Falmouth Learning Space Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to users accessing Learning Space via a web browser.  

Learning Space is the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) which hosts module content for all on-campus modules and courses. The name Learning Space is our own name for the open source Moodle platform. 

Users should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings 
  • zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen 
  • navigate most of the website using a keyboard or speech recognition software 
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver) 

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability. 

Learning Space also publishes it’s own accessibility statement for the platform: 

How accessible this software is

We know some parts of Learning Space are not fully accessible: 

  • Some documents and images contain text with a low contrast ratio to the background colour. This can cause the text to be difficult to read, especially to those with visual impairments, such as colour blindness or poor eyesight.  
  • Some images have been used to convey meaning, but do not have any descriptive text associated to them. This can prove detrimental to those people who rely on screen readers or other assistive tools to understand the image and its purpose.   
  • Some of the content on pages and documents does not adhere to a typical heading hierarchy, so the structure and layout of sections may be confusing to those with assisted devices or tools.   
  • Some content contains links with inappropriate (e.g. “click here”) or no text. This can be confusing to navigate for text-to-speech devices or tools.   
  • The assessment & feedback plugin utilises select form fields. Recommendation is to use the label element and an explicit, programmatically associate label with select elements. The lack of this is confusing to screen readers which do not know the input data expectations and cannot programmatically determine information about input objects without an established label relationship. 

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact us using our web form. 

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 are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS). 

Technical information about this software’s accessibility

Falmouth University is committed to making Learning Space accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. 

Compliance status 

The software has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard. 

This software is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below. 

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Elements must meet minimum colour contrast ratio thresholds - (WCAG) 2.1 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA) 

Some people with low vision experience low contrast, meaning that there are not very many bright or dark areas. Everything tends to appear about the same brightness, which makes it hard to distinguish outlines, borders, edges, and details. Text that is too close in luminance (brightness) to the background can be hard to read.* 

Links must be distinguishable without relying on colour - 1.4.3: Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA) 

Ensures users who cannot distinguish between colours can tell when text is a link by verifying the link has either a distinct style that does not rely on colour or has a contrast difference of greater than 3:1 (which alerts you that manual testing is required).* 

Interactive controls must not be nested - 4.1.2: MUST: Name, Role, Value (Level A) 

Nested interactive controls are not announced by screen readers.* 

Select element must have an accessible name - 4.1.2: MUST: Name, Role, Value (Level A) 

Each select element must have a programmatically associated label element.* 

Frames must have an accessible name - 4.1.2: MUST: Name, Role, Value (Level A) 

All frame or iframe elements in the document must have a title that is not empty to describe their contents to screen reader users.* 

Images must have alternate text - 1.1.1: MUST: Non-text Content 

All images must have alternate text to convey their purpose and meaning to screen reader users.* 

Scrollable region must have keyboard access - 2.1.1: MUST: Keyboard  

2.1.3: MUST: Keyboard (No Exception) 

Elements that have scrollable content should be accessible by keyboard.* 

Form elements must have labels - 4.1.2: MUST: Name, Role, Value (Level A) 

Description: Each form element must have a programmatically associated label element.* 

Some links are without discernible text - WCAG 4.1.2: MUST: Name, Role, Value (Level A) 

Link text and alternate text for images, when used as links, must be discernible by a screen reader and must be focusable. Some links are without discernible text are present (within a Learning Space). A link that cannot receive programmatic focus is inaccessible to users who rely exclusively on a keyboard to navigate a webpage.* 

List <li> elements must be contained in a <ul> or <ol> - WCAG 2.1 (A) 1.3.1: MUST: Info and Relationships 

Ensure that all list item [li] elements are wrapped inside of [ul] or [ol] parent elements.  

List items may be contained in either unordered (bullet) lists or ordered (sequentially numbered) lists. Screen readers notify users when they come to a list, and tell them how many items are in a list. Announcing the number of list items and the current list item helps listeners know what they are listening to, and what to expect as they listen to it. Child list item elements must be contained within the appropriate parent list elements enabling screen readers to inform the listener that they are listening to a list.* 

 

* The locations of these issues are part of the software platform and out of our direct control. These issues have been raised with the supplier, and we hope they will be addressed during their next cycle of the development. 

Disproportionate burden

Navigation and accessing information 

We have not classified any of the non-compliant content as a disproportionate burden to fix and we have not identified any issues that would class as an exemption under law. 

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

PDFs and other documents 

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.  

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards. 

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Our accessibility roadmap shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility of Learning Space. 

To summarise, these include: 

  • Reacting quickly and effectively to feedback regarding non-compliant content and communicating these issues to relevant the parties. 
  • Periodically auditing our content for accessibility issues and correcting any issues. 
  • Regularly meeting with this third-party supplier feeding back accessibility issues and working with them to improve their services. 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was first prepared on 12/08/2020. It was last reviewed on 8/11/2023.   

Learning Space was last tested on 1st August 2025 against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard. 

The test was carried out by the Digital Learning team at Falmouth University. The most viewed pages were tested using automated testing tool, Axe DevTools. A further audit of the software was carried out to the WCAG 2.2 AA standard.