Accessibility

Summary

In our context, accessibility is creating online learning resources, assessments and VLE sites that can be used by people with different needs. Accessible resources are also easier for everyone to use.

Your legal obligations

Under the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018, University digital resources should meet the WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standard.

It is your legal obligation to ensure that your digital teaching materials meet this standard. This includes resources such as lecture slides, other content added to your module VLE site and pre-recorded video content.

Following guidance on this site and other University advice should be sufficient to meet the standard. If you'd like to know more, you can review the standards via the link above.

Accessibility top tips

Tip

The Site Design Principles have been developed to centre accessible and inclusive design as a key aspect of site and online materials development.

Using these principles together with your Ultra site template will help your site and digital resources meet the accessibility standards.

A few simple steps will make your digital resources and VLE sites much more accessible:

• Use your Ultra site template; it has been designed for consistency and accessibility.
• Provide all module readings on a structured and tagged Reading List.
• Use meaningful link text, file names and item titles.
• Add ALT text to images or mark as decorative.
• Use heading styles and 'real' lists in text content.
• Embed all video content from Panopto, YouTube etc. and add accurate captions.

Key guides

The guides below particularly focus on accessible practice. Accessibility tips are also integrated in guides throughout this site.

• Ultra

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  • Ally tool: item-level checker & alternative formats generator
  • Documents: advice for accessible text, images and embedded content

• Other tools

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  • Panopto: Editing captions: check automatic captions
  • Reading List: structure & tagging: use sections and priority tags
  • Reading List: accessible formats: let the Library know which readings are needed in other formats

UoY accessibility guidance

The Practical Guide to Digital Accessibility is the key location for general accessibility guidance:

• Tips on creating accessible documents, presentations and web content.
• Details of accessibility tools for your own use.
• Bookable accessibility training sessions.

You can also join the Digital Accessibility Slack channel, where the community shares news, tips and links.