Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to the Ethics of Powerlessness website.

This website is run by the Ethics of Powerlessness project and hosted by the University of Essex. We want as many people as possible to be able to use these websites. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • Use the website at up to 500% zoom
  • Use the website in both landscape and portrait orientation
  • Navigate the website with speech recognition
  • Navigate the website with just a keyboard
  • Access content on the website using a screen reader

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand where possible.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

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

  • some PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • some of our online forms are difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
  • you cannot skip to the main content when using a screen reader

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read or audio recording email us at powerlessness@essex.ac.uk

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

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: powerlessness@essex.ac.uk and the team will respond to your report.

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

The University of Essex is committed to making its websites 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 2.1 AA standard, due to the following non-compliances and exemptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Links are identified using only colour, which is not of a high enough contrast. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.3.1 (Use of Color). We plan to address this by December 2020.

Disproportionate burden

There’s no way to skip the repeated content in the page header (for example, a ‘skip to main content’ option). This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks

Some of our  forms are difficult to navigate using a keyboard. For example, because some form controls are missing a ‘label’ tag. This fails WCAG 2.1 success criterion 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions. The forms are part of the third party software (WordPress) platform that powers the website.

We’ve assessed the cost of fixing these issues. We believe that doing so now would be a disproportionate burden within the meaning of the accessibility regulations.

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

PDFs and other documents

Some of our PDFs are essential to providing our services. For example, we have PDFs with information on how users can access our training modules. By December 2020, we plan to either fix these or replace them with accessible HTML pages.

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services. For example, we do not plan to fix previously uploaded research reports

We recommend the use of the SensusAccess, a self-service, alternate media solution for educational institutions. This will allow you to change files, URLs, and text, into easier to read/listen to formats

Any new PDFs or Word documents we publish and which are not sourced from 3rd parties will meet accessibility standards.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 20 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 21 September 2020. This website was last tested on 21 September 2020. The test was carried out by the Ethics of Powerlessness Team.

We used this approach to test this website:

  • tested pages using both the Wave and SiteImprove plugins.