Scope & Ownership

University of the West of Scotland (the "University", "us", "our" or "we") is committed to making our web presence as accessible as possible and we endeavour to make our website compliant with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 (WCAG2.2).

The online platform referred to in this statement is our Programme Specification & Module Descriptor (PSMD) repository ("PSMD", "the repository", "our platform", "this platform", "the site", "the website", "the webpage", "the solution"). We run a number of other publicly available websites and online platfdorms but these will have their own accessibility statements.

Using the Website

As of May 2024, PSMD is a temporary, bespoke (non-proprietary), public-facing digital solution for document storage which will be used in the short-term to house all of UWS's academic programme specifications and module descriptors until a more robust, web-based digital solution is developed in-house. The previous PSMD solution was a web-based solution. However, this has been sunsetted as a result of being compromised following a significant cyber-attack in July 2023.

The current solution is built on Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) for Windows® Server which is a flexible, secure and manageable web server for hosting online content. Although a temporary solution, we want as many people as possible to be able to use this website in order to find out more about the academic content of their courses and modules prior to enrolling and throughout their academic studies at UWS.

Some aspects of the temporary solution cause accessibility issues and these are identified in the Technical Information About this Website’s Accessibility section below.

Feedback & Contact Information

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

You can contact us if you have digital accessibility feedback, issues, questions, or comments relating to this website.

If you are reporting an accessibility issue, please let us know exactly (in as much detail as you can) what issues you are experiencing as this will help us help you. You can contact us if you:

  • have positive feedback on the accessibility considerations made
  • are experiencing issues with accessing information or using the website
  • find an accessibility problem not listed in this statement

Contact us by email

For accessibility issues, contact us using the email or postal address details below:

  • E-mail: web@uws.ac.uk
  • Postal address: Digital Accessibility Team, Marketing & Student Recruitment, University of the West of Scotland, High Street, Paisley, PA1 2BE

We aim to respond to your email in 21 working days upon receipt.

Alternative formats

If you require any of the documents that are housed on this website in a different format (e.g. MS Word)(please note that we cannot, at present, supply content in every format but will do our best to accommodate your needs), please email us at the following address outlining the specific PDFs in question and the preferred format you are requesting:

We aim to respond to your email in 21 working days upon receipt.

Enforcement procedure

We aim to meet the needs of all our website users as best we can. 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 satisfied with our response and would like to make a complaint, please check our complaints procedure. 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

University of the West of Scotland is committed to making this 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 2.2 (WCAG2.2) - AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Contrast

Colour contrast does not meet minimum or enhanced requirements. There is insufficient colour contrast between the text and background on this page to meet either minimum or enhanced contrast requirements. This fails Success Criteria 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) and 1.4.6 Contrast (Enhanced).

Interactivity

Interactive element does not meet minimum size nor spacing, or enhanced size on both landing and subsequent sub-pages. Interactive elements, like buttons or links, should be at least 24 by 24 pixels, so they can easily be clicked or tapped by all users. This fails Success Criteria 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) and 2.5.5 Target Size (Enhanced).

Visual Presentation

Line height is fixed. The line-height has been fixed using an absolute length unit, such as px, pt or cm. This fails Success Criteria 1.4.12 Text Spacing.

Language

Page language has not been identified on sub-pages. The main language of the page has not been declared within the <html> element. This fails Success Criteria 3.1.1 Language of Page.

Adjusting Letter Spacing

There is improper use of preformatted text element on subpages. The preformatted text element <pre> tells the browser to leave text formatting as it is, preventing the user from adjusting letter spacing. It should only be used for content that is either code or a <figure> such as ASCII art. Without exception, the content of this element is meant to be visually presented to a sighted user. This fails Success Criteria 1.4.12 Text Spacing

DOCUMENTS

This digital solution is a temporary one and the information presented is in PDF format. The solution contains a very large number of downloadable PDFs. However, not all of these PDFs are fully accessible.

Whilst the majority of these PDFs contain machine readable content, they all will have a number of issues impacting their accessibility measured against the required standards. Although not consistent, the PDFs typically fail accessibility guidelines on combinations of the following success criteria:

  • 1.1.1 (Non-text Content), where the PDFs contain images which do not have alternative text specified
  • 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships) and 2.4.6 (headings and labels), where the PDFs do not have tagged heading structures or table elements properly defined
  • 1.3.2 (Meaningful Sequence), where the text in PDFs has been created using floating text boxes (e.g. using desktop publishing software) or no reading order has been specified, tab order has not been set, or incorporate lists throughout
  • 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)), where text may have been created in a colour which does not contrast enough with its background colour
  • 2.4.2 (Page Titled), where this is not yet set or does not sufficiently describe the or content of the PDF
  • 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels) and 2.4.10 (Section Headings), where PDFs have been created without bookmarks
  • 3.1.1 (Language of Page), where PDFs do not have a language specified in them – please read all such PDFs as UK English

There may also be a very small number of PDFs which currently fail success criterion 1.4.5 (Images of Text), where they contain scanned text which may not have been converted to computer-readable text.

As noted above, the publishing of course and module information in PDF format is a temporary digital solution. We are currently working on developing a new web-based solution to publish our programme specifications and module descriptors online, in an accessible format.

In the meantime, if you are seeking the information presented in these PDFs in an alternative format, please email psmd@uws.ac.uk outlining the specific PDFs in question and the preferred format.

As noted the current digital solution is a temporary one as a new, robust, web-based (non-pdf) solution is being developed in-house.

A proprietary solution is not a viable option at this juncture and we are claiming that it would be a disproportionate burden, at this time, to purchase one.

We will update this statement as the in-house development evolves to address the identified accessibility issues.

None.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

We have undertaken an automatic digital accessibility assessment of this website.

No manual digital accessibility assessment of the website was conducted at this time.

This statement was prepared on 25 May 2024. The website was last automatically tested on 23 May 2024.

See details of assessments undertaken below:

The website is assessed using a sector-leading, automated website governance platform to identify website errors, warnings - Siteimprove.

Last Updated

This statement was prepared on 25 May 2024. It was last updated in May 2024. We review and update this statement annually and will next review it in July 2025 or at the launch of our our new web-based solution (whichever is sooner).

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are committed to ensuring that our website is accessible to all. This requires regular and ongoing website accessibility monitoring and improvement activities. To assist in these activities, we have engaged a sector-leading web governance platform - Siteimprove.

We are also committed to ensuring that digital accessibility is embedded in the digital creation and development process and this entails a programme of staff training in a variety of areas of digital accessibility from understanding WCAG 2.2 through to creating accessible documents with Adobe InDesign depending upon roles.

 

 

Last updated: 22/05/2024