Accessibility Statement for the Learn Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)

This is the Learn service accessibility statement in line with Public Sector Body (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This accessibility statement applies to:  https://www.learn.ed.ac.uk/

Learn is a centrally supported Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) at the University of Edinburgh.  It is based on the commercial software application product Learn, provided by Anthology.

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 on most of the application up to 500% without the text spilling off the screen
• Listen to most of the application using a screen reader
• Navigate most of the site using voice recognition software (e.g. 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.

The service is often used to share content between staff and students which means documents and other content can be uploaded which isn’t accessible.  This means it is important for us to ensure that helpful guidance and training is available to users who create content to minimise the risk of this.

Anthology provide detailed information about the Learn software application and its accessibility on their website.

• Detailed Learn Ultra Experience accessibility information
• Accessibility Conformance Report by Anthology for Learn

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

Learn VLE provides access to the Ally tool which provides guidance for staff on how to improve the accessibility of their content and also allows students to download alternative formats of existing content.

Information about Ally

Alternatively, 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 service is

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

• Some error notifications are inconsistent in their behaviour and design.
• There are parts of the interface where colour contrast on text could be improved.
• Many parts of the site can be zoomed up to 500% but there are parts of the site where the main content area can become very small with an increase in zoom level making it hard to read content and difficult to use.
• Most of the site, colour is not used to convey information except for the full calendar where courses are signified by different colours.
• Most of the site is navigable by keyboard but there are some issues with navigation order and reaching text editing tool requires pressing two buttons at once. Accessing the help via keyboard or screen reader doesn’t always work.
• Keyboard selection displays are inconsistent across browsers
• The site uses pop-up windows in some areas.
• The calendar doesn’t work well in landscape mode on mobile devices
• Not all non-text items have sufficient alternative text
• Captions and audio description may not always be present for prerecorded content
• Tooltips do not always display consistently for icons
• Not all links are meaningful hypertext
• Users will not be informed of a logout time limit
• There are some animations that cannot be paused by the end user
• The site is not fully compatible with screen readers and voice recognition software

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format, including accessible PDF, large print, audio recording or braille:

• Information Services online contact form: Get Support Form
• Email: IS.Helpline@ed.ac.uk
• Phone: 0131 651 5151
• 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:

• Information Services online contact form: Get Support Form
• Email: IS.Helpline@ed.ac.uk
• Phone: 0131 651 5151
• 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 service’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 regulationsThe following items to not comply with the WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria:

• A correct reading sequence for user sof assistive software is not always maintained on all pages
  • 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence
• Content is restricted in view and operation to a single display orientation in some areas
  • 1.3.4 – Orientation
• Colour is used as the only visual means of conveying information in some areas e.g. links
  • 1.4.1 – Use of Color
• There are some colour contrast issues
  • 1.4.3 – Contrast (Minimum)
• There are some issues with overlapping content on a small number of pages on the site, beginning at zoom level 175%
  • 1.4.4 – Resize Text
  • 1.4.10 – Reflow
• Tooltips are not always available on all items
  • 1.4.13 – Content on Hover or Focus
• It is not possible to reach all content using keyboard navigation alone
  • 2.1.1 – Keyboard
• Users can not always adjust or extend time limits before being logged out of the system
  • 2.2.1 – Timing Adjustable
• There is moving content such as animations that cannot be paused by the end user
  • 2.2.2. Pause Stop Hide
• The keyboard tabbing order does not always follow a logical order
  • 2.4.3 Focus order
• Not all links have meaningful hypertext
  • 2.4.4 Link Purpose in Context
• Sometimes the location of the keyboard focus had poor contrast against the background
  • 2.4.7 – Focus Visible
• Some links open in new windows and some actions cause pop up messages open without warning the user first
  • 3.2.2 – On Input
• Error notifications do not always give a clear description of the input error and how to resolve it.
  • 3.3.3 Error Suggestion
• For some users there is no forgotten password or similar option
  • 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication Minimum
• Content is not robust enough that it can be interpreted by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies e.g elements do not only use supported ARIA attributes, ARIA input fields do not always have accessible names and Frames do not always have an accessible name.
  • 4.1.2 – Name, Role Value

Course staff upload teaching materials directly into Learn and it is not possible to guarantee it is accessible despite guidance being provided .  For example:

• Not all media will have corrected captions or audio descriptions
  • 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded)
  • 1.2.5 Audio Description
• Not all images will have alternative text/descriptions.
  • 1.1.1 Non-text content 

Preparation of this Accessibility Statement

This statement was originally prepared on 3rd March 2020. It was last updated on 26^th May 2025.

The website was last tested on December 2024. The testing was carried out by Disability Information Team 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 AXE Devtools 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 Job Access with Speech (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;
• Submission and re-entry of data;
• Any cognitive tests.

Change Log

June 2025

• Allowing keyboard only access to create Jumbled Sentence Question types in tests on Learn

May 2025

• Gradable items tab in the Gradebook:
  • Screen reader users can now hear both header and row announcements, allowing for smoother navigation through student submissions.
  • Keyboard users can now move efficiently across rows or down columns using arrow keys.

Some movement in the interface has been removed since the previous test of the service.

Other usability improvements have also happened which benefits all users.