Edinburgh College of Art accessibility statement inline with Public Sector Body (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018
This accessibility statement applies to: https://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/
This website is run by the Engagement and Communications Team, Edinburgh College of Art, at the University of Edinburgh. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this application. For example, that means you should be able to:
- Change most colours, contrast levels and fonts
- Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
- Listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)
- Use the website without encountering any time limits
- Use the website without encountering any flashing, scrolling or moving text.
We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand. However, some of our content is technical, and we use technical terms where there is no easier wording we could use without changing what the text means.
Customising the website
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability. This is an external site with suggestions to make your computer more accessible:
AbilityNet - My Computer My Way
With a few simple steps you can customise the appearance of our website using your browser settings to make it easier to read and navigate:
Additional information on how to customise our website appearance
If you are a member of University staff or a student, you can use the free SensusAccess accessible document conversion service:
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:
- Some non text content may not have meaningful alt text descriptions
- It is not always clear where the user has navigated to when navigating by keyboard
- Video links open pop ups without warning
- There are some areas where the colour contrast could be improved
- Some information is conveyed by colour only
- Some content may overlap when magnified
- Reflow is not enabled up to 400%
- Some parts may not be fully compatible with screen readers
- Some parts may not be fully compatible with voice dictation software
- Some links may not be underlined by default or may have a movement component that a user cannot pause
- Not all media will have audio description.
- Not all media may have human corrected captions
Feedback and contact information
If you need information on this website in a different format, including accessible PDF, large print, audio recording or braille:
- Email: ecawebed@ed.ac.uk
- Address: 74 Lauriston Pl, Edinburgh EH3 9DF
- British Sign Language (BSL) users can contact us via Contact Scotland BSL, the on-line BSL interpreting service.
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We are 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, please contact:
- Email: ecawebed@ed.ac.uk
- Address: 74 Lauriston Pl, Edinburgh EH3 9DF
- British Sign Language (BSL) users can contact us via Contact Scotland BSL, the on-line BSL interpreting service.
We’ll consider your request and get back to you in 5 working days.
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 please contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) directly:
Contact details for the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS)
The government has produced information on how to report accessibility issues:
Reporting an accessibility problem on a public sector website
Contacting us by phone using British Sign Language
British Sign Language service
Contact Scotland BSL runs a service for British Sign Language users and all of Scotland’s public bodies using video relay. This enables sign language users to contact public bodies and vice versa. The service operates from 8.00am to 12.00am, 7 days a week.
Contact Scotland BSL service details.
Technical information about this website’s accessibility
The University of Edinburgh is committed to making its websites and applications 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 (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.
The full guidelines are available at:
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard
Non accessible content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Noncompliance with the accessibility regulations
The following items do not comply with the WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria:
- Not all non-text content has appropriate alternative text
- Not all video has human corrected captions
- Not all video will have audio descriptions.
- Information, structure, and relationships conveyed through presentation are not programmatically determined and are not available in text e.g. <ul> , <ol> or <menu> elements do not all directly contain only <li> , <script> or <template> elements.
- Some information is conveyed by colour only
- Not all colour contrasts meet the minimum standards
- The site cannot be magnified up to 200% without loss of content on all pages
- Users have to scroll horizontally at 125% magnification to reach all content therefore reflow is not enabled up to 400%
- Not all content can be reached by a keyboard
- Link underline disappears on hover on majority of links.
- A skip to main content function is present but at the moment there are two of these which is confusing for users
- Some links do not have meaningful hypertext
- Keyboard focus outlines in Chrome and Firefox are inconsistent across browsers and can be difficult to see
- There is no indication or warning of video links which will open as pop ups
- Not all content is read out by JAWS in Firefox and Chrome and not all content can be accessed by Dragon e.g. select elements did not all have accessible names
PDFs and other documents
Whilst there are not many PDF and Word documents on the website, those that are may not meet accessibility standards - for example, they may not be structured so they’re accessible to a screen reader. This does not meet WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value).
WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 (name, role value)
Some of our PDFs and Word documents are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs and Word documents that are used as application forms for Scholarships on the site.
We aim to improve our websites accessibility on a regular and continuous basis. See the section below ('What we're doing to improve accessibility') on how we are improving our site accessibility.
We are working towards solving these problems and expect significant improvements by September 2026. The site is fully within our control.
Disproportionate burden
We are not currently claiming that any accessibility problems would be a disproportionate burden to fix.
Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations
At this time we believe no content is outwith the scope of the accessibility regulations.
What we’re doing to improve accessibility
We will continue to address and make improvements to the accessibility issues highlighted. Unless specified otherwise, a complete solution or significant improvement will be in place by September 2026.
While we are in the process of resolving these accessibility issues we will ensure reasonable adjustments are in place to make sure no user is disadvantaged. As changes are made, we will continue to review accessibility and retest the accessibility of this website.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 2nd September 2025. It was last reviewed on 4th September 2025.
The website was last tested in September 2025. The testing was carried out by the Engagement and Communications Team at Edinburgh College of Art at the University of Edinburgh using both automated and manual methods. The site was tested on a PC, primarily using Google Chrome alongside Mozilla Firefox. At the time of testing, Microsoft Edge was not compatible with the website whilst it was in the staging environment.
Recent world-wide usage levels survey for different screen readers and browsers shows that Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge are increasing in popularity and Google Chrome is now the favoured browser for screen readers:
WebAIM: Screen Reader User Survey
The aforementioned three browsers have been used in certain questions for reasons of breadth and variety.
We ran automated testing using WAVE WebAIM and then manual testing that included:
- Spell check functionality;
- Scaling using different resolutions and reflow;
- Options to customise the interface (magnification, font, background colour, etc);
- Keyboard navigation and keyboard traps;
- Data validation;
- Warning of links opening in new tab or window;
- Information conveyed in the colour or sound only;
- Flashing, moving or scrolling text;
- Operability if JavaScript is disabled;
- Use with screen reading software (for example JAWS);
- Assistive software (TextHelp Read and Write, Windows Magnifier, ZoomText, Dragon Naturally Speaking, TalkBack and VoiceOver);
- Tooltips and text alternatives for any non-text content;
- Time limits;
Compatibility with mobile accessibility functionality (Android and iOS).
Change Log
- Skip to main content is present in site but is partially obscured by header banner. Although we recognise further work needs to be done on this before fully resolved
- 2.4.1 bypass blocks (partial improvement)
- We have removed the need for dragging movements without an alternative
- All content now is read out by JAWS in Firefox
- 4.1.2 name, role, value (partial improvement)