Somerville College is committed to optimising access to its physical estate and online presence for the benefit of all members of our community. The following pages contain information about our website accessibility and physical access to buildings, venues and accommodation across the site.
Website Accessibility
Somerville College is committed to providing an accessible web presence that gives members of the public and members of the University community full access to information, courses and activities offered publicly through the web. Our Equality Policy outlines our commitment to a culture that ‘maintains a working, learning and social environment in which the rights and dignity of all its staff and students are respected’.
Introduction
In order to ensure that all of our visitors can use our website, we are working continuously towards meeting Level A-A standard of WCAG 2.1 by including elements such as:
- Alt text for all images and providing non-visual alternatives where appropriate;
- All essential audio-visual information is captioned, described as necessary or provided in alternative formats;
- Content can be navigated with just a keyboard or speech recognition tools;
- The website can be used with a screen reader.
Making changes to your device or system
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability. In addition, major operating systems produce the following guidance:
How accessible this website is
Somerville College is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018. We know that some parts of this website are not fully accessible and we are working to address these issues as soon as possible.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
- Older news items do not have a text alternative and some newer images may also, through inadvertent error, lack alt-texts, preventing those using a screen reader from accessing the information. This fails WCAG 1.1.1.
- Users are not always able to navigate away from all components using a keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.1.2
- Some of our older PDFs and Word documents do not meet accessibility standards – for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 4.1.2.
Testing and Review
How we tested the website
This website was last tested over a number of weeks leading up to 21st July 2021. Tests were conducted using web accessibility evaluations tools as well as a manual check of a substantial and carefully chosen sample of pages and content types. We continue to review the site on a monthly basis to check new content.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We are working to add alt text to all images.
Some of our older PDFs and Word documents may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.
What to do if you cannot access parts of this website
If you need information on this website in a different format (such as large print), please contact our Student Welfare Lead and Disability Coordinator, Jo Ockwell.
email welfare.lead@some.ox.ac.uk
call +44 (0)1865 270525
We’ll consider your request and get back to you within 10 days.
If you cannot view the map on our ‘Contact’ page, please 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, please contact Matt Phipps, our Communications Manager.
email webmaster@some.ox.ac.uk
call +44 (0)1865 270600
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).
Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person
We have a Welfare and Disability Officer, Jo Ockwell, who can be contacted on +44 (0)1865 270525.
We have an audio induction loop in our Porter’s Lodge and several other buildings.
Phyical Access to Somerville
Somerville College is committed to optimising access to all buildings, venues and accommodation within its estate for the benefit of all members of our community. You can check the accessibility of Somerville’s buildings via the University’sAccess Guide or the University’s interactive map.
For further information on building accessibility in the College, please contact our Disability Co-ordinator Jo Ockwell.
This statement was last reviewed on July 20th 2021.
