Falmouth University Online Store Accessibility Statement

This accessibility statement applies to store.falmouth.ac.uk

Ensure service meets level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) as a minimum.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website and that it is inclusive and accessible to as many people as possible. This includes those who may experience: impaired vision, motor difficulties, cognitive impairments or learning disabilities, deafness or impaired hearing, and/or who may require additional tools or formats to be able to access the learning materials. For example, that means you should be able to: 

• Clearly read all text and content 

• Navigate the website using clear interface and menu components 

• Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software 

• Listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver) 

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. Please also see our Assistive technology overview to find out more about the accessibility features in different programs, apps and devices.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:  

Contrast between foreground text colour and background colour needs to be improved:  

• Cookie notice, Navigation, Site Search, Footer text & links all require improved contrast.  
• Underline has been stylistically removed from links: this makes it hard for visually impaired or colour-blind users to identify them.  

The headings in the HTML content don't begin with the main heading and therefore don't follow a logical semantic order:  

• Having the main h1 heading at the beginning of the document will provide a more logical structure and will make the document much easier to understand and navigate for all users.  
• HTML form controls have no accessible names: the HTML content has form elements without a label, an accessibility feature that allows screen readers to voice the input prompt to the user.  

The HTML content has tables that don't have any headers:  

• Data tables allow screen reader users to understand column and row relationships. Layout tables read cells as a series of unrelated paragraphs with no tabular structure. Without th or role, screen readers apply heuristics to decide whether a table is a layout table or data table.  

Links with inappropriate text. Some content/cookie notice contain links with inappropriate (e.g. “click here”) or no text:  

• This can be confusing to navigate for text-to-speech devices or tools.  

Page language is not specified, which ensures all devices understand the language in which the content is presented: 

• Language attribute needs to be added to the html element: lang="en-GB"  

Feedback and contact information 

Please contact us using our web form if you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille. You will get a confirmation within five working days that your form has been received and a full response within 20 working days.

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, please contact us using our web form. You will get a confirmation within five working days that your form has been received and a full response within 20 working days.

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

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

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below. 

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons:  

Severe accessibility issues 

• None 

Major accessibility issues 

• The HTML content has contrast issues. 
• The HTML's heading structure does not start at the right level.  
• The HTML content has form elements without a label. 
• The HTML content has tables that don't have any headers.  

Minor accessibility issues 

• The HTML content does not have a language set. 
• The HTML content does not have an appropriate heading structure. 
• The HTML content contains links without discernible text. 
• The HTML content has malformed lists. 

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

• Alt text should not contain placeholders like 'picture' or 'spacer'. WCAG 2.1 A F30  
• Each a element must contain text or an image with an alt attribute. WCAG 2.1 A F89  
• HTML form control has no accessible name. WCAG 2.1 A F68  
• Identify row and column headers in data tables using “th” elements, and mark layout  
• Tables with role=presentation. WCAG 2.1 A F91  
• Removing the underline from links makes it hard for colour-blind users to see them. WCAG 2.1 A F73  
• Page uses nested tables, which do not make sense when read in a screen reader. WCAG 2.1 A F49  
• Use the lang attribute to identify the language of the page. WCAG 2.1 A 3.1.1 
• Ensure that text and background colours have enough contrast. WCAG 2.1 AA 1.4.3  
• If you set any of the colours on the body or “a” elements you must set all of them. WCAG 2.1 AA F24  
• User interface controls must have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 against adjacent colours. WCAG 2.1 1.4.11  

Disproportionate burden

We believe there is no disproportionate burden at this time.

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

This section covers issues that we do not need to fix right now. The law calls these exemptions. 

PDFs and other documents 

PDF outputs from the Falmouth University, Courses and Modules Website (https://falmouth.akarisoftware.com/) are only partially accessible for visually impaired users that utilise screen readers due to reading order issues encountered in the generation of the PDF file. We are actively working to improve this aspect. 

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. 

Live video 

We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations. 

 

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was first prepared on 19 Apr 2021.  

It was last reviewed and tested on 5 Oct 2023. 

The test was carried out by DDS using Blackboard Ally for Web & Manual Deque Axe DevTools on behalf of Falmouth University.