altered (CMS – by request).

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.

Features for the visually impaired

This website incorporates several features to support blind and poor-sighted people.

Text scaling

All text on this website is specified in percentage terms, meaning that its size can be increased inside the browser window for easier viewing. The ability to support text scaling varies from browser to browser, but given below are some guidelines for the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari.

  • In Internet Explorer, select the View | Text Size menu command. You can then choose from a range of text sizes (Largest, Larger, Medium (default), Smaller and Smallest). Note that Internet Explorer cannot resize images.
  • In Firefox select the View | Zoom menu command. You can also continually increase or decrease the current zoom factor by pressing the Ctrl and +, or Ctrl and – key combinations.
  • In Chrome select the Page Icon (located at the top right of the browser window) | Zoom menu command. You can also continually increase or decrease the current zoom factor by pressing the Ctrl and +, or Ctrl and – key combinations. Ctrl and 0 will reset the zoom to normal.
  • In Safari select the Page Icon (located at the top right of the browser window) | Zoom menu command. You can also continually increase or decrease the current zoom factor by pressing the Ctrl and +, or Ctrl and – key combinations. Ctrl and 0 will reset the zoom to normal.

Even the same browser product can behave differently on different platforms. For example, Internet Explorer on the Mac will scale images, whereas the Windows version cannot. Check with your supplier for further details.

Give us your feedback

Oxford Brookes University are committed to providing an accessible service. If you experience problems or have any suggestions for improvement, please contact us using the details on our Cookie and Privacy Policy page.

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please email info@studyhigher.ac.uk.

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible. 

If you cannot 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 not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: info@studyhigher.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

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to screen-reader exemptions listed on the WCAG 2.1 guidelines.