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Web accessibility statement

This statement applies to content published on:

Rylands Special Collections Blog

Other websites that also belong to The University of Manchester and use manchester.ac.uk sub-domains are managed locally and will publish separate statements with information relevant to them. These include websites of our academic Schools and research institutes, among others.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use our website and we are continually working towards improving its accessibility. We follow general principles of usability and universal design, and endeavour to meet level 2 (AA) of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.

This website will allow you to:

  • zoom in up to 200% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard or speech recognition tools
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader
  • view essential audio-visual information (captions or transcriptions are provided in most cases)

How accessible this website is

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

Please see the Technical Information section below for more detailed information on known accessibility issues.

Making changes to your device

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

Also, the University’s Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS) website offers up-to-date information for prospective students and staff with specific learning difficulties, disabilities, sensory impairments, mental health difficulties and medical conditions.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

Please contact us via the ‘Library Help’ pages if you require information on this website in a different format, have an accessibility query (including about content not within the scope of the accessibility regulation), identify any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements:

Please provide the web address (URL) of the page(s) in which you find the problem, a description of the issue and your name. We will consider your request and get back to you within ten working days.

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 a complaint about accessibility please let us know. If you remain unsatisfied, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

We are committed to making our website accessible, in accordance with the accessibility regulations. This website is partially compliant with the WCAG 2.1 AA standard, due to the instances of non-compliance and exceptions listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons:

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Some buttons are not labelled in a way that makes their purpose clear for all users (WCAG: 2.4.4)
  • Some online forms do not have labels that makes their purpose clear for all users (WCAG: 3.2.2)
  • Colour contrast may not be sufficient which could make these pages difficult to read for some users with visual impairments. (WCAG: 1.4.3)
  • Some link text does allow the purpose of the links to be identified from link text alone. This could be unclear or confusing for some users. (WCAG: 2.4.9)
  • On some pages, heading elements are not in a sequentially descending order. Properly ordered headings that do not skip levels convey the semantic structure of the page, making it easier to navigate and understand when using assistive technologies. (WCAG 2.4.10)
  • Some embedded YouTube videos are not clearly titled. Screen reader users rely on frame titles to describe the contents of frames. (WCAG: 4.1.2)
  • We are aware that some images on our blog may not currently have alternative text, but we are actively working to add alternative text to all images to improve accessibility for visually impaired users. (WCAG: 1.1.1)

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

PDFs and other documents

Some non-essential PDF documents that were published before 23 September 2018 may not be fully accessible. All subsequent PDF documents will comply with accessibility regulations.

Third party-content

Our site uses, and / or links to third-party content which the University does not design or control and therefore accessibility standards may vary.

This website is published on the WordPress.com platform. Separate accessibility guidance for the WordPress.com platform is available:

Reproductions of items in heritage collections

This website contains archival imagery that may not be accessible to all users.

While reproductions of items in heritage collections are exempt from meeting the accessibility regulations we will continue to investigate ways to use emerging technology to improve the accessibility of our heritage collections.

How we tested this website

This statement was updated on 26 January 2023. It was last reviewed on 26 January 2023.

This website was last tested on 14 October 2020. The test was carried out by The University of Manchester Library. The scan report highlights any content that is not compliant with WCAG 2.1.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We have an ongoing programme of work to address any accessibility issues that are highlighted by our weekly scans. We are continually working on our content and site structure and finding ways to make the site more intuitive and easier to navigate. We are developing guidelines on how to create accessible content to help those colleagues working on our websites.