Digital accessibility is the practice of making digital documents, emails, and web content easy for users to access, understand, and navigate.

Accessibility is essential for many people with permanent disabilities to navigate and understand digital content. However, accessibility is also important for people with temporary or situational disabilities.

Permanent disabilities

People with permanent disabilities include those with:

• blindness or visual impairments
• deafness or hearing loss
• learning difficulties such as dyslexia and dyspraxia
• physical impairments or mobility issues
• autism
• mental health conditions like anxiety

Temporary disabilities

People with temporary disabilities include those with:

• an arm injury
• cataracts
• lost glasses
• an ear infection
• laryngitis

Situational disabilities

A situational disability could include:

• holding a baby in one arm
• trying to listen to audio in a noisy environment
• using a screen in bright sunlight
• using a slow internet connection

You should aim to make all your digital content as accessible as possible for people, regardless of their circumstances.

If you add content to the University website, it's your responsibility to make sure it's accessible to all users. Legal action can be taken against organisations with inaccessible websites.

Government legislation

The government's Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Apps) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations make it a legal requirement for the University to make our websites accessible to Level AA of the internationally recognised Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

The Government Digital Service (GDS) assesses the accessibility of public bodies’ websites, like ours, as defined by the WCAG guidelines.

The Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 states that employers must make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to make sure disabled people are not disadvantaged when at work. This includes digital access to services like websites, apps, and PDF documents.

UK Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)

The EHRC is an independent statutory body responsible for encouraging equality and diversity and eliminating unlawful discrimination.

The EHRC states that businesses:

• must make reasonable adjustments so disabled people can use their services the same way non-disabled people can
• can’t wait until a disabled person wants to access their services before making them accessible

Our accessibility statement

The government’s accessibility regulations require us to publish a Website Accessibility Statement explaining:

• how we meet the regulations
• where we still have work to do
• the steps we’re taking to achieve compliance

The Head of Content Strategy reviews the Accessibility Statement every three months.

Typecase publishing platform

Typecase, the University’s website publishing platform, has been designed to make it easy to create accessible web pages for our site.

For example, Typecase uses:

• content type templates to help users structure different kinds of information and make it easier for assistive technology to navigate our pages
• structured content to tell search engines where they can find certain information so they can direct people to the content they need
• required fields, like page titles and alternative (alt) text, to make sure Typecase users provide the information assistive technologies need to describe certain types of content
• design elements, like an accessible typeface and colour palette, to help people with disabilities like dyslexia and vision impairment read our content

You must make sure any digital content you share for work is accessible to anyone. This includes:

• social media and blog posts
• emails and newsletters
• PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets, and presentations
• videos
• podcasts

Our Assistive Technology team provides support for people who may benefit from using different tools or ways of working. The team provides this support through one-to-one meetings looking at your specific needs.

Assistive Technology can help those who have learning difficulties or disabilities. The service is also open to anyone at the University who would like help through technology.

The Assistive Technology Team can help you to:

• make resources easier to read through text-to-speech and reading tools
• make text simpler to produce through dictation (voice-to-text) tools
• manage tasks by looking at organisational tools
• keep up in lectures through note-taking tools
• address discomfort from computer use through ergonomic keyboards and mice
• set up your devices to best suit your needs

If you're a student or a staff member, contact the Assistive Technology Team on the Self Service Portal.

If you are external to the University, contact us directly by email at it-assistive-technology@bath.ac.uk