Digital accessibility statement
Accessibility statement for www.bbk.ac.uk and search.bbk.ac.uk
This statement applies to content published on the www.bbk.ac.uk and search.bbk.ac.uk domains. It does not apply to content on any other subdomain (e.g. blogs.bbk.ac.uk, or www7.bbk.ac.uk), nor to those areas of www.bbk.ac.uk listed under 'Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations'.
This website is run by Birkbeck, University of London. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:
- change colours, contrast levels and fonts
- zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen
- navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
- navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
- listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver).
We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
In addition, we have embedded ReciteMe’s cloud-based web accessibility software in this site. This provides a range of features and tools to allow more people to use the website.
You can turn on the ReciteMe overlay by accepting functional cookies and then clicking on 'Accessibility' at the top of the page.
How accessible this website is
- We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- You cannot modify the line height or spacing of text, although the site includes the ReciteMe’s cloud-based web accessibility software that will allow you to do this.
- Most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
- Some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard.
- You cannot always skip to the main content when using a screen reader.
- Some of the information on our Staff Profiles and Events pages may not be fully accessible. For example, non-contextual links may be apparent. Colleagues are provided with access to manually add content to these pages. More information on how we will continue to resolve the problems can be found in our roadmap.
- In June 2022, we rectified several of our previous accessibility problems, following an accessibility audit. More information on what we have done so far and how we will continue to resolve the problems can be found in our roadmap.
Contact information and reporting accessibility problems with this website
- If you can’t access parts of our website, want to report accessibility problems, or need information in a different format:
- ASK us online
- Call us: +44 (0)20 3907 0700
- visit our Student Advice Service based in our main building on Torrington Square.
- We'll try and help you as soon as possible, but in all cases we will aim to get back to you within seven days.
- Opening hours for telephone and face-to-face support are available on our website.
- If you can’t view the location map on our site, please call us for directions.
- We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact us using the details above.
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).
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
Birkbeck, University of London 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 partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons:
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
- Some lists are structured in such a way that people using a screen reader may not be able to tell how many items are in the list. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. This mostly occurs in content representing either Events or Staff Profiles.
- Some instances of the course search do not have accessible text on the 'Select departments' filter. This fails the following WCAG 2.2 success criteria: 1.3.1 Info and Relationships and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value.
- On some of our forms, such as the Request a Prospectus form, the input fields are the first elements to receive tab focus rather than the header etc. which is not consistent with the meaning of content or the rest of the site. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order.
- On a small number of pages, inappropriate HTML tags are used to emphasise text. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1: Info and Relationships.
- Modal windows containing timetable information, viewed from within some pages on the online prospectus area of the site, have no titles or page headings. This fails the following WCAG 2.2 success criteria: 1.3.1 Info and Relationships and 2.4.2 - Page Titled. These modals will be redeveloped by June 2025 when the issue will be resolved.
- Some of our recent PDF documents, such as our programme specifications and our Confirmation of Study Agreements, are missing key document information, and are not tagged in a way that assistive technology can recognise and interpret. This fails the following WCAG 2.2 success criteria: 1.1.1 Non-Text Content, 1.3.1 Info and Relationships, 2.4.2 Page Titled, and 3.1.1 Language of Page.
- We plan to work through these and fix them as described in our roadmap.
Disproportionate burden
- There are currently no issues on bbk.ac.uk that we consider to be a disproportionate burden to fix.
Content that's not within the scope of this accessibility statement
Web presences
- While the following sites appear to be part of the same web presence, they are managed separately and are technically discrete. As such, they require their own Accessibility Statements:
PDFs and other documents
- Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our services, and forms published as Word documents. We plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages. Further detail can be found in our roadmap.
- 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. For example, we do not plan to fix our 2017 Financial Statements.
- Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish will meet accessibility standards.
Live video
- We do not plan to add captions to live video streams because live video is exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
Our accessibility roadmap shows how and when we plan to improve accessibility on this website, as well as showing the steps we have taken to date.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 13 September 2019. It was last reviewed in October 2024.
This website is tested by Sitemorse once a month, and any errors relating to accessibility are corrected as a priority.