Accessibility Statement for Instructure (Canvas) Website

Website accessibility statement in line with Public Sector Body (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018

This accessibility statement applies to:

https://edinburgh.instructure.com/

This website is run by 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 colours, contrast levels and fonts;
  • Zoom in up to 500%
  • Navigate most of the application using just a keyboard;
  • Listen to most of the application using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver);
  • Operate most areas with speech-to-text assistive technology (including Dragon NaturallySpeaking).

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:

Information on SensusAccess

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • reflow issues occur over at 100% in some places, meaning users may have to scroll in two dimensions;
  • colour contrasts do not always meet the recommended Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 AA standard;
  • in some elements of the site, pop-ups occur without alerting users;
  • in one specific part of the website, users can not always access all items via keyboard navigation alone;
  • the website could be clearer in informing users where they have reached on a page, especially via the keyboard;
  • data validation and error suggestions are not consistent and not present for all content;
  • some notifications appear as temporary pop-ups that the user can not stop, pause, hide or control;
  • alternative text is not present on all non-text content;
  • some tooltips are missing;
  • Not all videos have human-corrected captions
  • some text appears within image;
  • the text size is small in places;
  • some web addresses / URLs are not presented as meaningful hyperlinks.

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: AccessibilitySCP@ed.ac.uk
  • Telephone: 0131 651 5151 (IS Helpline)
  • 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: AccessibilitySCP@ed.ac.uk
  • Telephone: 0131 651 5151 (IS Helpline)
  • 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 to not comply with the WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria:

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 several improvements by September 2024. The site is not fully within our control.

Of the areas detected as not fully compliant, the following are under the control of Instructure:

  • Colour contrast defaults do not in all areas meet the minimum AA requirements.
  • Images of text exist in some placeholder images when no live content is available yet; this impacts all users (e.g., “no grades yet”; “no conversations to show”)
  • Reflow does not operate successfully to 400% across all areas, with some tables and graphs necessitating scrolling in two dimensions.
  • There is one specific area not accessible via keyboard
  • Some notifications appear as temporary pop-ups that the user cannot control.
  • The purpose of each link can not be determined from the link text alone

  • Target Size does not always meet 44x44 CSS; some actionable fields are smaller than the minimum 24x24CSS; however exception criteria apply: users are able to resize using zoom functionalities; actionable fields may lose border spacing but will not intersect

  • Pop-ups can appear without the user being alerted.
  • Where there are multiple errors present on a page, an error flag will only show against one error at any time
  • Suggestions for error corrections are not provided for all items requiring user input

These issues have been raised with the supplier and we will regularly check in on the progress of fixing the issues.  Where the issues are within our control and content related, we are providing training for staff on how to create accessible teaching materials and providing tools to make this easier. Only the content related issues are within our control, such as alternative text for images and captions for video/audio content.  We are working with staff across the University to provide training on creating accessible teaching content.

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 directly within our control, namely alternative text for non-text items, video captioning and audio-descriptions as well as working with the Instructure to improve on our other findings highlighted. Unless specified otherwise, a complete solution or significant improvement will be in place by December 2024.

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 1st February 2024. It was last reviewed on 26th March 2024.

The website was last tested during January 2024. The testing was carried out by Micro-Credentials Team of the Digital Learning Applications and Media Section, within Learning Teaching and Web Division of Information Services at the University of Edinburgh using both automated and manual methods. The site was tested on a PC, primarily using Microsoft Edge alongside Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

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;
  • 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).
  • Any drag functionality and alternatives
  • Consistent help function
  • No need to re enter data already submitted
  • Any cognitive tests

Change Log

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