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Accessibility policy

The University of Edinburgh is committed to ensuring that its websites are accessible to the widest possible audience, including disabled users.

The University of Edinburgh website accessibility policy

Policy intention

The long-term goal and intention of this policy is to state clear accessibility principles that the University of Edinburgh websites should follow.

The University is in the process of ensuring its pages comply with the AA standard of the W3C recommended version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).  The University acknowledges that this is an anticipatory and continuing work in progress and, in order to ensure no user is disadvantaged while this work is carried out, the University intends to respond to all requests for assistance with accessibility by either altering the necessary content as soon as possible, or, if requested, by providing the information in an alternative format at no cost within a reasonable timeframe. It is the responsibility of the University to provide these alternative formats. Appropriate channels of communication are available to allow visitors to request alternative formats and to give feedback about any accessibility issues.

The University will make reasonable adjustments to ensure specific individual needs that cannot be addressed by mainstreamed adjustments are met.

Policy dimensions

For the purpose of this policy, the term “websites” includes:

  • Websites (public and non authenticated) managed and under the control of  the University of Edinburgh using the ed.ac.uk domain (www.ed.ac.uk/something) or any subdomain (www.something.ed.ac.uk). (Note: websites with these domains that are the intellectual property of other (separate) legal entities, such as (but not limited to) the Edinburgh University Students' Association, are excluded).
  • Material managed and hosted by the University on these pages such as documents, audio, video and any other additional files.

Policy principles

The University of Edinburgh will adhere to the following principles in relation to its websites:

  • The websites shall provide appropriate channels of communication for feedback about accessibility.
  • The websites shall meet the University of Edinburgh’s responsibilities under the Equality Act (2010) and The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012.
  • The websites shall meet level AA of the of the W3C recommended version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Guidance and Support

The University supports staff building and maintaining University websites and associated material to enable them to comply with this policy and has created guidance for this purpose. 

Guidance for building and maintaining accessible University websites

Changes to this policy

This policy will be reviewed annually to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of our user community.

Policy updates

This policy was last reviewed and updated in October 2018.

The policy was reworded to take into account that the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) guidelines have been updated to version 2.1. We have reviewed  the policy in light of these changes. The primary focus for WCAG 2.1 is requirements for people with low vision and cognitive and learning disabilities as well as mobile accessibility.

If you require this policy document in an alternative format

If you require this policy document in an alternative format please contact:

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