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Accessibility statement for the University of York website

This accessibility statement applies to content published on our main website, www.york.ac.uk.

It does not apply to content on subdomains of york.ac.uk (pages with a website address that begin with something other than ‘www’, such as vle.york.ac.uk or timetable.york.ac.uk). These parts of the website run on different systems, which may have different accessibility features or issues. When this is the case, an accessibility statement for that specific system will be provided at the point of use.

On most pages on the website you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts
  • zoom in up to 500% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate using just a keyboard
  • navigate using speech recognition software
  • listen to content using a screen reader. 
Make your device easier to use
The My Computer My Way website has advice on how to use accessibility features on your particular computer, phone or tablet.

University of York staff and students can also use SensusAccess to convert PDFs and other files into an ebook, text file, audio or braille. See accessibility information provided by the Library for access instructions.

How accessible this website is

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

  • Some information is only available in PDFs, which haven’t been designed for accessibility.
  • Pages in the Human Resources section of the website have some issues including: low contrast on some text links; an empty form label on the site search box; images (including linked images) that do not have text alternatives. 

Feedback and contact information

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, you can report an accessibility issue.

This website is administered by the Communications team within the Reputation, Economic Development and Advocacy (REDA) directorate. If you have any queries about the website or need information provided in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille, please email us at communications-support@york.ac.uk.

Enforcement procedure

In the first instance, University of York students and applicants unhappy with our response to reporting of an accessibility issue can follow our complaints 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 

The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.

The University of York 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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Issues with text
  • Some pages have incorrect heading structures. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels).
  • Some links do not make sense when read out of context, using text such as ‘click here’. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose).
  • Some pages contain multiple links which use the same link text but point to different destinations. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.4 (Link Purpose).
  • Some pages contain text that is not as simple as possible to understand. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.1.5 (Reading Level).
  • Some pages contain text that does not have sufficient contrast. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)).
  • Some pages contain blockquote elements that are used to style content other than quoted text. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
Issues with forms
  • Some pages contain forms with elements that do not have a label. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2  (Name, Role, Value).
Issues with metadata
  • Some pages do not have a title. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.2 (Page Titled).
Issues with images
  • Some images which need a description do not have any alternative (alt) text, or have blank alt text. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content).
  • Some decorative images have alt text which should be blank or have inappropriate alt text, such as copyright information for the image. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.1.1 (Non-text Content). 
Issues with tables
  • Some data tables do not have headers. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
  • Some data tables have header cells that are empty. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
  • Some data tables have headers that are not assigned to any data cells. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
Issues with audio and video
  • Some videos do not have captions or use automatically generated captions which may be inaccurate. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.2 (Captions (Prerecorded)).
  • Some audio content (such as podcasts) does not have a transcript or other text equivalent. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.1 (Audio-only and Video-only (Prerecorded)).
Issues with keyboard navigation
  • Image galleries and carousels on some older pages cannot be navigated with a keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.1.1 (Keyboard).
  • In some circumstances, our cookie consent banner can prevent the focus on links from being visible. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.11 (Focus Not Obscured (Minimum)). 
Issues with third-party tools

Some of our pages contain content from systems provided by an external supplier. We are aware of accessibility issues with some of these tools. We will be reporting such issues to suppliers and working with them to improve the accessibility of their tools.

  • 360° visualisations using the Matterport platform are only partially accessible using a keyboard. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.1.1 (Keyboard). We have raised the issue with the supplier.
  • Embedded BiliBili videos do not have a visible focus state. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.7 (Focus Visible).
  • Some inline frames (iframes) used by third-party tools do not have a text alternative. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2  (Name, Role, Value).

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

Some types of content are exempt from the accessibility regulations. On our website you may find that conformance with accessibility standards is lower for the following:

  • Pre-recorded audio and video published before 23 September 2020. 
  • Live audio and video. 
  • Heritage collections like scanned manuscripts.
  • PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 that are not needed to use a service.
  • Maps.
  • Content published before 23 September 2019 on intranets that have not had a major revision since that date.
  • Archived websites that are not needed for services we provide and are not updated.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

Many of the issues above relate to content using older legacy templates which are being phased out over time. The majority of our content uses our newer templates which are much more accessible. Further moves to newer templates will continue through 2025 and 2026, in particular pages in the Human Resources section of the website.

We intend to replace our cookie consent banner with a more accessible solution in late 2025.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 15 May 2020. It was last reviewed on 21 October 2025.

This website was last tested in August 2025. The testing was carried out internally by the Communications team.

Testing was carried out on all templates used within our web content management system (CMS), plus a sample of our most used pages. The testing was against the WCAG 2.2 AA standard using the following tools:

  • Microsoft Accessibility Insights for Web (full assessment using automated and manual tests)
  • Siteimprove
  • WAVE