Accessibility Statement for UAL Digital Collections
This website is run by University of the Arts London (UAL). This accessibility statement applies to UAL Digital Collections. Other websites and browser based systems on the arts.ac.uk domain have their own accessibility statements.
We commit to ensuring this website is as accessible as possible and we want as many people as possible to be able to use it. This means that you should be able to:
- access the website regardless of the device and browser you are using
- zoom in up to 200% 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 have also tried to make the website text as easy to understand as possible although we recognise we have more work to do on this.
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in an alternative, more accessible format please contact The Archives and Special Collections Centre team on
archive-enquiries@arts.ac.uk.
Please include details of the content you need and the required format or the service you are trying to access.
We aim to provide you with an initial response within two working days and will provide clear information about how we will deal with your request.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact
archive-enquiries@arts.ac.uk.
We aim to provide you with an initial response within two working days and will provide clear information about how we will deal with your enquiry or complaint.
If you feel we have not answered your enquiry or complaint satisfactorily, please contact us again. We will escalate your enquiry or complaint to Sarah Mahurter, Manager, University Archives and Special Collections Centre,
s.mahurter@arts.ac.uk who will work with the team who provides the content or the service to get you a response.
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
UAL 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 and exemptions below.
Non-accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
- Some prerecorded video content does not provide captions. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded) (Level A).
- Some prerecorded video content does not provide an alternative for time-based media or audio description. This fails WCAG success criterion 1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Prerecorded) (Level A).
Content that's not within scope of the accessibility regulations
- Reproductions of items in heritage collections that cannot be made fully accessible because of either--
- the incompatibility of the accessibility requirement with either the preservation of the item concerned or the authenticity of the reproduction; or
- the unavailability of automated and cost-efficient solutions that would easily extract the text of manuscripts or other items in heritage collections and transform it into content compatible with the accessibility requirement.
What we're doing to improve accessibility
Video content
We review embedded videos (that UAL has produced or funded) on the website and add audio description (AD) to them where needed on an ongoing basis. We currently use a solution from
3Play Media to produce these caption and AD files.
We use an open-source and community-developed content viewer called
Universal Viewer (UV). We are aware of one specific limitation to UV that makes this page less accessible than we’d like it to be. UV does not currently enable presentation of audiovisual content with captions and/or audio description.
The UV community is aware of this limitation and is currently exploring to better support integration of caption files such as VTT. Progress on the issue impacting Digital Collections can be tracked on the
‘Add VTT captions for AV content’ issue page.
Prioritisation of issues
We are prioritising the accessibility issues above and we're aiming to fix the high priority issues first that have the biggest impact on our users.
Whilst we are beholden to the open-source community to progress developments on UV, we have also raised and documented issues around caption and AD functionality with the developers we work with. We have been advised that this feature will be made available within the next 12 months (as of 24 October 2024), and we will seek to implement the functionality at the earliest occasion.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 12 July 2021 and updated on 24 October 2024.
This website was last tested on 12 July 2021. The test was carried out by the University Archives and Special Collections Centre Manager.
The statement is based on the UAL Digital Collections – Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA audit report.
We also used the following automated accessibility tools to test the whole website: