University of Westminster accessibility statement for OSHENS

This accessibility statement applies to the OSHENS website (https://westminsterhealthandsafety.co.uk/Home/home.aspx). The Business Systems Operations team, within Information Systems and Support, is responsible for the digital accessibility of this website.

Using the website

This website is run by the University of Westminster. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website, which means that you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate the website using just a keyboard
  • navigate the website using speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (most well-known screen readers)

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

For more advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability, visit the AbilityNet website.

Accessibility of the website

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible and have listed the issues according to level of impact, from high to low:

Higher priority issues

  • Some elements are inoperable by using the keyboard alone. This will make navigating the site difficult or impossible for some users
  • Focus is not visible on certain elements, making the navigation unclear for keyboard users
  • Some interactive elements are not labelled correctly or do not have useful instructions. Users may not understand what the purpose of the element is
  • Some elements overlap when the user changes the text spacing in the browser. This may cause some users to miss important information
  • There are elements with insufficient colour contrast. These elements can be difficult to read, especially for those with low vision, poor eyesight, or colour blindness
  • Some pages lack a heading structure, as heading semantics are not provided. Users cannot use the headings to understand the page structure and may struggle to navigate the page content
  • Some form controls are not correctly associated with the respective visual labels. Assistive technology users might need to navigate around the controls to understand their purpose
  • Some error messages are not descriptive. This may cause confusion to some users
  • Some error messages are not announced to assistive technology. This may cause users to miss errors in their submission

Lower priority issues

  • Some pages lack a descriptive page title. This may cause initial confusion over the purpose of the page
  • No skip link is available for users to bypass certain blocks of content
  • Some decorative images are not tagged as such. As a result, assistive technology users might not understand the image purpose and may experience audio clutter

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please visit our digital accessibility contact us page for information on how to request this.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We have tested a sample of pages on the website. If you find an issue we have not yet identified, you can report it to us. We’ll pass this information to the website owner who will review the issue, make sure it is included in our plan to fix issues and add it into the accessibility statement when it is next updated. Please visit our digital accessibility contact us page for information on how to report an accessibility problem.

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).

Ways to contact us

You can contact us by email or phone. If you prefer to visit us in person, get in touch and we’ll advise on which teams are available to meet with you.

Information on how to contact us is available on our digital accessibility contact us webpage.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The University of Westminster 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 not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard. The non-compliances and exemptions are listed below.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • No page title (WCAG 2.1 – 2.4.2)
  • Multiple elements are not accessible by keyboard alone (WCAG 2.1 – 2.1.1)
  • Multiple elements have no visible focus indication (WCAG 2.1 – 2.1.1)
  • No skip link present (WCAG 2.1 – 2.4.1)
  • Multiple links use the title attribute rather than css hidden text (WCAG 2.1 – 2.4.4)
  • Multiple links do not have text (WCAG 2.1 – 2.4.4)
  • Font size cannot be changed by browser settings (WCAG 2.1 – 1.4.4)
  • Icons are not marked as decorative and contain duplicate content (WCAG 2.1 – 1.1.1)
  • Westminster logo has inappropriate alt of Client logo (WCAG 2.1 – 1.1.1)
  • Text spacing causes footer text to overlap (WCAG 2.1 – 1.4.12)
  • Multiple elements fail colour contrast specifications (WCAG 2.1 – 1.4.3)
  • Page title is not informative (WCAG 2.1 – 2.4.2)
  • No headings exist on the page (WCAG 2.1 – 1.3.1)
  • Tables are used for layout but not marked as decorative (WCAG 2.1 – 1.3.1)
  • Tab control is not marked up with appropriate aria attributes (WCAG 2.1 – 1.3.1)
  • Tab control (background, activities, actions) does not have a visible focus indicator (WCAG 2.1 – 2.4.7)
  • Required fields are indicated visually as required but not programmatically (WCAG 2.1 – 3.3.2)
  • Icons indicate form elements in error but no explanation is given (WCAG 2.1 – 3.3.1)
  • Reflow causes horizontal scrolling and text to overlap (WCAG 2.1 – 1.4.10)
  • Page title is not informative (WCAG 2.1 – 2.4.2)
  • No headings exist on the page (WCAG 2.1 – 1.3.1)
  • Tables are used for layout but not marked as decorative (WCAG 2.1 – 1.3.1)
  • Checkboxes are used instead of radio buttons for search mode (WCAG 2.1 – 1.3.1)
  • Title attribute is used rather than an associated label on the reset search button (WCAG 2.1 – 3.3.2)
  • Multiple instances of inputs without appropriate labels (WCAG 2.1 – 3.3.2)
  • Decorative spacer images are not marked as decorative (WCAG 2.1 – 1.1.1)

If you find an issue that we have yet to identify, please contact us using one of the routes described in the ‘Reporting accessibility problems with this website’ section of this statement.

Disproportionate burden

At this time, we have not made any disproportionate burden claims.

Content not within the scope of the accessibility regulation

Extranet and intranet sites

We are reviewing the accessibility of the contents of this intranet site and plan to fix issues incrementally until this website undergoes a substantial revision. The content of extranets and intranets published before 23 September 2019 is exempt from meeting the accessibility requirements until the site undergoes a substantial revision.

PDFs and other documents

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.

We are working to review the PDFs and Word documents that are essential to providing our services. We’ll either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish after 23 September 2020 will meet accessibility standards.

    Preparation of this accessibility statement

    This statement was prepared on 17 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 11 April 2022.

    This website was last tested on 17 September 2020. The test was carried out by AbilityNet. A sample of webpages was tested covering the core user-journey of the site.

    What we’re doing to improve accessibility

    We are working to address the issues identified in the ‘Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations’ section above. We will prioritise our efforts to address the issues with the highest impact on users. We are working to develop an accessibility roadmap to show how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website.

    The University contracts with an external supplier Ideagen Optima Diagnostics to provide this website. Therefore, some of these issues are not within our control to address. We will raise these issues with the supplier and work with them to find solutions, where possible.